100 up!

By Rich and Joe on the spot
October 6 2002

Saints restored pride following last week’s shoddy performance with an excellent win against in-form Wasps at an atmospheric Franklins Gardens. This match report will also be stuffed with passion-fuelled clichés and I make no apologies for it, this was a 'proper' game of rugby football. Wasps named an unchanged side from the one that demolished London Irish and with four wins in a row seemed the form team coming into the fixture. Saints welcomed back Matt Dawson and Andy Blowers and swapped Soden for Seely at No.8. Nick Beal failed to recover from his knock at Sarries so Oriol Ripol moved to full back with Jon Sleightholme took his place on the wing.

The crowd too were in fine form and made sure Wasps knew where they were with a rousing rendition of  'Oh when the Saints,' and then the roar as 'centurion' Steve Thompson led the Saints out.

In true Saints fashion it was 'Hats on Wheels' stuff as Dawson fed Oriol 'Raspberry' Ripol, the Spaniard turned the Wasps defence inside out before a good pass saw Sleightholme race over. Larry converted and it was 7-0 after just 3 minutes.

This was by no means a one-way match and Saints had to defend 'ferociously' as Wasps tried to strike back. For all the pacy and powerful Londoners efforts they had just 3 points after 16 minutes. The true story of this period is shown by the replacement of Craig Dowd and the blood binnings for Simon Shaw and Rob Howley. With no quarter asked or given this was the match Saints fans had been waiting for.

Saints responded to Wasps first points by taking the ball back up field with strong driving play. An excellent run by Steve Williams then set up his second row partner, Mark 'Buzzard' Connors, for his first Saints try. Larry missed the conversion but no matter as Saints led 12-3 after 19 minutes.

On 22 minutes Grayson passed the 1000 premiership points mark with a penalty in what turned out to be another impressive 19 point haul. His kicking seemed to suffer early on in a swirling wind but as the game progressed he became more deadly. Grayson's tactical kicking was also on the whole more accurate ands astute than his opposite number Alex King. To be fair to the Wasps man, he was having an off day.

On 38 minutes tempers boiled over as Wally and Darren Molloy locked horns, Smiler Spreadbury gave both players ten minutes in the cooler for their indiscretion. Wally, never returned as he fell foul of pedantic refereeing as Budgen replaced him for a line out it was deemed a tactical substitution and not a safety issue. Not the way to mark your 100th appearance for the Saints.

King found his feet on 40 minutes, kicking another penalty to make the half-time score at 15-6.

However the action was not yet done. The crowd booed the referee off the pitch, whilst both teams coaches, Smith and Gatland, tried to debate his decisions and work out how to instruct their players. It appeared that Spreadbury was so intent on an open game that he let almost anything go. Even his touch judges looked on in disbelief.

Into the second half and Larry enhanced the Saints lead by 6 to 21-6 with penalties in the 43rd and 45th minutes. The ironic cheer that greeted the first penalty decision was not wasted on the erratic official as he grinned back at the crowd.

On 55 minutes Wasps showed their class. A disrupted Saints scrum went around the required 180 and the put in was reversed. Howley took good ball from the base and Lewsey's well timed and angled run provided an easy score. King couldn't miss and the score was 21-13.

This tells it's own tale. Wasps had slightly the better of the well contested scrums and used this to slow the Saints progress on more than one occasion. Luckily for Saints they were dominant in all other areas of forward play. The lineouts, although worse after Budgen came on, were still improved, as were the restarts where John Leslie also featured strongly. The battle of the back rows, a mouth watering prospect before kick off, was clearly won by Blowers, Pountney and Soden. The pack as a whole unit deserves special mention for it's competitive edge in the contact area. The most impressive thing of all was the way they drove a very talented Wasps 8 around the park. Traditional Northampton strength aligned with Smudger's philosophy of doing the simple things well, ruled the day.

Blowers on the Charge

Clearly affronted by their defensive lapse the Saints gathered the re-start through John Leslie. (Thankfully Spreadbury was consistently useless and failed to notice the knock on) Good pressure from the Saints gifted Larry an easy penalty to make the score 24-13.

The final quarter of the match was like an action comedy, where Spreadbury and Dallaglio were the hapless villains.

In a kick and chase Kenny Logan took the ball over his own line and touched it down. The clearly out of shape referee was miles from the action when he signalled for a 22 drop out. It took half the crowd and a furiously waving touch judge to tell him it was a 5 metre scrum.

Then Leslie chipped a ball through for Ripol, Denney's off the ball tackle earn him a yellow card despite Dallaglio's angry protestations that Raspberry had taken a dive. Under the posts Worsley informed his captain that the ref had got it right, I can't repeat Dallaglio's response. The resulting penalty took the score to 27-13.

Also during this period Chris Budgen followed Ripol's break and at the breakdown produced the tackle of the match. Simon Shaw will certainly remember this Rodberesque tackle for quite some time.

Then another kick and chase saw Ripol catch Lewsey in possession deep in his own 22. The forwards piled in, turned the ball over and then steamed over the line. Steve Williams deservedly claimed the try. Grayson converted to make the score 34-13.

Saints went in search of the elusive fourth try and bonus point. They forced the move late in the game allowing Logan to intercept and run in from half way. King converted and the final score was Saints 34 - Wasps 20.

After the match Wayne Smith talked of his pride in the Saints performance. They had played hard, used the ball well and tackled like demons. My man of the match was the 'teak hard' Andy Blowers. A critical person would claim Saints missed out on the bonus point yet again, but that really is nit picking.

Job Done