Heineken Cup: Borders v Northampton Preview
By Mark H
January 15 2004
Will the 'bigheaded' 'arrogant' former European champions prevail or will their one-eyed supporters travel South following a Borders rugby education? In an attempt to predict the answer, Mark H, provides his rugby literate preview of the Saints sticky away fixture with Borders at Galasheils.
“Bigheads.”
“A lack of respect.”
“Notoriously one-eyed.”
“All they had to do to earn the winning four points, plus a bonus, was to turn up.”
“Rugby illiterate.”
“They didn’t think much of us.”
Well, good to see that we’re winning friends and influencing people again. On Friday night in Galashiels, one team will be attempting to put right the wrongs of last weekend, and prove to the world that they have been underestimated, and the other team will be attempting to secure some much-needed points. Trouble is, which team’s which? Saints have been written off by so many people this season that it’s now got boring, looking like champions in the making one week then looking like the Latter Day Saints second fifteen the next. The Borders, in the meantime, came down to the Gardens, and did the job that they planned to do - deny Saints a maximum point haul and pick up indicators for this week’s game and ways of securing a first win in the competition.
One thing applies to both sides. There has been a hell of a lot of rubbish written since Saturday teatime which does neither side credit, neither accusers or accused. So let’s concentrate on the rugby.
Things we have learnt. The Saints pack had the upper edge on the Borders pack, and with the same eight wearing green on Friday evening, unless there are some major sea-changes, I can see that Saints will dominate up front again. The Borders defensive formation totally outfoxed Saintly minds, laying back in a “come and try it” style, rather than the in your face style that most of the ZP teams play, and if Saints haven’t worked out how to get past that, then it could be another frustrating eighty minutes.
There was a lot of criticism, albeit with a Scottish accent, of the way that Saints went for tries early on rather than putting points on the board. Fair enough, if the penalties that were spurned were converted into three points each time then the match as a contest would have been over by half time, but Saints were also not to know that they would get so many chances to spurn. Even Rotherham did not give up that many opportunities back in October.
The one criticism I would have of the Borders performance was that they didn’t seem to have a cutting edge. With the half backs not getting good ball, it meant that anything that went further along the line was hurried, and apart from the Moir run, the closest they got to a try was from chasing kicks to force five metre scrums. In front of a home crowd, surely they will try something different?
And talking of different, the following 22 was announced from under the shadow of Uncle Keith’s pride and joy on Wednesday afternoon:-
15 Bruce Reihana
14 Oriol Ripol
13 Mark Tucker
12 John Leslie (captain)
11 Ben Cohen
10 Paul Grayson
9 Mark Robinson
1 Tom Smith
2 Steve Thompson
3 Robbie Morris
4 Matt Lord
5 Mark Connors
6 Andrew Blowers
7 Darren Fox
8 Grant Seely
16 Dan Richmond
17 Chris Budgen
18 Mark Soden
19 Brett Sturgess
20 Johnny Howard
21 Nick Beal
22 Shane Drahm
Three changes then, two of them expected by most people - Sharky and Grays in for Johnny H and Shine - and one unexpected, with Mark Tucker moving into the outside centre slot to allow Bruce to drop into full back, and Bealer dropping down to the bench. It’ll be the first game that Bealer hasn’t started all season, and only leaves Darren Fox and Bruce Reihana as the starters in every match. There’s no spot on the bench for Daws or Rob Hunter, and no news as to their fitness either. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see their names on that list come next Wednesday should Saints still be in contention before the trip to France.
Borders at the time of writing (Wednesday evening) are waiting to see who is standing from their casualties of last Saturday and their other injured parties, so won’t be naming their side until Thursday. I would expect a pretty similar side, however, and definitely a repeat of the tenacity they displayed, whichever fifteen start.
Netherdale is one of those classic rugby venues, in the style of Stradey Park (so we’ve been lucky this season), in that the locals love their rugby. With a large travelling contingent coming up the M6 or A1, then it should be a loud evening.
My prediction - well, going on what I saw last Saturday, I really cannot see any other result than an away win, despite the utterances from Utterson and the warm welcome from Kelvin. Whether Saints will be good enough to get a bonus point is once again on their own heads. Hopefully those heads are together enough (and the hands sticky) to do just that.
And finally, a message for the Scottish media. You forgot six words in your descriptions of last week’s action, six words that mean more than anything bad that can ever be thrown at the natives around here.
We’re Saints.
And proud of it.
.