Riches Memories of Twickenham 1991

By Rich in the Archives
April 26 2002

I was only a lad of 20 in 1991 and studying at Staffordshire Polytechnic. Clambering on the train at Stoke I thought I'd be the only one and was overjoyed to meet Saints fans travelling from Manchester! We swapped stories and newspapers on the way down, which made the trip a little more special.

Harlequins 13 (Quins won 25-13 in extra time)
Saints 13
4th May 1991

At Euston I met up with some of the lads from Kingsthorpe, most of them will be on the coach with me eleven years later for Saturday's final. From Euston we undergrounded, overgounded it to Richmond and to this day we still quote Percy who commented "that must be a boring job!" about the 'mind the gap' message at the stations.

Richmond was great. The pubs were full of Saints fans and the singing erupted wherever we went. Another interesting game was spot the Quins fan.

At Twickers we ran into a Chronicle and Echo photographer who took a photo of us all. That photo went on Saints programme front cover for a few seasons after. If you all remember two girls with gold, black and green face paint and people behind them then that was us lot. A copy of the original picture still sits proudly Uncle Dr. Malx's parents wall.

To the game, and a classic it wasn't! The standard of the rugby compared to today was frankly shoddy but most Saints fans couldn't care less. The atmosphere was fantastic!!!

The Saints team that day contains some familiar names and stalwarts of the club at that time. They were:

Ian Hunter; Frank Packman (rep: Ben Ward), John Thame, Peter Moss, Harvey
Thorneycroft; John Steele, Richard Nancekivell (rep: David Elkington); Gavin Baldwin, John Olver, Gary
Pearce, Paul Alston, Colin Hall, John Etheridge, Phil Pask, Tim Rodber.

Only two internationals in Pearce and Olver as Hunter and Rodber had not broken through yet and Harvey never made it past his 'A' cap.

The Harlequins also had an awesome team containing five current internationals of that time, they were:

S Thresher; A Harriman, W Carling, S Halliday, E Davis; D Pears, R
Glenister; J Leonard, B Moore, A Mullins, M Skinner, T Coker, P Ackford, P
Winterbottom, R Langhorn.

Saints were massive underdogs and were expected by many a scholarly rugby writer to be blown off the park by Quins. Saturdays match will be a tad less of a mis-match and what ever London Irish claim they will not start as this sort of underdog.

In the first half Saints kept in touch through the boot of John Steele but Harlequins had scored a goal (under the old 4 points for a try system) to make the score 6-3 to Quins at half time. The crowd had roared Saints on throughout the first half, whereas barely a whimper was heard for the fashionable but supporter less Londoners.

The second half was like a dream come true for a full 35 minutes. Saints were defending as if their lives depended on it and as often happens in these occasions they forced the opposition into a mistake. Packman hacked the ball through and Peter Moss chased and chased to win the race to the ball over the line. Twickenham went absolutely wild. Then later in the half Steele extended the lead to 13-9 and it seemed as if they were home and dry.

Unfortunately Harlequins had too much class, if only Harvey had grabbed Harriman's bootlaces as he raced past. Brave local lad that Harvey is, he never had enough pace for 'sevens specialist' Harriman. How that man never won more England caps is a mystery to many rugby follower.

13-13 at fulltime and since then I've always referred to this game as the 'drawn' final! However in extra time Quins showed their experience, strength and ability to score two tries and eventually win 25-13.

The Saints fans were down but not out. We all poured onto the pitch because to congratulate our brave heroes. The Quins picked the cup up to a rousing chorus of "Oh when the Saints!"

A lots changed in eleven years. Twickenham has undergone a major re-build, as has Franklins Gardens. The Saints now can field a team with 14 internationals and are branded underachievers if they lose instead of plucky underdogs. In 1991 Saints sold 18,000 tickets and 22 coaches left the Gardens for Twickenham. On Saturday it is estimated that 35,000 Saints fans will be heading to HQ the club has booked over 95 coaches and I know of at least 4 more privately hired coaches. One thing hasn't changed. I'm as excited today as I was eleven years ago.

COME ON YOU SAINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!