News: HC: Castres vs Northampton Saints - Match Preview
By Jon in Alaska
January 20 2011
Five wins out of five and Northampton Saints have secured their place in the last eight of the Heineken Cup. Now all thoughts turn to the small matter of achieving a "home" draw in the latter stages of the competition and a trip across the channel to face French side Castres. Regular COYSDC contributor Jon in Alaska looks ahead...
CASTRES OLYMPIQUE vs. NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
Saturday, 22nd January 2011 - 5.45pm (UK)
STADE J-P ANTOINE
MATCH PREVIEW
In honour of the Saints' run in Europe, and this being my first preview of the season, I have decided that this will be written in fluent, completely accurate French. So, first off, a couple of phrases that will be useful to know...
Vert = Green
Noir = Black
Or = Gold
Les Saints = The Saints (obviously)
Castres = um... Castres.
Referee = Arbitre / Monsieur / Le Grand Fromage
Chapeaux sur roues = Hats on Wheels (where would a French preview be without Hats on Wheels?!).
One more... A rough translation of Wendy:
O, quand les Saints,
O, quand les Saints,
O, quand les Saints faire sortir,
Je veux etre dans ce numero,
Quand les Saints entrent dans!
Anyway, that should be enough for you to follow everything else.
Et, maintenant, je voudrais recevoir vous a le preview for the Castres game. Mon previews in the past have been loaded with stats, so this time I will try to actually be un petit peu more interesting. Hm. Maybe my French was rustier than I thought. Enough with the Officer Crabtree broken French, I think. Moving on...
La pilule de la caisse
The last couple of games have been a bitter pill for Saints to swallow. After a great beginning to the season, only losing once to the nomadic Saracens away, we saw a somewhat lacklustre performance against the Quins, coupled back-to-back with the standard away defeat at Les Tigres. The Tiggs game was a lot better performance, but we still seemed to lack a cutting edge, which was also evident in the first (at least) 60 minutes against Edinburgh.
Le medicament dans la cruche
The question is, what is causing the slip in the dominance of Les Saints? Have we been subjected to a sneaky Tiggs, Sarries, or Glaws plot to put stuff in our water bottles? Are we just not waking up quick enough? Are we getting complacent with our recent great form? Who knows. What we do know is that we need to rediscover our form from earlier in the season, as I have a feeling that we won't get far playing the way we have in the last few games.
La bougie avec la poignee
There have been one or two bright sparks in the last games though. The return of Bruce, the way our scrum was able to stand up to the pack of the mighty Tiggs, and of course, the first time any Saint has scored four in the European Cup. Two other Saints stars had scored three – Matt Dawson against, ironically, Edinburgh, and Ben Cohen was back in 2001 against Biarritz. As I mentioned in a previous thread earlier in the week, this game we only had 5 players on the bench due to an injury crisis, with ten HC squad players injured. Well, could we say that we're on the brink again? Dicko, Flash, Lawes, Shane. They're all important players, so it's a crisis, right? Can we get another hat-trick this game please, wingers?
Le gateau au chateau
So of course, the icing on the cake. No, not Munster going out at the pool stages with one round still to go...the game this weekend. It could set the tone for the rest of the season. Of course, the thing to remember is that no team has ever won the European Cup after going unbeaten in the pool stages. Do we want to be the first, or do we want to play it safe? Castres, on the other hand, lost 14-9 in Cardiff last weekend, putting them 10 league points behind Saints. There is no way that they will be dropping to the Amlin, so in my opinion one of two things are likely this weekend.
There's no way that Jim will tell our boys to go lose on the whim of a trend. Hopefully we'll pick up the pace. Castres, well, that's where the two choices are. They will either come out and play for French pride, in which case I have a feeling it will be a close, tight game, with plenty of handbags and at least one card. The other option is that they will give up, roll over and die. In which case, I expect a Saints bonus point.
Reality says that they will play for pride, so I'm calling it a close one. If Saints wake up, I'm going for Les Saints gagner en moins sept (Saints to win by less than seven).
Oh, and if you were wondering about the section headings?
La bougie is “the candle”, la caisse is the French for “the till”, le chateau is a word that we all know.
La cruche means “the jug,” and gateau is another word that we are all familiar with. Le medicament and la pilule mean “the drug” and “the pill,” respectively. Finally, la poignee translates to “the handle”.
So in summary of what I just wrote, if we can avoid the pill from the till that could have come from the drug in the jug, we may get to light the candle with the handle on the gateau from the chateau.
Simple plots are always the best.
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Many thanks!
Unlike my own messages, when spoken with an English accent, are complete and utter B*****ks.
As I mentioned lower down, Castres also have a Top 14 home tie against Stade on Wednesday, so I think we can expect a few changes to their line-up, with perhaps some youngsters with a point to prove (and not too worried about getting a call from the citing officer if needs be)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:01:20:15:22:25 by Shaddo.
formidable!
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
Grande felicitations! Un bon preview ingenieu, je pense.
However, as you're only 30 years old, your knowledge of the plots of 'Allo 'Allo makes you "un person tres triste"
Ton pere, MK Al
Quote:MK Al
plots…….'Allo 'Allo
Non sequitor alert …whoop whoop whooop
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
French I can cope with but Latin?.........
Anyhow, I do take your point, but I always felt that the programme was a little highbrow for my taste. (Apart from Helga, of course)
MK Al
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously