Northampton Saints
News: AP: London Irish vs Northampton Saints - Match Preview
By Robbie Richmond
October 30 2013
Fresh from opening a whole can of whoop ass upon Aviva Premiership league leaders Saracens last time out, Northampton Saints travel to Reading on Sunday aiming to consolidate their position near the top of the ladder. Regular COYSDC contributor, Robbie Richmond, previews the game in his own inimitable style...
LONDON IRISH vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
AP: Sunday, 3rd November 2013 - 2pm (BT Sport)
MADEJSKI STADIUM, READING
MATCH PREVIEW
As this weekend fixture with our old friends from Reading/Sunbury (delete as appropriate) falls between the now much celebrated holidays Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night I found myself in quandary, do I use lots of Halloween clichés and metaphors or Fireworks clichés and metaphors…
… And then I realised, why not both?
So let me bring this weeks preview entitled…
A nightmare on Madstad with additional Roman Candles shaped like Bryn Evans’ head and a possible cameo from Michael Myers and the Bottle Rocket known as James O’Connor… Street
Wow, that was rubbish. What I’d like to do is look at some of the match-ups for this weekend and then add a pithy couple of statements at the end that will probably upset Not-Not supporters when I ignore our terrible record at the Madjeski and announce we should batter them like a lovely cod fillet.
OK! To Business!
F-WAAAAASHHHHH BOOM! FIZZZ!!! KER-BLAMO!!!
…And other such expressions when Jamie Elliot gets the ball.
For some of us it looked like it was going to be a battle of two of the finest young talents available in the Aviva Premiership. But now it looks as though Marland Yarde will get his much deserved opportunity to represent England this weekend against the Ozzies.
However, I’m here to tell you the battle might still be on. Stepping into Yarde’s boots is the former Tiger Alex Lewington and at 6 ‘1 and about 16 stone he’s certainly a different size but he’s taken his Irish chances with both hands and like many who leave Leicester with a point to prove could eventually provide Tigers supporters with the ubiquitous question;
Why did we let him go?
With power, pace and a great step, Lewington has plenty of talent and a real eye for the try line so when he goes toe to toe with Jammy Jamie we could very well be one where you light the blue touch paper, leg it and turn to see an explosion or three.
Jamie is certainly beginning to make waves and rightfully so. Fearless and as quick of mind as of feet, Jamie has certainly worked hard on the close season on his defence and moves quickly towards an almost complete winger, yet he still has an X-factor too (and not the gawd-awful Television show type). Jamie’s shown on a few occasions to have what’s known in NFL circles as ‘genius ankles’ and it makes it very difficult to read let alone tackle.
THE POWER OF CHRIST (IAN DAY) COMPELLS YOU! THE POWER OF CHRIST (IAN DAY) COMPELLS YOU! THE POWER OF CHRIST (IAN DAY) COMPELLS YOU!
Yep, most of the COYSDC regulars probably saw this coming. Christian Day, the indomitable, stalking masked man (well, kind of masked) wondering around the park ready and willing to slash the opposition to pieces with a line-out steal, a deft pass or crunching tackle.
However, what Chris brings to the side is far more critical than many people might think. Often seen as a ‘Steady Eddie’ more often than not what Daisy shows us is simple, smart and effective decision making, not dissimilar to Roger Wilson, Andy Blowers, Christian Labit and Nacho Lobbe.
Unlike line-out leaders before him such as Juandre (Freddie) Kruger and Christian Short (now at Lyon if you were wondering), Chris doesn’t call the ball to himself all day long, he has options and he uses them. Having seen the Saints line-out at its very worst (those who can recall when Chris Johnson’s throwing was so poor Pat Lam had to take a scrum rather than allow a kick to the sidelines knows exactly what I mean) it is a joy too see the Saints are operating in and around 90%. I honestly never thought I’d see the day.
Last weekend's game saw Steve Borthwick, a man who had often arrived at Franklins Gardens and tore us apart like the creature from the blue lagoon (‘Cos he was in the blue of a Bath shirt, geddit?), leave looking like Ol’ Yeller, ready to be put down.
Yet this weekend we face one of the most under rated lineout operators in the Aviva Premiership, Bryn Evans has a peculiarly long face but has proven himself to be a great leader for Brian Smith and along with George Skivington previously, and now Ian Gough, runs an efficient lineout.
Evans, a former All Black typifies what the Irish represent these days. Under rated by many but with a hard edge and a point to prove, comparisons to Christian Day are well merited. Keep an eye on him this weekend; he’s a professional day ruiner, the kind of man who does one or two things a game not just well but oftentimes game-changingly well.
DEFENCE? IT’S CHILDS PLAY!
I can’t be the only one who’s noticed the dramatic change in fortunes over the course of the last few weeks. We’ve gone from defending well and giving away too many penalties to defending well and earning turnovers. A few minor changes have made a big impact though; instead of the bees round the honey-jar we call the breakdown, we are now showing enough nous to pick and choose when and where to attack for a turnover and with pyrotechnicans such as North, Fodes and Jamie out wide turnover ball, like fireflies, is almost certainly leading to tries.
Just as when a fly half or a fullback will instantly look to take on a prop and shoot past them like a rocket, so too now will you see Saints back-rowers look to attack breakdowns where the opposition are forced to commit wingers and half backs and over power them, leaving few capable to defend against our back three.
It’s clear that the focus is now in place and whilst 70 penalties in the first 5 games were a difficult pill to swallow slowly but surely we are seeing progress. Again, doing it Sarries and previously Quins shows that you can do it against the best masters of ball-retention and potentially produce plenty of Catherine Wheels, Chrysanthemums and Weeping Willows this weekend.
IT’S HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE’S ENTITLED TO ONE GOOD SCARE!
I have to pay credit Brian Smith, admittedly not one of my favourite people in the world of rugby but having seen his side sneak past relegation on a technicality, a whopper of a technicality, but a technicality nonetheless, he’s rebuilt his squad with some savvy signings and thus far looks far more likely to survive this year.
As previously mentioned, a positive attitude, an amazing ability to earn bonus point and some true dogged determination have helped Irish to the dizzy heights of tenth. But don’t be so quick to pour a glass of water on that box of sparklers because along with the determination comes some truly cracking outside backs who with the addition of James O’Connor might just surprise a few more people before the year is out.
Take into account Saints have often struggled at Madejski and in the past we’ve stumbled and fell around the Remembrance Sunday in early November, we might not have everything go our way.
Smith has built a squad with lads like Nic Rouse and Ian Nimmo, second rows from the championship filled with aggression and plenty to prove. So too are centres like Emanon Sheridan and Fergus Mulchrone, young lads from Rotherham with nothing to lose and scalps to take. It worked for Exeter, and us when we returned from the championship.
So think on this weekend, a challenge awaits and it might not just be the nailed on five pointer many might expect.
Saints
1) Alex Waller
2) Mikey Heywood
3) Salesi Ma’afu
4) Samu Manoa
5) Chris Day
6) Calum Clark
7) Ben Nutley
8 Phil Dowson
9) Kahn Fotuali’i
10 Stephen Myler
11 Jamie Elliot
12 Luther Burrell
13 George Pisi
14 Ken Pisi
15 Ben Foden
1 Ross MacMillan 17) Ethan Waller 18) Gareth Denman 19) GJ Van Velze 20) Sam Dickinson 21) Ryan Glynn 22) Dom Waldouck 23) James Wilson
I
1) Irish
John Yapp
2) David Paice
3) Leo Halavatau
4) Ian Gough
5) Bryn Evans
6) Blair Cowan
7) Ofisa Treviarnus
8) Chris Hala’ufia
9) Tomas O’leary
10 Ian Humphreys
11 Sailosi Tagicakibau
12 Emanon Sheridan
13 Fergus Mulchrone
14 Alex Lewington
15 Topsy Ojo/ Guy Armitage
16 Mike Mayhew 17) Matt Parr 18) Jamie Hagan 19) Declan Danaher 20) Jebb Sinclair 21) Darren Allinson 22) Shane Geraghty 23) Guy Armitage/ James O’Connor
I’ll take Saints by 5 but who knows…
We might just be in for a bit of a fright!
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see what I did there?Top of the League 2014-2015 Season
O'Conner also tipped to start at fullback...the guy is a serious talent on the pitch and I'm looking forward to seeing him play (hopefully not too well this week though).
My one quibble is the bit about staying up on a technicality? If you are talking about the points deduction for Welsh: well we finished 9th, with Sale and wuss between us and LW, and even if they didn't have a points deduction we would have finished 7 points above them.
Anyway looking forward to a good game with you guys. If you've been onto our board you'll see that we're very excited about the arrival of James o'Connor. Granted he brings some "baggage" but still a talent and we've had some good experiences of getting some great play out of people who have come to us in the second stage of their careers ( Mike Catt, Maps, Venter etc).
We've had a good run of form at home since January until
Exeter turned us over (the double header match vs Sarries doesn't count!) and some decent results at our place vs the Saints (altho u caned us on the last day of the season a couple of years ago!). Grateful we are playing you while you have some top players away on AI duty.
Should be a great game and hope those of you making the trip down enjoy yourselves (although not the win!)
Notwithstanding the Paddys Day Party games and the home Heineken CUP match against Munster a couple of years back, I suspect that this may be our biggest crowd at the MadStad for some time.
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