Northampton Saints 29, Bristol Rugby 22

By Jonathan Stockham
January 3 2006

Northampton Saints collected 4 very valuable league points in this match against Bristol, who travelled to Franklin’s Gardens with some confidence after their win over Leicester Tigers. Saints, in a less than commanding performance, in which they were outscored by 3 tries to 2, showed enough dogged determination and spirit to edge the victory they so desperately needed.

 

 

Northampton Saints v Bristol Rugby

 

Guinness Premiership Sunday 1 January 2006

 

Result: Northampton Saints 29,   Bristol Rugby 22

 

 

 

Saints welcomed back Carlos Spencer, complete with new hairdo, to the starting line up after his hand injury. The side were still seriously depleted by injury however and picked 5 forwards on the bench.

 

 

The game, refereed by Martin Fox, started well for Bristol who looked to threaten the Saints line straight away. Home centre Jon Clarke had other ideas and after David Lemi had run laterally to try to find a gap to launch a further attack, kindly threw a very festive pass to JC who burst upfield for an most welcome try and 7 early points after Bruce Reihana’s conversion.

 

 

 

Saint’s joy was not unabounded however, as Lemi made amends and scored 2 tries in as many minutes to bring Bristol back into the game and the score to 7- 12 and it seemed as though Saints miserable season was to continue. The Bristol tries came from good attack work at speed but also some very sloppy composure in defence by Saints, allied to the visitors probing the inside channels and finding the defensive organisation still on holiday.

 

As the first half ticked on, it became obvious that Saints had been working on their discipline and the penalty count was working in their favour, as Bruce slotted 3 kicks out of 4 to move the score on to 16-12 at half time. Many in the home crowd felt that Saints should have had the benefit of a further penalty and possibly a Bristol yellow card after Dan Browne was upended at the tail of a Saints line out. Was it foul play by the visitors or the Saints lifters losing control? To this observer it looked like the latter and Mr Fox had a clear view before waving play on.

 

The officials however clearly got it spectacularly wrong at the start of the second period. Awarded a penalty, Bristol fly half Jason Strange kicked for the corner for an attacking line out. The ball looked too long and every spectator in A Block of the Tetley Stand and particularly those in the Shrubbery Terrace with a perfect view of the line of touch called it touch in goal. The officials “strangely” thought otherwise and Bristol were given the five metre line out, which they won to work prop Darren Crompton over for their third try. Strange kicked the conversion to make the score 16-19.

 

Saints struck back a few minutes later to level the scores with a superb 40 metre drop goal from King Carlos who was having a growing influence on the game. The speculative kicks upfield from the first half were being replaced with more pragmatic long range touch finders.

 

 

Bristol upped the ante again and very nearly scored following a powerful run by the very impressive Bristol No 9, Shaun Perry but frantic cover tackling saved the day. Saints infringed at the break down subsequently and Strange took the 3 points to put Bristol narrowly back ahead.

 

Saints were determined not to be denied a home victory in front of a sell out crowd and as the clock ticked down with 10 minutes of normal time left, someone lit the pack’s turbo chargers. Lordy led the way, winning priceless turnover ball in defence and charging around in attack like a mad giraffe. Pressure on the Bristol line led to mistakes and kept the visitors pinned down. Although Bristol cleared their lines, John Rudd, having another curate’s egg of a game for Saints, broke clear of his tacklers and thundered upfield. A try looked certain until Rhino was flattened a few metres short with a high tackle from Bristol No 8 Dan Ward-Smith. He went to the sin bin and Saints must have been puzzled not to have been given the penalty try, all things considered.

 

However, no matter and Saints showed their intent by kicking for the corner, rather than a more straight forward 3 points from the boot. From the line-out catch and drive the Saints pack out-muscled the visitors defence and it was Chris Budgen who emerged from the bottom of the heap as try scorer. Saints took the lead at 26-22.

 

The keep nail biting as a major pastime for Saints fans, Bruce missed the conversion although time was nearly up when Bristol offended and gave the Saints full back an easy kick at goal in front of the sticks. 29-22 to the Saints, Bristol to take the restart kick.

 

Saints forwards gathered the ball as the time clock ticked down to zero. The ball was smartly delivered from the ensuing ruck back to Carlos who calmly ensured that it was safely dispatched high into the Church’s Stand and an outbreak of FG delirium as the referee blew for no-side.

 

Saints will be mightily relieved to have earned a precious 4 points from the game although they do remain second from bottom of the GP but 6 points clear now of Leeds Tykes, who lost in the latest round of matches. Bristol will feel that they let a game slip out of their hands and it as well that their hands were slippery as they had a habit of dropping the ball when going forward.

 

Budge and Grayse still have, by their own admission, much work to do in getting rid of the rough edges in Saint’s game and although the pack is looking useful in the loose, the set piece came under pressure in both scrum and line out yesterday. Intelligent play by Dan Browne at No8 kept the ball when the scrum was going backwards and he had another strong all round performance until injuries took their toll. His early departure gave us the chance for a quick look at Paul Tupai who looks as though he means business, even if his first bit of “enforcing” was an accidental collision between his knuckles and the ref’s mouth!

 

Grant Seely, leading out the Saints in honour of his 250^th appearance for the club, played like it was his first match and never flagged or gave less than 110%. With players like Grant and Lordy giving their all for the cause we won’t suffer for lack of trying.

 

It was good too to see Sharky Robinson back on as a replacement for Johnny Howard at half time and who gave Saints just that little bit more nous and go forward. Carlos too made a welcome return and by the second half was truly in command.

 

 

Niggles remain, such as losing our own line too regularly, constant changes in the midfield personnel (yes, I know…injuries) causing defensive lapses and Bruce’s percentage as a goal kicker. Before yesterday’s game, he was under 60% for goals against attempts, compared to the likes of Van Gisbergen of Wasps who is at 94%. Bruce makes up for it in other ways though and the style of game we are trying to play is still what I would prefer to watch rather than ten man rugby. Little things are making the difference and with a few players back from injury, allowing more consistent team selection, we should continue to progress.

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------