From the Archives - Saints v Bristol 2001

.
By From the Archives
September 12 2002

In our last visit to the archive of Saints v Bristol games its back to November 2001 and somewhat of a turning point for the club. Wallowing at the bottom of the division and Wayne Smith still not arrived the youngsters were asked to fight fire with fire. They did!

Defeat but light at the end of the tunnel......

By Saint On The Spot
Date: 26/11/2001

At last! For the previous few weeks we have been wondering just when we would see some light at the end of that long dark tunnel, on Sunday there was a glint of it. Despite going down, and controversialy, to Bristol a bit of the old passion and pride returned to the boys in Gold, Black n Green.

John Steele asked the players pre-match to stand up and be counted, to not give an inch to the visitors and this they did bringing hope to what up to now has been a desparate season.

Playing against a virtually full strength Bristol side and being short of at least half a dozen first choice players the Saints at last found the fight and passion that has been missing from all but a couple of players.

The Saints however started the game on the back foot with Bristol forcing the advantage but once the lads caught their breath they fought back, literally at times, with vengeance.

An early Contepomi penalty was soon wiped out by a try for youngster Mark Soden after a driving maul. Not helped at all by some woeful and inept refereeing from John Barnard niggles started to creep in though and after several cases of handbangs at 12 paces both Steve Thompson and Bristols McCarthy were asked to consider their actions in the bin.

It did absolutely nothing to temper the fire and incidents both on and off the ball carried on throughout the whole game with the usual suspects to the fore.

By this time though the hapless Barnard had lost sense of what game (indeed what sport he was refereeing) as he penalised both sides for new and imaginary laws. Crossing while not in possession was probably the pick of the bunch.

Contepomi however soon gave the advantage back to Bristol with a try through a gaping hole in midfield, after a wayward scrum and a penalty either side of a Mark Tucker three pointer to send his side in 13-8 up at the break.

The second period saw the replacement of young flyhalf James Brooks with the wise old head of 'Larry' Grayson, and he had an immediate effect. Two quick penalties, neither easy given the conditions, gave the Saints the lead back once more with the period only minutes old.

Contepomi hit his third penalty shortly after before the Saints now cheered on by a rabid crowd eased clear again thanks to the boot of Grayson with two further long range penalties.

Just as it looked like the lads might hold on the for their first win since September Mr Barnard and his touch judges went from the downright bad to the obtusely bizarre!

First a long kick from Grayson was chested out by a Bristol back then taken back to, inexplicably, the place from where Larry had kicked it for a Bristol scrum!

Then to add insult to injury minutes later and clearly not being able to take in what was happening around him Barnard took several minutes to give a try which neither he nor the touchjudges originally gave.

To be fair the Saints were the orchestrators of their own downfall failing to clear the ball on the two occasions when they had possession prior to the Lee Best try which gave Bristol a three point lead with 83 minutes on the clock.

The fun and games were not over though. Youngster John Howard tapped a penalty which could have given the Saints the draw while an unlucky Larry lost his footing in a kick wide out that would have also shared the spoils but it was not to be and the three point margin remained despite one more late controversy when Pichot walked off the pitch before grounding the ball after Graysons penalty with the ball still 'live'. Nothing by then though suprised the supporters of either side.

As the hapless Barnard blew up (unfortunately his whistle, not him) there was still more drama to come. Not content with their victory two Bristol players soured their win by gesturing and swearing to the crowd and pretending to urinate on the Gardens turf.

It was something you would not expect to see at a primary school game and i'm sure their actions not only disgusted most Saints supporters but also the vast majority of decent Bristol supporters that travelled to see their team. If it were soccer both would be serving lenghthy bans for bringing the game into disrepute. I certainly know if it were Saints players involved their feet would not have touched the ground this morning.

To blame the referee, and the post match antics of a couple of childish idiots, would be churlish though and although a draw may have been the fairer result you can not decry Bristol their win.

The Saints though can take a lot from this game especially some of the younger players who though they have yet to hone their skills mixed it for the whole 87 minutes with some very streetwise characters. A new coach and a couple of wiseheads in key positions, plus the return of the likes of Stewart, Leslie, Smith, Pountney and Dawson should sooner or later see the Saints start to climb higher in the table.


RESULT:
Northampton Saints 20 Bristol 23

TEAMS:

Saints - Joe Shaw; Craig Moir ( Ben Cohen, 70), Peter Jorgensen, Mark Tucker, Nick Beal; James Brooks (Larry Grayson, 40), Dom Malone (Johnny Howard, 65); Robbie Morris, Steve Thompson ( Dan Richmond, 60), Chris Budgen, Jon Phillips (Andy Newman, 65), Olivier Brouzet, Anady Rennick, Andy Blowers, Mark Soden (Grant Seely, 65).

BRISTOL: M Carrington ( L Best, 61); D Rees, P Christophers, J Little, L Nabaro; F Contepomi, A Pichot; P Johnstone, N McCarthy , J White, G Archer, A Brown ( A Sheridan, 65), C Short, A Vander, B Sturnham


SCORERS:

Saints:
Try: Soden .
Penalty goals: Tucker , Grayson (4)

Bristol:
Tries: Contepomi , Best .
Conversions: Contepomi (2).
Penalty goals: Contepomi (3)

NAUGHTY BOYS:
Saints:
Yellow: Steve Thompson

Bristol:
Yellow: McCarthy


REFEREE:
Hapless John Barnard the inept blindman of Yorkshire.

ATTENDANCE:
7873


WEATHER:
Yes it did, persistently.........