In the Archives - Saints v French Opposition

By Chris Gleadell
December 7 2005

In the run up to Saints European Challenge Cup game against Narbonne on Saturday we look back at the last three visits to the Gardens by French opposition, Biarritz, Agen and Toulouse, all victories, ah happy days........

European Cup - Saints 17 Biarritz 14
By Craig in Wooton - January 13 2003

Luck has nothing to do with it.... Saints survive an inspired Biarritz defence with a display of character that would make Henry V proud. After the previous two weeks home displays, it was with ridiculous optimism that the home crowd expected nothing less than a Biarritz drubbing.

With some of the crowd leaving early last week, it was used as kick up the backside by the coaching staff as an example of what it all means to the good burghers of the shire (and elsewhere). With Ulster next Friday looming large, nothing short of a win was good enough for passage to the quarter finals.

However, the game started with Saints in hesitant mood, with Ripol fumbling a high kick backwards, and Handyman knocking on in contact in midfield. It's more aerial ping-pong than 'hats on wheels', as both sides try to establish field position, culminating in a Biarritz penalty on 4 mins for hands in the ruck. Yachvili misses, but Biarritz have been on top for the most part, their back row, especially Betsen, outstanding. Our forwards are having a torrid time in the scrums, and on 7 minutes Thommo's head appears out of the top of the scrum - penalty Biarritz. Yachvili makes no mistake with this one, Saints 0 Biarritz 3.

By now the crowd were getting nervous, and seeing all sorts of daft refereeing decisions. Saints make good inroads into Biarritz territory with Handyman taking the ball into a ruck on Biarritz 22. All Saints supporters think Betsen is on the wrong side, but he has turned Handyman, who then faffs about with the ball on the floor, giving Biarritz a penalty. The resultant lineout is stolen by Steve Williams, setting the tone for the whole game. The option of Hunter, Connors, or Williams was causing Biarritz problems in marking on our ball, and making their ball less secure. If only the scrums were just as solid! After 10 mins Saints have first opportunity for points, a penalty just outside the Biarritz 22 on the right of the field. Grayson spots Cohen wide on the left, but miscues his cross-field kick, Bernat-Salles easily tidying up.

The crowd were now in good voice and became the Saints No16. Prolonged pressure, with Biarritz defence again excellent, saw Saints pressurise a Biarritz lineout resulting in a sloppy clearance. Saints win lineout, launch into midfield, and with the defence coming up offside, Grayson has the simplest of kicks to level the score. Or so we all thought! He misses, so the crowd start mumbling again, but unlike the previous week Saints are making few mistakes during play, and only excellent defending is preventing more Saints scores.

On 17 mins, Connors again steals a Biarritz lineout. Grayson chips over the Biarritz defence, but they tidy up at the ruck only for an awful pass from Yachvili to go wide of the Biarritz fly-half Peyrelongue, the hooker and captain Gonzales being forced to kick to touch. Saints make a mess of the line out, but pressure on Yachvili forces him to kick to touch, nearly on his own 5m line. The crowd now expects - catch and drive, and boy do we get it. Saints catch the line out, Biarritz drive us back 5 metres and get the resultant scrum, which they clear well. This wasn't in the script, but there was no panic on the pitch, just a growing calm collective will, a feeling transferred from the crowd perhaps?

Again Saints begin another attack, although in clearing out a ruck on the Biarritz 22, the ball is left exposed, and as Biarritz claim the ball, Cohen comes in from the side to give away a penalty. The ball is cleared downfield and Ripol knock on under a high ball (he looks shot to pieces), but luckily for Saints, Betsen knocks on the resulting ball in midfield. We kick to clear, and Biarritz return it. Tom Smith joins the ensuing tackle to bridge over the ball, awaiting support. His knee grazes the ground for a tenth of a second as he is bridging, referee Alan Lewis awards Biarritz a penalty for not staying on his feet! Much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the crowd, but quiet wailing, as Yachvili lands the penalty from half way between the touchline and centre, about 35 yards out. Saints 0 Biarritz 6.

It's not looking to good at this stage. 25 mins gone and banging your head against a brick wall is beginning to seem easier than breaching the Biarritz defence. Mind you it could have been worse. Biarritz set up a ruck dead central just outside the Saints 22, after good attacking play probing both flanks. With few options left, the drop-goal attempt floats massively wide.

And then it happens. From the restart, more aerial ping-pong, and a passage of play resulting in a Biarritz lineout, defending on the Saints left, which they completely mess up, giving Saints a free kick. Thommo takes the tap, spreads the ball right into midfield, where it is recycled to Beal on the left, who goes on the outside of a Biarritz prop, wrong foots Bernard-Salles, and passes to Thommo lurking on the left wing. It looks like a forward pass, the crowd wait for Thommo to collect the ball and be pulled back. But no - the hand of Biarritz had knocked the pass backwards, a try is given, the Biarritz wall had been breached, and the crowd erupt with a tumult that hadn't been heard since the last time Saints scored! The conversion was from wide on the left, and bearing in mind what was to come, it seems extraordinary that if went straight through the middle of the uprights. Saints 7 Biarritz 6.

Just when Saints needed to keep it tight, they didn't. After good defending from both teams, and 5 mins before half time, Grayson chips over the Biarritz defensive line just on half way. The kick is too deep and the evergrey Bernard Salles runs to the Biarritz left and launches a splendid pass to centre Bousses, who accelerates outside Williams and inside Hunter & Ripol who are both left marking thin air, to score unopposed. A good try, made by Bernard Salles knowing where all Saints backs were - on the other flank. Yachvili missed the conversion.

After Biarritz were penalised at their own lineout for being too slow to form, and more banging of Saints heads against a brick wall, half time arrived, Saints 7 Biarritz 11.

The second half began with Biarritz seemingly happy to defend, and to counter on turnover ball. However, Saints are giving little turnover ball for them to work with, with even Grayson's miss-hit cross field kick being tidied up by Cohen and Connors, who's kick to touch increases the skills in his armoury. On 45 minutes, Brooks replaces Ripol who looked to have all the cares of the world on his shoulder as he trudged off. Biarritz now begin to threaten, with Peyrelongue making a clean break past Grayson ending in a ruck on the right just inside our 22. They recycle left, just avoiding Tom Smith who is 4 yards offside. Penalty Biarritz, right in front, Yachvili scores the three points. Saints 7 Biarritz 14.

It's oo-er indeed now, but up steps the Saints No16, the crowd. Like days of old, the Gordon Terrace massive rise as one, with support from Church's, and an echo of Oh when the Saints reverberates touching your very soul. The players respond, with Robbie Morris on for Mattie Stewart, the forwards get stuck in, consistently now breaking the gain line, forcing Biarritz back. Saints steal a lineout, Grayson launches another huge kick deep into Biarritz territory. They can only clear to their 10m line, where, with ball in hand Steve Williams makes good yardage, Dawson inside pass to Cohen who also makes yards, just short of their 22, Lewis gives Saints a penalty. The crowd are all nervous now. He can't miss again, not from there, not now, when Saints so badly need to score, but it misses right. Does the crowd react badly to this? Is doom and gloom descended all around? Is it heck, one minute later another kickable penalty to Saints for hands in the ruck. Up steps Dawson and calmly aims for the right hand post, which he hits and the ball falls over the bar. Saints 10 Biarritz 14.

Biarritz now raise their game and push Saints back towards their own 22. Grayson repels with huge kick from hand, which is returned, only for Grayson to repeat, this time finding a good touch in the Biarritz half. The crowd are baying for points, with good continuity from Saints ending in a chip over the defence on the right, only for Bernard Salles to mark the catch, and then clear.

Ten minutes to go now, and Biarritz continue to play territory by kicking to Grayson, who launches another huge kick which Brooks (on for Handyman) chases like a madman, forcing winger Bidabe to put into touch just inside the Biarritz 22. From the lineout, John Phillips (on for Hunter) catches and Grayson makes a half break in front of the posts. This attack is repelled, but Biarritz seem unwilling to run from deep, and once again Saints take it up, the crowd ringing out loud from every corner of the ground, Biarritz concede a penalty after good work by Seely and Cohen. Three points are not enough so Grayson kicks to the corner. The Church's stand start the singing followed by Tetleys A and B. C block start Come on you Saints, its a wonderful sound, as Grayson sidesteps inside Peyrelongue heading straight under the posts before he is caught by the recovering Biarritz number 10, who then refuses to roll away from the tackle. In the bin he goes, the time has now come. Tap penalty, attack forced back on the right, recycled, spun left, Dawson reverse inside pass to Jorgy who has work to do to carry three defenders over to score. To prove the first kick was not a fluke, Dawson aims for the right hand post for the conversion in the same manner as the penalty. Saints 17 Biarritz 14.

You'd think Saints would be smart enough to close the game down, play territory, and don't upset that nice Mr Lewis. But no. That would make things too easy for us, the supporters. So John Phillips goes stamping all over a ruck nowhere near the ball and gets binned - he's only been on 9 minutes! 8- mins gone, the penalty is hammered down to Saints 10 metre line, where Biarritz win their lineout and Saints scrambling defence saves them. A high kick to the corner means Cohen has to tap the ball back in the air to Connors who has no option but to carry over for a Biarritz 5m scrum. Against a seven man pack, Biarritz choose to pick and drive from the base, where Cohen says thank you and bundles Milneres into touch. Simple lineout ploy, long throw infield, pass back for Dawson to find touch and the ref to blow for time, after 86 minutes.

Oh what fun we had, now it's a small matter of Ulster to deal with.

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Heineken Cup - Northampton 25 Agen 10
By Claire Jones - December 14 2003

Everybody without exception regarded this game as ‘Le Crunch’, Wayne Smith asked for us all to be ‘very strong’ and Saturday saw Saints take four points but I can’t help thinking that this was a case of what might have been. It should have been five points in the bag – Merci, mais quelle domage!

When Sharky made his break in the first minute, it was the best start I’d seen us make since my last match report at Edgeley Park. We looked sharp. Agen gave away a penalty which Larry slotted over and we were 3-0 up.

Mark H’s preview stated that the Saints front row would be one of the key points of this game and so it proved. But we were given a gift when Crenca obligingly dished out a head butt. Nigel Whitehouse had no problem with instantly wielding the red card despite M. Crenca protesting pointing to his side, claiming Saints foul play and only six minutes on the clock. Is it the fastest ever red card in the Heineken Cup I wonder?

The Agen restarts were always low – I imagine hoping to causing trouble with a wet ball but we were off again, Wally and Connors were involved in an excellent drive, Hunter working well in midfield but Agen cleared their lines. Then Agen tried the same line out on us, as we did on Tigers at Welford Road last year but some excellent defending won us a 5 metre scrum. The Agen try was from an unfortunate slip by Sharky Robinson, a clever chip by Lafforgue from which he scored. Suddenly, the 14 men were 3-7 up after 15 minutes.

But Saints were playing well with Hunter, Wally and Connors making excellent breaks and being supported by Tom Smith, Grant Seely and Foxy. These drives earned us another penalty that Larry converted without difficulty – 6-7 to Agen.

Now this is were it all went a bit peculiar – Agen’s pack were down to 7 men, we were still making breaks but it was a bit lateral and flat. Wally was running around the field like a man possessed but the backs couldn’t make the break, Ben Cohen appeared to be having difficulty holding on to the ball, which either slowed us down or resulted in a knock on. Twenty-six minutes in and we had the shove on in the scrum only to give the ball away.

The drives in midfield kept coming, we kept re-cycling the ball – Fox, Connors, Benjy, the whole pack drove towards the Agen try line resulting in Saints penalty. Surprisingly, we took the scrum. Our scrum was creaking both props were suffering with Wee Tam having already been penalised and now Morris was pinged. Robbie Morris can have no complaints – I had my head in my hands as we gave away excellent field position. But Grant Seely didn’t give up – he kept the kick to touch in play and set up a brilliant attack. Desperate defence resulted in the Agen fly-half, Gelez being binned.

Still the attacks kept coming and still Saints didn’t look quite right. A chip over the top to Benjy, resulted in him flattening Elhorga (accidentally) and missing the ball completely and giving away a penalty. Half time – Agen down to 13 men, Saints 6-7 down – it was looking like one of those days.

Second half and Agen tried to bring back their flanker Kahler who had come off when Cencra had been sent off so that Blanco could come on. Nice try but the observant officials stopped the kick-off to have him removed and replaced by Sverzut.

Saints came out the traps flying (how many clichés can I get into one match report?) – we drove through the midfield, spinning the ball first out to the right wing and then when it seemed the attack was going to stall, up popped Andy Blowers on the left wing, to keep the attack alive and put a delighted Ben Cohen in for the score. Larry slotted over the conversion and we were 13-7 up, 43 minutes gone.

Wally was still running around the pitch like a mad thing. He popped up at the same point on the wing as Grant Seeley had in the first half to keep the ball in – the Saints’ determination to keep the ball alive was thrilling. And may I congratulate Wally his line-out throwing and Rob Hunter on his jumping - it was superb! And we were nicking their line-out ball – I know who had the better line-out day and it wasn’t Curnier!!

46 minutes Shane Drahm was on for Larry who was off for a blood bin, Bernie decided to wave two Saints flags at the French supporters in Block Z who were less than impressed! I enjoyed it though!

Saints lost concentration and gave away a silly penalty – ooh it was getting a little close at 13-10. Agen were hanging in with some stout defence.

An excellent drive gained us a penalty – I did enjoy the 20 metre rolling maul from our forwards that resulted in a penalty. 45 metres out in a swirling wind was brave from Shane Drahm but it failed, drifting left. From the 22 metre drop-out, Agen gave a penalty again even further out – Drahm tried again and missed pulling it left again. It must have been frustrating for Drahm to be sat on the bench for most of the game – he has been Saints’ maestro this season but Larry was having a good solid game and he returned from the blood bin to continue his good work in midfield. Yet we couldn’t get the ball out wide enough, fast enough and we weren’t running our lines well.

Dancing Queen Wally was still at it and on 61 minutes burst through the centre of the midfield but again we couldn’t break through. The crowd however, stayed with the team, there were no disgruntled murmurings just some good shouting and singing. And it paid off, we gave away a silly scrum and it looked as though we were all over the place, some how we scrambled it out to Benjy who took his opportunity well, scoring a try on the left. Larry converted 20-10. Sighs of relief all round.

On 78 minutes, we should have scored a try when Agen attempted a suicidal quick throw in. Five yards out was still three yards too many for Chicken and an opportunity was missed. But still Saints kept going, Andrew Blowers nicking the ball at the line-out, for Shane Drahm to cross-kick the ball to the world’s best ball poacher in the air – Benjy grabbed the balled, juggled it and got it down to the delight of the Gardens faithful. I was chuffed for him – he’d had a tough World Cup and this was a great return.

11,523 saw the match and I’m sure many felt the same as the Joneses, that we had done enough to win and thank god, we were only competing against 7 men up front.

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Saints Stop Troublesome Toulouse

2 times HC ChampionsBy Smurf - December 5 2004

Saints ran out 23 - 21 winners against Toulouse today at Franklin's Gardens, in a game which finally showed the spirit had returned to the players. Worries showed themselves early on as Corne Krige, recently replaced as captain by Steve Thompson, was down injured for several minutes.

However he returned to the fray and the match continued.

The early part of the match was scrappy - many knock ons and bad kicks pervaded both sides throughout the match - but a Grayson penalty on 9 minutes saw the Saints in the lead.

The ball was passed with much more confidence, better running lines were taken, and in general the team performed better than in recent weeks. A Michalak penalty on 14 minutes evened the score at 3 - 3.

Saints gave another penalty away on 19 minutes which Michalak duly converted to put the Saints 6 - 3 behind. Two minutes later, Grayson levelled again from an offside decision, 6 - 6.

On 27 minutes Michalak took another penalty from the Saints 10 metre line to put Toulouse back in the lead at 9 - 6. Saints then had a sustained period of pressure in the Toulouse half, during which another penalty was put over by Grayson. It could have been a try, but Cohen's pass to Thompson was too low for him to pick up.

Grayson kicked another penalty on 35 minutes to return Saints to the lead, 12 - 9. AFter the restart, more atacking resulted in a scrum from a Toulouse knock on, inside their 22. From the back of the scrum, Sharky worked his way round the pack to score. Grayson failed with a tricky conversion, but Saints led 17 - 9 with half time beckoning.

Toulouse, however, cannot be discounted so easily. A spirited attack just before the break resulted in a try in the corner for centre Florian Fritz. Michalak could not make the conversion, so it was 17 - 14 at half time.

With the crowd getting behind the team from the off and a cheque presentation for the BHF at half time (which Uncle Keith was slightly late for) the whoile ground was buzzing with the prospect of banishing the form of late for good.

Toulouse came out fighting in the second half, a snap drop goal going well wide. Cohen planted a brilliant tackle on the French full back, who consequently went off injured. Saints then spent five or so minutes defending their 22 fiercely, until a penalty for hands in a ruck allowed them to clear their lines.

Brett Sturgess entered the fray on 54 minutes, in place of Robbie Morris. From a Saints scrum on halfway, Cohen picked up and blazed through the French defence, Wylie Human trying to complete the move from the Toulouse 22 but penalised for holding on.

Wylie seems to still feel left out, standing on the wing with his hand up asking for the ball, but he is definitely playing better under the new coaching regime. He also attempted a couple of Reihana style quick line outs, both around the hour mark, alas none of them giving him enough room to show his true pace.

Grayson stepped up for another penalty on 63 minutes to extend Saints lead to 20 - 14. Saints then went on the defensive, holding their line firm for five solid minutes until Toulouse's attacking flair sent Jauzion under the posts. Michalak slotted the easy conversion to put Saints behind, by a single point, 21 - 20.

Could it be? Will all of this spirit and passion be crushed just like the rest? A triple replacement of Drahm, Seely and Morris for Grayson, Krige and Budgen on 71 minutes added some fresh (and fresher) legs to the field.

Drahm's effect on the pitch was almost instantaneous.

Saints drove on into the French 22, and the ball was spun back for Shane to hit a superb drop goal, pushing the Saints to the fore again at 23 - 21.

Johnny Howard came on for a limping Sharky on 78 minutes, and his first influence on play was to be penalised for feeding in the scrum. A bit harsh considering the Toulouse scrum half had got away with it for most of the match.

A Saints penalty in the second minute of injury time gave them a final attacking chance, driving on from the ensuing lineout. The final whistle was blown not long afterwards, and the giants of French rugby were slain in the East Midlands.

A superb performance from all concerned, although the set pieces were a little creaky at times. The hope now is to put in a similar performance at Stade Ernest Wallon in a weeks time. See you there, shall I?