Northampton Saints 24 - Saracens 3

By Claire Jones
March 28 2004

So the run in for the Zurich Championship has begun, where Gloucester failed, Saints spluttered to victory. Yesterday was about getting that lead ahead of our West country rivals and setting ourselves up for the big showdown against Wasps and I think we managed both.

To start let’s get one thing out of the way - refereeing a rugby match is hard but Roy Maybank’s performance yesterday deserved no sympathy. Sparks did him like a kipper and no wonder the prop was suffering with elbow problems in the second half - it was caused by the speed he was pulling the scrum down in the first!

The match kicked off brightly - the Saracens were certainly up for it and a largely second string team played well for the first 20 minutes (albiet aided in the scrum by Mr Maybank). After an five minutes of toing and froing and Morris being pinged for well who knows - ask RM. Castaignede took the penalty and Sarries were in the lead. However, Castaignede revealed his faith in his team when he tried a rather sad drop goal after only 13 minutes.

As well as problems in the scrum our line-out began to misfire either we won the ball and knocked on or the Saracens pinched it. Knock-ons were a feature of the day - to me it looked as though we were match rusty. Either way, it didn’t help our progress and turned the game into a rather disjointed affair. We did have a rather comic moment when the physio and an injured player got caught up with things but other than that the match wasn’t packed with excitement!

Maybank decided then to stop watching the line-out and a huge push was completely missed, we ended giving away a penalty. Castaignede missed it.

20 minutes played and we hadn’t looked like scoring but some persistent pressure brought us a string of penalties from which Drahm scored - 3-3 23 minutes gone. But still we weren’t firing on all cylinders even Blowers was turned over. Our saving grace came after 26 minutes when Roy Maybank who hadn’t been watching the same match as the rest of us, failed to notice a maul heading in his direction and was felled. Said it all to me! He seemed to have recovered and Saracens were now encamped in our territory . All I can say is well done to the defence, it was magnificent - three times the Saracens crossed the line in the next five minutes and three times they were held up. Finally, the Saracens lost patience and afer the third attempt handbags ensued.

The resulting penalty and line-out saw Oriol Ripol break free - he is one of the most frustrating players to watch - pin your ears back man and go for it!! Somehow the Saracens defence grabbed hold of him and he managed to pass 10 metres back to.... a Saracen - head in hands time!

After 37 minutes Thomas Castaignede left the field - whoever booed can go and watched the round ball game and that goes for those in the second half too - the player on the ground was clearly in pain and whatever the antics elsewhere on the field, booing a player in pain has no place at FG.

The game was warming up - from a Saints scrum, Saracens put in a big push, we decided to run it out and Ripol was turrned over. Somehow we turned it over again and released Bruce Reihana. How that man spots and uses space, I will never know but having broken through the tackles, he was away to score from 50 metres out. Fantastic! Drahm then converted despite the best efforts of the prawn in the Church’s Stand.

Second half we had a new ref, Martin Fox and we came out with purpose - poor Matt Lord didn’t look too happy about being on the wing but our intent was clear! From a line-out Brice Reihana gained valuable yardage breaking one tackle and handing off other. From the resulting maul being pulled down, we were awarded a penalty. Quick tap, some slick passing and Darren Fox was in for the try. Drahm converted and we were 17-3 ahead.

Lots and lots of changes in personnel affected our continuity still further. Still the knock ons were happening and the passes going to ground. But after 27 minutes, Reihana struck again. Quick ball from a scrum and he was through and over taking several defenders with him. 24-3.

And so it stayed, why Ripol didn’t pass to Bealer will remain a mystery, how Steve Williams didn’t ground the ball even more so, why Saracens weren’t pinged for trying to rearrange John Leslie’s face is only known by the referee. But we won and the Zippee season is on its way again and next week it’s the big one!