Northampton Saints
News : Saints v Falcons - a game of 2 halves
By Broonie
November 26 2013
The forecast having promised the weather would be Overcast and cold, I left my peaked cap behind which proved not to be so clever because the sun over the Church’s stand was quite blinding until half time. As it turned out, I missed little.
Aviva Premiership Round 8
Northampton Saints v Newcastle Falcons
Saturday 23rd November 2013
Franklins Gardens KO 3.15 pm
SAINTS 18 FALCONS 0
It was nice to see returning internationals making the acquaintance of their team mates for the first time in about six months, though you could argue that they spent the following 80 minutes trying to remember each other’s names.
The familiar red hat made its way to the Sturtridge end. We nodded wisely in the knowledge that Saints must have won the toss and elected to play up the “alleged” slope. In the northern end of the ground, we actually saw a lot more of the game than we might have expected as the first half was largely played at our end. Sad to say, Saints best chance of the match came in about the fifth minute to Tom Collins who had already taken one outstanding catch which he turned into a break for the line at a brisk clip. Have Saints managed to coach the side step out of one of the most fluent runners of his age group? Well clear and moving away with only the last defender to beat, he continued to plough his furrow up the touchline instead of striking inside which was unfortunate. The last man was heading at his best speed at fully ninety degrees to Tom’s line and would have had no chance of checking back had Tom come inside off his left foot. At that point, the youngster was probably still coming to grips with the idea of his first Premiership start for Saints, and given his time again would almost certainly have done justice to his talent and left the tackler for dead. As it was, not for the last time as it proved, the touchline was Newcastle’s friend and over they both went in a cloud of dust.
As they were to be throughout, Saints were better at the set scrum, but not so much better as to tee their back row and halves up as well as they would have wished. Saints were also better at the lineout but while they got plenty of ball, actual good ball was at a premium and a number of lineout drives stalled or were turned over through Saints not being able to distribute the ball to a position of safety at the back of the maul. Saints continued to eschew the kick to the posts from quite a substantial number of penalties, repeatedly setting themselves up for the catch and drive but continually being frustrated.
It was well seen that Newcastle had travelled with intent and hurled themselves at Saints in defence putting their bodies on the line again and again.
It was beginning to resemble a Leicester Tigers performance of a few years ago when fielding a weakened side. Gaps were extremely hard to find and the pitch seemed to be getting smaller and smaller as the game wore on. As the first half drew to a close, Saints went for goal on a couple of penalties just to get a lead. Maybe if we had taken the points earlier Falcons might have had to show more ambition?
At half time we were busy being wise after the event and reckoned that turning down kicks at goal early on had probably been a mistake. There had not even really been any chance on the counter attack, partly because the back three were not really playing as a unit but in the main because Newcastle simply were not attempting anything in attack which might have rebounded against them. When they did have possession they kept the ball very tight and everything was done within easy reach of their support so that there was very little chance of dangerous counter attacks. The single exception was when Ben Foden took a brilliant catch of a loose ball over his shoulder in front of the Church’s stand, quickly turned and ran the ball up out of defence. Unfortunately, with three genuinely fast players to his left in front of the Tetleys and screaming for the ball, he went inside the fullback where his only support was a forward and the move was duly consumed by the cover. This was unfortunate as the overload was four on two which included Ben himself. Had this and the earlier move produced tries that was indeed the bonus point.
In the second half, Saints had a couple of lengthy periods zipping the ball from side to side but failing to challenge in the centre of the pitch. The consequence was that all of these moves were eaten up by the drift defence with Saints two smallish wingers being bundled over the touchline repeatedly having been handed the ball plus two defenders. The forwards were having no more luck, finding the defensive guards taking the mid point of the ruck as their offside line under the benevolent gaze of Mr Richards (it really was beginning to look like a Leicester A team defending by this stage) and the defenders were able to tackle the ball carriers back into the breakdown from a 45 degree angle quite successfully, momentum never really building up.
Eventually Saints did manage to get some pressure on a clearance from the Newcastle line, Jamie Elliott taking a smart catch under pressure and getting away on an inside dart immediately his feet touched the ground. James Wilson, using his excellent positional sense had looped him wide, beat a man down the touchline and got over cleanly (cue interminable TV review). When the try was eventually awarded, Smyler uncharacteristically hit the most appalling duck-hook off the tee, one he will definitely hope not to take on the golf course with him.
Saints did manage to crank up some pressure going down the hill and battered the Newcastle line for five minutes or so before Luther Burrell and sundry others tumbled over the line greeted by a roar from the South stand; either they thought it was a try or at least they were trying to fool the referee into thinking it was.
What followed was either a scandalous delay or one of the very few amusing points of the afternoon, depending on your point of view. The big screen showed repeated shots of a disembodied hand putting the ball down over the try line, said hand being attached to an arm with a Saints sleeve on it. At first, each time this was shown, there was a roar from the home crowd perhaps trying to persuade the officials to award Saints a try. After a bit, disheartened by the immense delay on a cold afternoon, we all just waited in sullen resignation (apart from those who had managed to get on the telephone to their bookies). After about 20 minutes, the officials decided the safe course was to agree with the increasingly disgruntled crowd and award Saints a try. Thereafter the substitutes came and went, the Falcons had a couple of token attacks and Saints continued to batter in a futile and somewhat disorganised way at the Falcons defence. The Falcons however were not able to sustain a territorial position which might have allowed them to challenge with penalty goals, neither were they disposed to take any chances in attack which might have produced tries and eventually the home team acknowledged that they weren’t going to score again
In conclusion, full marks to Falcons who look as if it may be some time before they break into the top half of the Premiership but also look like a tough and cohesive squad who will continue to make progress and certainly the last thing they look like is a relegation candidate. Saints look as though they need a couple of very good weeks training before they can take on Leinster with much hope. Saints’ carrying game was almost completely shut down and the whole of their game looks as though it has lost a bit of clarity. This is not entirely surprising as large chunks of the squad are re-acquainting themselves with each other at the moment. This writer would be surprised if we look quite so ineffective next week.
MoM James Wilson says:-
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Stumbleupon26/11/2013 14:24
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An insightful report!
My apologies for the delay in getting this posted - sometimes the day job intervenes!
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
Even Wuss have scored 8 tries!
if we aspire to be the best we have to be prepared to score 4 tries against whoever.
we left more than 2 tries out there on saturday
There aren't any easy games in the Prem and sometimes the ones we anticipate as being narrow squeaks turn out to be romps (Saracens) and vice versa (LI).
But I am encouraged that we have scored more tries in the Prem (24) than anyone else.....just.
As you said in your match report, Little Tom will learn to keep using the step and score hatfulls. He hasn't got the bulk of Saint George so needs to avoid contact in the narrow spaces.
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