HC: Borders weeded out - Borders 3 Saints 39

By Mark H
January 18 2004

So into the Nether land went the Saintly four hundred, and with the match ending in sub-zero temperatures, those four hundred came out again with hearts gladdened, chests puffed out and brains hurting as those qualification permutations just got more complicated!

More on the permutations at the end of the report, as I’m typing this before the Agen-Llanelli clash, and we’ll know a lot more then. Suffice to say, Saints had done what they needed to do by half time, despite a comment from a Yorkshireman to the effect of “we’ve only got one point, we haven’t won it yet”.

As expected, a large number of the Saintly masses took up residency in the main stand early on, whilst others (and I’m meaning Mav, Rich and the Olney contingent amongst others) stood next to the Saints bench, so what follows is a combination of views from high and low on a marvellous evening in the Borders.

With the white steed being ridden twice around the pitch before the teams came out providing a dramatic start to the evening, the drama spilled over onto the pitch as Borders attacked early and earned a penalty right in front of the posts after just ninety seconds, the play continuing whilst the two loosehead props, Craig Dunlea and Tom Smith, had one of the more organised fights in rugby history. Both men stood toe to toe landing proper punches (none of this girly slapping), and both got good shots in before Ben Cohen came in to try and break them up.

And promptly got himself floored.

It was difficult to see what kicked the incident off - certainly the first shot I saw was Dunlea putting a hand in Tam’s face, followed by receiving a punch to the chin back, but referee Eric Darriere dealt with the situation in the most logical way, sending both men to the bin. It was a move that earned Tam respect on the bench, and is so absolutely out of character with what we’ve ever seen from him before that it will go down as a collector’s piece. The thought that did go through my head though at the time was that if it hadn’t been so early in the game, both men would have seen a different colour card and Saints would lose one of their more potent weapons for the vital last games.

Tanner Vili, back in the Borders line-up after injury and who would prove to be by far their best player on the evening, kicked the points and Saints trailed. From then on though we saw the kind of forward thinking that should have been evident last Saturday, as the whole team used their noddles and set about trying to win the game and secure a point. It didn’t go completely to plan - Borders appeared to have worked out the middle lineout call that Saints were using and promptly stole the first two Wally throws literally out of Lordy’s hands - but the forwards were rumbling in the loose and the backs had chewed through their leashes in their hunger to succeed.

On nine minutes, Saints won a penalty in the corner after some excellent work by the forwards in mauling the ball up the field, and from the lineout came what is now almost Saints’ trademark try - a Grayson kick to the corner for Ben to score. Except in this case, he didn’t. Nikki Walker got in front of the England man to palm the ball down, but Brucie was coming round to assist, picked up the loose ball, and evaded a tackle to score in the corner. Grays missed the conversion, the ball going across the face of the posts, but the scoreboard was moving in the right direction.

From the kick off came the first scrum since the departure of the props, so Chris Budgen made a very brief one minute appearance and earned a penalty during that time, forcing his opposite number Bruce Douglas up in the scrum. Grays kicked to the 22, and from the resultant lineout came another penalty for Borders not rolling away in the tackle. With the ball 15 metres out and right in front, there was only one result , 8-3 Saints.

The machine was running smoothly now, and as the Borders defensive effort looked a pale shadow of that seen at FG last weekend, Saints capitalised. The penalty count was growing, and it was from one of these penalties that the second try went in, a Tom Smith quick tap five metres out and three phases later Mark Connors went over the line for his second Heineken Cup try for Saints. The conversion went over this time, and you got the feeling that this was one bone that the hungry dogs in the green were not going to let go. Indeed, after 23 minutes it was 22-3, when Saints (and Sharky in particular) took advantage of a Borders lineout that went slightly askew on halfway. From the resultant scrum, Grant held the ball in at number eight for just the right amount of time, whilst Sharky manoeveured the eight into just the right position for him to take advantage of a huge gap down the side and burst into the Borders 22. Such was the lack of cover, that when the Kiwi was tackled, Ben was on hand to pick up and run over unopposed.

Three down, one to go, and it could so easily have been four well before it actually came. A scrum was turned, but Ben’s kick through saw him beaten to the ball by a fingertip, before Borders should have put themselves over the line when lock Colin Stewart knocked on five metres from the Saints line. It wasn’t long though before the elusive, arrogant, illiterate, one eyed bonus point was secured - Grays kicked the ball through for Leslie and Tucker to chase, and ultimately win back from the Borders cover, for Sharky to whip the ball out to Bruce then onto Ben to score in the corner. Four tries, thirty five minutes, job - to all intents and purposes - done. Grays slid the conversion across the face again, but all were happy, and shared in a celebratory song or two.

It could indeed have been five tries and a hat-trick for Ben before the break, the big man being denied a try in the corner when he knocked on over the line in the process of trying to put the ball down one handed whilst being munched in the tackle. Half time entertainment was a band who prompted one wag near my reporting colleagues to wonder loudly when the horse was coming back, and then we were set for the second half.

Not surprisingly with the game in Agen in mind, Saints took their foot off the pedal somewhat in the second half, but not before try number five arrived. Half time had brought the entry of Drahm (or Drum as it was pronounced all evening) and Budgen for Grayson and Morris, and it was that man Budgen with a run from halfway literally running through and over Borders defenders on his way to the 22, and from the recycled ball, our stand in Spanish scrum half ref to John Leslie, who found a good line and ghosted in for the try.

Shine’s kick made it 34-3, and there was a perfect opportunity to rest some of the key players, so off came Blowers, Reihana and Thompson, followed within a minute by the exit of Tom Smith to a blood injury. With six new players on, it was no surprise that the quality of the game dropped somewhat and Borders were able to force their way back into try scoring contention, but that is not to say that the last half hour was just a waste. In that time we found out what else the criticism of last week had triggered, in that there was some immense defence by Saints, with the stars of the show being our two wingers.

The mighty midget was tackling everything that moved forwards in a red shirt, and bringing them down with relative ease and increasing levels of ingenuity. The one tackle that he did miss down the outside, he still managed to get back and make the tackle when the ball was fed back inside. One tackle on Craig Moir, which in resembled Speedy Gonzalez on a climbing frame, left the ex-Saintsman shaking his head in bewilderment and needing treatment for his Spanish sting. Over on the other side, if Nikki Walker did not go to bed having nightmares about Ben Cohen then he will undoubtedly progress as a rugby player. Four times he got the ball in space; four times Ben nailed him. You imagine that if the Scot got to the bar first last night, then our man would have been right behind him.

Elsewhere in the back line, Nick Beal was making the kind of breaks he usually do, but patently failed to do so last weekend; John Leslie, so often this season doing a passable impression of Bambi trying to find how his legs worked, was like a marauding stag through the open fields of Netherdale; and Mark Robinson gave another hour’s master class in the scrum half art before walking off to a standing ovation and the sponsors’ man of the match prize.

Yes, Borders pressed, and yes, they probably should have scored, the closest opportunity being when they were forced out in the corner by Mark Tucker, but possibly most importantly for the two weeks to follow, they didn’t. Concede no tries for the next two weeks, and we will be in the quarter finals. For them, Tanner Vili was clearly a big difference at fly half, and it was good to see Sititi showing his class at number eight, but once again they were out powered, and it is difficult to see how they can do us any favours over the next two weekends.

The icing on the cake was the sixth try, with the ball being fed along the lie from a scrum on the far side of the pitch from us, with the final pass from Shine being floated for Oriol to go over in the corner for a well deserved score.

So that’s us up to twelve tries in the competition so far, which fits in pretty much with the seasonal average of three per game. I would definitely take that kind of average again next time out! My personal man of the match (one out of oh so many) would be John Leslie. I’m not a fan, but I’m not a massive critic of him either, but he had a superb evening and really energised the midfield to ensure that both Cohen and Ripol got ball without having to go and look for it.

And so to Saturday evening, and the aftermath of Agen’s 22-15 win over the Scarlets. Not an ideal result, but it could have been much worse from a Saintly point of view. Basically now, the table is this:-

	Played	Points	Tries Total	Tries v L	Tries v S	Tries v A
Saints	4	14	12	0	N/A	3
Llanelli	4	14	7	N/A	1	1
Agen	4	10	8	2	1	N/A
Borders	4	0	2	1	0	1

with the “Tries v” column being the number of tries scored against each of the main protagonists. Accepting that both Agen and Llanelli will get maximum points off Borders, then Saints need at least a point from their French outing next Friday night without conceding a try difference of four, and then have to beat Llanelli without conceding a bonus point, but scoring at least one try more to qualify.

I’ll go into all of the permutations after next weekend, but the main one is this - win both, and it’s the last eight. On Friday night’s showing, it’s on, but I hope that it doesn’t come down to a case of winning the toss prior to next week’s game.