Saints stroll past Irish for semi ZC spot.

By Rich on the Wireless
May 20 2002

This is a match that Saints had to win after Briz had beaten the Unspoken ones in the pooh corner swimming baths. With Wasps looking good against Sale, Saints were facing the prospect of the Parker Pen shield. Early signs were good as LI appeared not to care with a virtual 2nd/Academy team side.

The Irish fans also showed their indifference, with a tiny Madjetski crowd made up of mostly travelling fans. Made more obvious by the receptions, for the teams, before kick off.

Smudger was also upbeat in the pre-match interview on Radio Northampton, when he spoke of the heart shown by all the players. He’d given Dawson and Blowers the superman training shirts after the Newcastle game, perhaps in a psychological ploy, as these were the same two players given the Man of Steel tag prior to the ill feted cup final.

The start couldn’t have been worse for Saints. The multi-named Joe Shaw made a complete hash of things and gifted Irish a converted soft with only 2 minutes gone. It was later revealed that Shaw was still suffering with the bug that had infected the Saints camp in the week. Indeed the disruption was clear, as Saints made a sloppy start and continued to lack the expected extra edge.

One area of play seemed much improved, as Saints were a lot more solid in the lineout. From secure possession, Irish revealed their cards; they were going to give penalties away at every opportunity. Grayson reduced the deficit on 5½ minutes with a penalty. Irish 7 – Saints 3. Over the wireless the Saints fans were making a fair fist of it, out singing the home fans.

On 9 minutes Paul Gustard, the pooh corner loan player, was spoken to after another penalty was given against Irish. The man with the appropriate initials Paul Grayson stepped up to kick another PG 7-6 after 9 minutes.

From the restart the touch judge made a rare appearance to save Saints blushes. Irish though they’d scored but Soden had been taken out illegally and saints were given yet another penalty. Sloppy play led to Irish missing a three pointer before Saints finally clicked in to gear. Gustard again put a cheap shot on Dawson, however quick hands and taps from numerous infringements and a magnificent break from Dawson saw Beal score the first try, PG nailed the conversion from out wide and Saints were in front 7-13.

The middle of the first half was a jumble of mistakes and penalties, referee Pearson had enough and sent Cockle to the sin bin and Simon Webster (amusingly repeatedly referred to by the BBC as Ian Vass) made a rare first team appearance replacing Joe Shaw.

On 35 minutes Beal claimed his second try after Robbie Morris’s monster pass nearly wrecked a 5 on three overlap. Grayson missed the conversion but some daylight appeared between the sides at 7-18.

Penalties on top of penalties continued to be the order of the day for Irish, this time Wheatley was yellow carded for taking Dawson out. The resulting penalty saw good driving play. The plethora of penalties continued and a lineout catch and drive and a popular try for captain Budge. Grayson was as predictable as ever to give a half time score of Irish 7 – Saints 25.

The second half started in much the same way as the first. The spirited Irish youngsters were keen to take it to the Saints and were unlucky not to reduce the deficit.

However Saints worked into a good field position, the predictable penalty for offside gave Grayson a PG to stretch the lead to 7-28.

Saints were in no mood to close the game out and once again conspired to make life hard for themselves. Wally was sin binned for a professional foul. A line out close to the Saint’s line was well defended and the Grayson’s poor kick handed back a good field position. Scrum half Barrett gathered his own chip and chase to score and then Brown converted and suddenly Saints were only two scores in front.

On 64 minutes Grayson was given a gimme penalty chance in front of the posts to take the score to 14-31.

The final scoring action of the match saw Beal’s break and grubber give what looked like a certain try for John Leslie. However he was pushed off the ball and referee Pearson had no choice but to give a penalty try. Grayson kicked the conversion, probably with his eyes closed to give a final score of 14-38.

On the face of it a great win for the Saints and good revenge for the cup final. However they made really hard work of this game, which they could have won by a ginormous score. Pountney alluded to the reasons for their lack of precision in his post match interview. He said that Saints had only trained together once in the week due to injury and illness and he also described the play offs as ‘bloody daft’ saying it was ridiculous to have to play on ‘pitches as hard as concrete’.

So it’s off to Bris’ for the play off semi final and with Wasps losing at Sale, European action is finally secured, it will be interesting to see how much the Saints really value this end of season endurance test. From the attendances at the grounds this weekend it is clear the fans aren’t that impressed.