Northampton Saints - Thoughts from the Chron

By Chris Gleadell
March 23 2007

Another week and another ‘so near yet so far’ for the Saints. Maybe not a defeat this time round but at game it certainly felt like that as the victory was snatched away by a bit of individual skill from Sebastian Chabal that set up the try which tied the team at 18 apiece.

Again we were in the driving seat but despite tries from Carlos and Ben we again failed to press home the advantage for the full 80 minutes and Chabal’s chip and pick up grabbed a draw from the jaws of victory. Whether it is just down to nerves about our current predicament or something more deep seated is anyone’s guess but the worrying times continue.

The draw means that we sit plumb bottom of the table not being able to climb back over Worcester who won by the skin of their teeth on the Friday evening to leap over us. The difference is just a single point and to our advantage we do have a game in hand where we might just be able to haul ourselves off the bottom at a time when every single point is vital.

That game is at Bristol on Sunday and given that in all truth we should have beaten the then league leaders at home a few weeks ago the lads travel down to the West Country knowing that they can match Bris and have a very good chance of getting something out of this game. The hard fact is, if we don’t relegation becomes a very strong possibility.

Bristol are currently going through a dark patch of their own. Coming into this game off the back of four defeats where they have only scored 20 points they will be looking to restart their season as their gradual slip down the table threatens to undo all their fine work earlier in the campaign. Coach Richard Hill has stated that their ambition now is Heineken Cup rugby for 2007/2008 however a defeat to the Saints on Sunday could see them teetering on the brink of qualification. I’d like to think that we need this game more than them though and although they welcome back a raft of their senior rested stars I think we can secure at least a very valuable point out of this game.

It may now be a case of building momentum week on week. Fellow strugglers Worcester do not have a game now for three weeks and if we can at least get some kind of rhythm going and stay injury free it may be to our advantage rather than starting up the engine once more at the sharp end of the season.

For those not being able to travel down to Bristol to cheer the lads on the game is live on Sky.

RELEGATION?

Now not clutching at straws or anything given our current table position but does anyone else think that some people know something we don’t about relegation this season?

Over the last couple of weeks Saints have signed a handful of players for next season’s campaign with these players knowing full well that next year we might be playing in National Division One rugby rather than in the Guinness Premiership and on top of that not be in any European competition at all.

Some of these players such as Paul Shields and Ben Johnson still hold international ambitions and surely a season in Div1 would harm their aspirations. Some people have mentioned the possibility of relegation clauses in these players contracts but not only has this been denied by the club for at least one player, I’ve also always thought a players taking a commercial risk dropping out of one contract to go back cap in hand to either current employer or former suitor. By then your price, or indeed demand if you have been replaced given the timescale, may well have dropped.

Going back to my main point it does make you think that perhaps behind closed doors there may already be a tentative agreement between the clubs and the RFU about the controlling body’s proposals over the handling of the game. Might we see an expanded GP next year, with two clubs promoted to form a ringfenced14 team league with the clubs conceding on the question of central contracts for the elite players? Maybe, but then maybe not as of course it could after all just be me in desperation clutching at those straws.

CHRIS ASHTON

The big news this week was the signing Chris Ashton from Wigan .

The story had been doing the rounds for the last couple of weeks but was confirmed on Monday that Chris will be joining us next season, whatever division we are in.

Those of you that watch the 13 man code will know that we have signed one of the hottest properties in Rugby League and although by far a finished product for Union a guy with huge potential.

Rather predictably the news has not gone down well in the north and to be fair to the Wigan fans I am sure most of us would feel the same if we heard Dylan Hartley was joining St Helens or Hull Kingston Rovers next season. What did suprise me was some of the hatred that still exists in certain areas of the media for the other code.

You might expect a bit of disquiet from the rank and file on club message boards, as I said we would probably not be any different, but can you believe the following was from a columnist in the pay of the BBC when comparing League to Union .

"I'd rather hang out with the mate who drives a battered Ford Escort, who is great company, makes me laugh and loves a beer than the posh bloke round the corner who drives a Bentley, gets drunk on Babycham, and who thinks the funniest thing is when Tarquin from accounts makes rude noises with his armpits."

By the same token I’d be annoyed if people kept going on about whippets and flat caps in League but the above is a blinkered view if you ever read one and you do sometimes wonder what decade some people are living in. Perhaps that decade should be the 70’s or the 80’s when those with very short memories who are bleating about players moving code might then remember how the bigger Rugby League clubs plundered the Union game, especially in Wales when Union was still amatuer. How much of a force would the Welsh, and the Lions for that matter, have been with Scott Gibbs, Scott Quinnell, Alan Bateman, Adrian Hadley, John Devereux, Dai Young and Jonathan Davies remaing at home?

But having said that each player makes his own choice in what code he plays in. I’ve yet to hear of anybody being dragged screaming and kicking to play for Wigan, Leicester or Saints (Helens or Northampton ). Young Ashton, whose father incidentally played Union , has opted to ply his trade at the Gardens.

Good luck to him!