Chickens Hatched, - Less than expected! S25 W 34

By Malcolm Frank
April 2 2006

On a windy day at the Gardens, Saints' hopes of a semi final place in the ECC were dashed by a Superior performance by Worcester. - Howlin' reports

Saints 25 Worcester 34

"Can we please stop the complacency ahead of tomorrows game against Wuss. Too many (for me) having been talking about who the semi will be against, when is the final etc , etc, . I really hope that the team are not this complacent because if they are we will lose against a strong Wuss side. Earlier in the season I sensed the crowd expected to win games . When things did not unwrap as expected the crowd grew restless and this transmitted to the players.

Please do not expect. Hope yes but not expect. get behind the team from the off and show support not expectation. Remember peeps we have not beaten Wuss at FG yet !! Raise the roof cheer them on, but please no groans at the first misplaced pass after 5 mins in because we are not twenty points in front.

Get behind the team not on their backs."

This is what I posted on the board last night, admittedly after a couple of beers (and a good Chinese actually) and sadly for all Saints followers it appears to have been prophetic.

9,531 people turned up to watch this European Challenge Cup quarter final. Perhaps the 4000 or so "regulars" that stayed away also saw this coming. Some may say that a few of the starting fifteen who were wearing the Gold Black and Green also failed to turn up today. So what was it? A great performance from Worcester or a poor performance from Saints? As is usually the case I think it was a bit of both. Worcester by and large bossed the breakdown and made a mess of most of the scrums. This resulted in Saints living off scraps for much of the game. By the time the Saints forwards started to dominate a bit of territory in the second half they kept it too long and coughed it up too often. Perhaps most significantly for the first time in many games the Saints didn't appear to play as a Team today. Too often they seemed a collection of individuals that reminded me of performances much earlier in the season. Whereas Worcester played a unified, structured simple game which on the day was good enough to make them worthy winners.

It all started promisingly enough with Saints trying to play the fast open game we have been getting used to seeing. They took it to Wuss from the off and even though they were forced back into their half twice when the referee decided to penalise them for running too fast, the Saints came back again and again finally forcing a try through Paul Tupai. (I don't know how many minutes had passed as the clock had also decided not to show up today). But after Bruce had missed the conversion most of the team seemed to believe it was job done and decided to have a bit of a rest. Worcester galvanised and spent the next period camped in the Saints 22 until Lombard scored.

This then signalled the start of a sequence that will divide opinion. Either it was some of the most thrilling rugby played by two premiership sides or it was some of the worst defending as the lead then changed hands several times to leave Worcester winning by a nose 17-15 at the break. Bruce having scored a try, penalty and conversion and Havili getting the first of his hat trick of tries for Worcester. The half had also seen the "Carlos" moment that we are all getting used to. This week it was a surging run turning defenders inside and out followed by a now you see it now you don't trick with the ball that he had cunningly attached to his wrist with a piece of elastic.

In the second half the game changed. Saints forwards decided to try and play a bit and territory belonged to Northampton. By and large the Wuss defence held firm but was breached twice by Fox and Tupai with close range efforts. Sadly for saints fans Worcester scored three break away efforts of their own through Havili (2) and Rasmussen.

The defining moment in the second half for me was when Clarkey knocked on , having done all the hard work and with the try line beckoning. It was at that moment I realised that it was not to be our day. Following this incident, and With Carlos now showing signs that the leg injury from last week has not gone away, the forwards decided to keep the ball away from the backs. Budgen did manage to race across the line at one stage, but unfortunately he was way too fast for the referee to see what happened. When the backs did manage to get the ball it was usually Sharky who made a couple of good breaks or Lamont who was getting bored out on the wing and came inside to keep him company but there was no way through. Rudd came on for a late fight but the game was over by then and Saints will not be playing Brive in the semi final. Mind you neither will Worcester as Gloucester await at Kingsholme. So console yourself with that thought, you wouldn't have had a trip to France anyway.

Well that just about wraps it up. Saints still haven't beaten Worcester at Franklin's Gardens, I'm still feeling as flat as the Northampton performance but I say well done Worcester and good luck in the rest of the competition. For Saints I reserve the well used cliché, “now its time to concentrate on the league”. No it really is . Because it is the only way we will be playing in the big boys competition next season. Having watched the Leinster victory over Toulouse I feel we have some improving to do. It all starts next week against Bath. See you there.