News: Saints Impress But Don't Get The Point - Glaws Report
By Frank Chambers
April 20 2011
This is being written in a hotel room without the benefit of the TV replay, so apologies if my eyes have deceived me or I have missed anything. And deeper apologies for missing the Azam head butt which has been widely reported nationwide.
Saints impress but don’t get the point
Match Report Gloucester vs Saints
Tuesday April 19th 2011, Kick off 7:45pm
Gloucester 27-15 Northampton Saints
By Frank Chambers
This was the second Saints’ match to be rearranged this season, after poor weather in Gloucester caused the original Boxing Day fixture to be called off. Who knows what the result would have been had the match been played back then, because the Saints lost their next six Premiership games starting with the New Year’s Day disappointment at home to Quins. Actually, given Gloucester’s successful home record, a realistic guess would have been a home win...
The middle fixture of three “Saints on Tour” games, this was always going to be a tough one, with team selection being dictated by time rather than form. A hard match away at Kingston Park on the previous Friday and another one at the Jetski the following Saturday made this game an opportunity for the understudies to step up and show what they could do. Or to do a bit of damage limitation...
The Saints selection for this match showed 13 changes to the team that beat Newcastle Falcons with a late try. Apart from Bruce Reihana starting at full back and Calum Clark at 6 (and captain), our patient understudies were getting a long-awaited workout. Members of the Shane Geraghty Appreciation Society also got their wish as their man started at 10. As you would expect the Saints bench was very strong on paper, with four of the regular front five along with Phil Dowson, Stephen Myler, Lee Dickson and Ben Foden.
It was a lovely warm evening, the pitch was in good nick, and we had good seats in the G&G stand, three rows back, behind some short people. Perfect so far. The Shed was in good voice, trying to put off the Saints players with their trademark “donkey” noises during the warm. So witty, those Sheddies. And keen.
Glos kicked off towards their pavilion thingy and things got off to a fairly frenetic start, Saints winning an early penalty for side entry over by the touchline. To answer the question posed by a COYSDC poster a couple of days ago, the first Azam punch came on the two-minute mark, on Brett Sharman. And that pretty much set the scene for the rest of his match.
Shane Geraghty started brightly, showing what he could do with a couple of smart wraparound moves, the last unfortunately ending with a pass as Bruce Reihana’s feet which he knocked on. After a couple more minutes, more fighting on the far side, Glos eventually given the penalty.
The crowd was being extremely one-eyed, more so than I can remember; perhaps their blind support of the Cherry and White is inbred. See the end of this report for their favourite catchphrases...
After just 8 minutes my notes read “more fighting from Azam, ref has a word but nothing happens”. That must have been the head butt incident. I guess you could say that Azam was a little fired up for this match, he was certainly a fight looking for an opponent for most of the game.
Around this point we heard the first Wendy from our brave souls in the Shed. Well done all... that must have spurred the boys on because a sustained Saints attack on the left switched wide and Alex Waller touched down in the corner. Shane Geraghty’s conversion attempt hit the left post square on, so the score after 10 minutes was:
Glos 0-5 Saints.
A short-lived Saints attack ended in a dropped pass, Saints pulled down the scrum (allegedly), and the resulting penalty was sent to the Saints 10m line. From there, a lightning Glos move saw Molenaar slice through the Saints defence and touch doen under the posts. Robinson converted, Glos 7-5 Saints after 14 minutes.
A few minutes later, and Azam is looking for trouble again, being at the centre of some pushing and shoving after a Glos knock-on on the Saints’ 22. At this point the Saints front five were holding up, if not entirely convincing. A slipped bind gave the Cherrie and Whites a penalty in a kickable position, and Nicky Robinson succeeded with his kick. Glos 10-5 Saints.
On 20 minutes or so, a period of Saints pressure, both from the backs and in the scrum, resulted in a free kick to the Saints. Encouragingly they chose the scrum again, Glos lifted, penalty to Saints, three points to Geraghty. After 25 minutes, Glos 10 Saints 8.
The match continued in frenetic style. A kick ahead from Burns led to a foot race which Bruce lost, Charlie Sharples touching down. With the extras from Burns, Glos led at this point by 17-8.
The rest of the half continued in a frenzy, with the Glos backline looking seriously fast but not 100% in the handling department. A dropped pass by, I think, Nicky Robinson in front of the Shed resulted in a complete absence of donkey noises. Odd that. Anyway, Robinson left the field shortly afterwards, either through injury (this was his first game back after a while off), or embarrassment. Voyce replaced him, and Burns moved to fly half.
Right at the end of the half Burns had a fairly straightforward kick at goal but missed. Again, no donkey noises.
Half time: Gloucester 17, Saints 8.
From the kick-off, Wood tackled Freddie Burns hard and knocked him over. The crowd went wild, demanding the death penalty; however Wayne Barnes was on the spot and waved play on. The crown went wilder. A while later and a Saints kick ahead was gathered by the still-groggy Burns who slipped and was caught by the chasing Saints players. However the ball was cleared and the end-to end stuff continued.
A sustained Glos attack in the Saints 22 looked as if it would inevitably yield a score, and so it came to pass. After some pick and drives, the Saints were penalised and Burns took the three points from in front of the posts. Glos 20-8 Saints.
On the 50 minute mark, the game was up for the Saints as Glos scored again. A penalty was sent to the corner, from the line-out Glos pushed to the line before everyone’s (well, ours anyway) hate figure Azam broke off and pushed over the line. A good conversion from 5m in by Burns made the score Glos 25-8 Saints.
A Bruce Reihana clearance from his mark sent to half way resulted in a Glos lineout. However, excessive faffing about by the home team led Mr Barnes to award a free kick to the Saints. The tap and go resulted in a ruck, Glos entered at the side and while they had the advantage, the Saints maul advanced to the Glos 5m line. At this point the Glos forwards were under the cosh but the Saints’ front five were blowing a bit too. So, time to call up the cavalry. Tiny, Dylan and Mooj strode on to take over the front row from their understudies (who had performed very well). There followed a number of resets and penalties as the Saints scrum mangled the Glos one, but eventually Wayne Barnes penalised Saints for turning the scrum and the pressure was relieved.
On 65 minutes, Azam finally left the field to huge applause from the crowd. I guess they like that sort of thing round these parts.
By now the Glos team had slowed noticeably but were defending very well indeed. Dickson came on for Commins and made an immediate impact with one of his trademark penalties for picking out a lazy runner (“He hit him on purpose!” shouted the knowledgeable crowd). A couple of minutes later Dylan dropped the ball on the line. “No Try”, read the big screen.
Then Lee Dickson sniped around the side of the scrum into a large space to touch down. Shane converted, and the score moved to Glos 27-15 Saints. Could the boys get a losing bonus point?
Finally, with Courtney on the field for Adam Eustace, Saints applied more pressure. Foden came on with 3 minutes to go and the pressure increased. The atmosphere in the ground seemed a bit strange at this point, with the Saints battering away at the line and the crowd noticeably tense, as if it was their side that was losing 27-15. Finally, after a continuous push for the line, Tiny lunged and lost control of the ball (“No Try”). Into ‘injury time’ now.
After some sustained attacking play with penalties and scrums prolonging the action by four or five minutes, Digger finally knocked on the end the match. It had been a belter of a game, all-action, great to watch.
No side: Gloucester 27, Saints 15.
All in all, an encouraging performance by the Saints second string, something to give the management confidence. There was a lot of spirit in this side, and but for a couple of fairly soft tries the Saints could have come away with a point.
Hard to pick out individuals, but Shane Geraghty had a good game, Bruce was tireless, and the front five did very well indeed. As for fitness, well, the Saints second string lasted better than their opponents, they were just not as smart.
Finally, one wonders how Azam is still playing the game if he performs like that. I thought he was disgraceful (and that’s without seeing the head butt).
Bits and pieces
As match tickets and the acquisition thereof is a hot topic at the moment, perhaps it is worth mentioning that Kingsholm also has nice ladies in its ticket office. A quick call confirmed that our original Boxing Day tickets would be good for this game.
The Gloucester match people don’t play music when there is a score. Good.
The crowd repeated – over and over - a number of witty catchphrases that are worth sharing:
“Wakey wakey ref!”
“Change your shirt Ref!”
“Forward!” (this when the play is generally 50 metres downfield)
“Not straight!” (ditto)
“Holding on!” (when the Saints player is about to be tackled)
“Eee aw” (what passes for conversation in the Shed)
Gloucester team
15 Freddie Burns
14 Charlie Sharples
13 Tim Molenaar
12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu
11 Jonny May
10 Nicky Robinson
9 Rory Lawson
1 Nick Wood
2 Olivier Azam
3 Paul Doran-Jones
4 Dave Attwood
5 Alex Brown
6 Alasdair Strokosch
7 Akapusi Qera
8 Luke Narraway (capt)
Replacements:
16 Scott Lawson
17 Alasdair Dickinson
18 Rupert Harden
19 Will James
20 Brett Deacon
21 Dave Lewis
22 Henry Trinder
23 Tom Voyce
Saints Team
15 Bruce Reihana
14 Paul Diggin
13 Joe Ansbro
12 Greig Tonks
11 Scott Armstrong
10 Shane Geraghty
9 Stuart Commins
1 Alex Waller
2 Brett Sharman
3 Tom Mercey
4 Adam Eustace
5 Mark Sorenson
6 Calum Clark (capt)
7 Tom Wood
8 Mark Easter
Replacements
16 Dylan Hartley
17 Soane Tonga'uiha
18 Brian Mujati
19 Courtney Lawes
20 Phil Dowson
21 Lee Dickson
22 Stephen Myler
23 Ben Foden
Referee: Wayne Barnes
Attendance: 15,684
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Good report, thanks.
Quote:St F scribed...
"Apart from Bruce Reihana starting at full back and Calum Clark at 6 (and captain), our patient understudies were getting a long-awaited workout..."
Not sure that Digs would be entirely happy about being called an understudy this season, Frank!
Great read, though. Many thanks!
“Wakey wakey ref!”
“Change your shirt Ref!”
“Forward!” (this when the play is generally 50 metres downfield)
“Not straight!” (ditto)
“Holding on!” (when the Saints player is about to be tackled)
“Eee aw” (what passes for conversation in the Shed)
otherwise a good report on the game St F
Pete - "older than Smurf's Dad" went up another notch on Monday, the 'young man' got a year older...
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:04:21:07:30:47 by St Francis.