Saints Fail in FinalFurlong in FunFilled Fightback
oor mon frae scotlan
By
May 7 2006
Having left their comeback to win the match very, very late at Bristol the previous week, Saints decided to start playing rugby 10 minutes into the second half to nearly win the game against a full strength Sale team yesterday at Franklin’s Gardens.
Saints Fail in Final Furlong in Fun Filled Premiership Finale Try Festival after Frilling (sorry!) Fightback.
Northampton Saints v Sale Sharks.
Guinness Premiership Round 22, Saturday 6 May 2006
Result: Northampton Saints 34, Sale 36.
Breathtaking stuff! Well, the second half was at least. Saints entertained a strong Sale Sharks team in the final match of the Guinness Premiership (pre the play offs). Sale remember finished the league season as top English club and proved those credentials in a first half of slick rugby with efficient forward power. They were better than Saints in the line out and the set scrum, although Saints were missing their two specialist tight head props.
Sale showed their intention to play attacking rugby from the off and as early as 5 minutes took a penalty kick to touch for an attacking line out on Saints 5 metre line. The catch was cleanly taken and the Sale pack mauled their way over the line but the ball was held up and Saints won a scrum 5. The scrummage headed backwards towards the Saints line at an alarming rate, but somehow the home team got the ball away and Carlos cleared with a towering up and under. Steve Hanley positioned himself for the catch and collected the ball seconds before he received a massive hit from John Clarke. Sadly, JC knocked on after the tackle.
Sale worked the ball right and Saints were penalised for not rolling away at the tackle. Sale again kicked for touch, took the line out cleanly and worked the ball into the midfield where former Gardens toreador Oriel Ripol thundered over for a “try” only to be penalised for crossing.
Saints kicked to touch and won their line and cleared further to touch on the Sale 10 metre line. Saints managed to snaffle the ball after Sale chipped ahead and some King Carlos magic saw the Kiwi break out from defence through the Sale midfield. With no immediate support runners, Carlos kicked ahead and the ball stopped I metre in from the corner flag. Jason Robinson somehow got the ball back upfield. Saints counter attacked and Dan Browne wriggled out of a tackle to take the ball forward. Sale were penalised at the contact point 15 metres out from the Sale line and Bruce Reihana stepped up for an easy 3 points.
All this within the first 14 minutes and Saints had done well to weather the storm with hardly any decent possession.
Saints attacked again from the restart as Carlos sent one of his trick kicks over to the left wing and into the hands of Clarke. With support from Cohen and Reihana the ball was moved at speed upfield. Saints won a scrum, Dan Browne broke free again and following another Saints scrummage Carlos fed John Rudd who thundered on but unfortunately lost the ball forward in the tackle.
Then, in a series of scrums, Sale showed their forward power winning ball against the head and wheeling the Saints pack all too easily. Saints were eventually pinged for standing up in the front row after Howard delayed the put in. Sale won the ensuing line out and mauled their way over the Saints line, Lobbe claiming the honours and Charlie Hodgson adding the extras.
3-7 after 22 minutes
Sale scored again within 5 minutes as a Saints scrum was disrupted, Dan Browne managed to get away from the melee but the ball was knocked on, advantage played and Sale No 9 Ben Foden shot through a scattered Saints defence to score.
3-12 after 29 minutes.
Worse was to come for Saints as they lost the ball again after chasing a Reihana up and under. Rudd timed his run superbly and flattened Jason Ro
binson in one of those “Hits of the Season.” Having done the heroic bit, Rudd then knocked on trying to gather the loose ball. Sale counter attacked from a scrum in their own half and despite the referee ignoring a very obvious knock on called by the touch judge and a hint of a forward pass, Steve Hanley was over on the Sale left to touch down in front of the travelling support in the South Stand. Hodgson added the conversion and after 33 minutes it was 3-19.
The score stayed that way until half time. Saints tried to attack when they were able to get possession but again dropped passes ruined promising moves. Saints pack had also been underthe cosh in the set pieces and it must have seemed like a long afternoon for the home forwards, although Tom Smith was as industrious as ever and Matt Lord played his heart out. “The Broons” both had good moments as well, Damo Browne gaining yardage over the gain line and Dan Browne doing well at the base of an under pressure scrum.
As the teams returned after the break, the rain, which had been falling since before kick off, relented. Sale decided to rest some key players ahead of the play off semi final. Jason “The Great” White, Charlie Hodgson and Andy Titterall all took it easy but the Sale team didn’t, crossing for another try after Saints dropped the ball following 4 phases of quality pick n mix, sorry drive! From the Sale scrum, Foden and replacement No 10 Courrent combined well for the Frenchman to canter over by the posts, adding the extras to his own try. 3-26 after 9 minutes of the half.
This was when Saints decided to start performing, and what a performance it was! Saints worked the ball left and right, improvising well when a ball was dropped backwards or a pass went to ground. Although Carlos fired a pass to Gregor Townsend’s imaginary friend 3 rows back in the Church’s stand, the home team kept going forward and looked to have scored a try although it was judged held up over the line.
By now, Lordy had left with a leg knock to be replaced by David Gerrard and Sharky Robinson had replaced Johnny Howard.
From the 5 metre scrum, Saints whipped the ball out to Carlos, who invited the forwards to join him in a high speed trundle over for Saints first try under the posts. Bruce added the straight forward conversion and the score started to look more respectable at 10-26.
Saints upped the pace even more and attacked from deep in defence, led by some more Carlos magic. The Saints surged forward and looked to be in for a try but the ball was lost in Sale’s goal area after Jason Robinson had tried to tackle Carlos without the ball. Yellow card to Mr Robinson but only a scrum to Saints!
However, they used the man advantage immediately as Bruce received the ball in space to dot down on the left of the Sale goal and added two vital points from his excellent conversion kick out wide.
16 minutes into the half, the score read 17-26
and FG said farewell to the injured John Rudd who was replaced by Sean Lamont. Ruddy is off to Newcastle Falcons apparently and our best wishes go with him. It might not always have gone well for JR at Saints but he gave his all when fit and on form and certainly helped to get Saints the victory at Bristol last week which secured Saints place in the Heineken Cup next year. Thank you John.
The replacement caused no let up in Saints drive for points and, after some sparkling handling by the whole team, Dan Browne scored. This time Bruce couldn’t improve the score
so it was 22-26 after 19 minutes.
After Robinson was penalised for deliberately not releasing when tackled by Dave Quinlan and Lamont ( please ref, why no second yellow card as a try would have been scored if he had let go?) Saints opted for the scrum.
Carlos bamboozled the Sale midfield and delivered the ball left for Quinlan to touch down for his first try for Saints. If ever a try was well deserved this was it. Quins has been an improving rock in defence all season and in the recent Bristol game as well as the first half of this one, when Saints were under the cosh, his tackling just never failed. The congratulations of his team mates after he scored said it all.
Bruce missed this conversion as well but Saints were now improbably in the lead at
27-26 after 28 minutes.
Sale then worked their way upfield. Saints were penalised for pulling down a rolling maul and Courrent pragmatically decided to take the 3 points from the kick to regain the lead.
Sale now ran out of props so we had uncontested scrums. One could say that they had run out of props much earlier when they brought on sub number 17 who looked so big that he must have eaten Rob Richmond for lunch! He didn’t last long and I swear that St John’s Ambulance were getting ready to cart him off! Anyway, he is playing for the top club in England, which is more than I could ever do, so fair play to the man.
Saints attacked from a scrum in Sale’s 22 but yet again loose ball gave the initiative to the visitors who broke out if defence in numbers, Ripol finishing the move off with a flourish to increase Sale’s lead to 27-36 after 37 minutes. Some home supporters left, having decided that there would be no more excitement. You really are sad people! What signal does that send to the team and how inconsiderate to the supporters whose view of the game you have disrupted?
Saints were not to be denied and won the ball from the restart kick. They poured upfield and worked the ball out to Ben Cohen to score. Bruce added the two points and the score closed to 34-36 after 38 minutes.
One of yesterday’s star turns, Tom Smith, left the field after a tremendous individual performance to let Brett Sturgess have one final appearance at FG. As with Ruddy, good luck Brett with whatever comes next and thanks from us all.
Saints had not given up although there was only 1 minute showing on the clock. They won the ball from the restart kick and gained a penalty kick when Chabal’s offside was so obvious this time that even Mr Fox couldn’t ignore it.
Up stepped Bruce to take a pretty straight forward kick from 35 metres but he didn’t give it enough welly and the ball fell short. Sale cleared to touch and the clock showed 4 seconds, enough for the ref to decide that by the time he stuck his whistle in his mouth, it would be full time.
So, an enthralling match which, but for a couple of missed conversions, Saints could have won. A game which contained 10 tries evenly shared between the sides and value for money in terms of entertainment in the second half. Saints are not the finished article, however and the difference in the quality of the packs in the tight was a pointer to the way forward for Budge in recruitment policy over the summer and for the coaches in where to focus extra effort for next term.
Basic skills also need honing as there are still too many dropped balls or knock-ons for this level of rugby.
Goodbye and good luck to each and everyone of those Saints players off to pastures new and to all of you supporters out there in Saintsland, have a good summer, enjoy the break and come back in August with batteries recharged, voices fine tuned and Gold Black and Green in your souls.
Northampton Saints – Reihana, Rudd (Lamont), Clarke, Quinlan, Cohen; Spencer, Howard (Robinson); Smith (Sturgess), Thompson, Emms (Grove), Damien Browne , Lord (Gerard), Tupai (Fox), Harding, Daniel Browne.
Sale Sharks – Robinson; Ripol, Cueto, Mayor (Riley), Hanley; Hodgson (Courrent), Foden; Fuare (Roberts), Titterrell (Marc Jones), Stewart (Wigglesworth), Lobbe, Day, White (capt)(Hills), Chris Jones (Lloyd), Chabal.
Scorers:
Northampton Saints – Tries: Spencer, Reihana, Dan Browne, Quinlan, Cohen;
Cons: Reihana (3);
Pen: Reihana.
Sale Sharks – Tries: Lobbe, Foden, Hanley, Courrent, Ripol;
Cons: Hodgson (2), Courrent (2);
Pen: Courrent.