By Stockers
November 6 2005

In his match preview on this site, Maverick asked whether Saints would be the victims of Murder at the Vicarage yesterday. I’m no forensic scientist but it looked more like assisted suicide to me after Saints lost the game despite having built a 14 – 0 lead after only 12 minutes.  

 

Guinness Premiership

Result: Saracens 28  Northampton Saints 22

I won’t keep you long dear reader on a wet Sunday morning when there must be better things to be doing around the house. Saints suffered for the second week running in a lack of competitiveness in the pack. On paper, our Fat Boys weighed 22 kilograms (48 pounds) more than their Fat Boys but you would never have known it such was Saracens dominance of the set scrum and their most devastating weapon of all yesterday, the rolling maul.

At scrum time, Cobus Visagie had the Saints scrum in all sorts of trouble, whether by fair means or foul. Indeed, on one occasion, Visagie had bored in at such an angle that the Sarries flanker attached to him was binding on to Fox on our open side flank. The attempt by Fox to remove the offending arm resulted in a penalty against Saints due to Foxy becoming unattached at the scrum! Not the only bizarre decision we were to see from referee Sean Davey. As one Sarries fan put it, “Why do we have to put up with Second Division refs?”

Fair do’s though, Sarries had a pack which was better than Saints in all areas of the game and none more so than the line out where Saints regularly lost their own throw, with poacher Fullarton operating well as Sarries front jumper. We did steal one or two of their throws but it was too late in the game to make much difference.

But what about this 14 – 0 lead I hear you all cry!!

Saints started in true hats on wheels style, demonstrating the fast flowing three-quarters game which is becoming their trademark this season.

The first try came from a counter attack by John “Rhino” Rudd who was one of the few Saints players to emerge from the game with some credit. His bullocking (or should that be Rhino-ing?) runs through the Sarries tacklers with some delightful hand-offs were first class. He fed Carlos who ran and distributed the ball so well to the left side with players in space. The ball came back inside to Sharky Robinson who strolled over for the opening try. Bruce Reihana added the conversion.

0-7 to Saints, 6 minutes gone.

Saints repeated the trick despite losing their own lineout upfield. Sarries kicked ahead and Sharky took the catch. He somehow wriggled free of the Sarries chasers and again the ball was worked left to John Clarke. For a moment he seemed unsure what to do next but with Sharky pointing at the distant Sarries try line and no doubt adding some subtle verbal hints, JC lit the afterburners, broke the Sarries defensive line and hurtled onwards. Sharky was up in support and in the clear and the final pass from JC was inch perfect, allowing the Kiwi 9 to go over for Saints second try in 11 minutes. Bruce added the extras. 0-14 at which point the PA announcer couldn’t bring himself to say “Saracens nil” just informing us that Saints had 14 points.

Then it all started to go wrong for the visitors. David Gerrard was shown the yellow card for pulling Hugh Vyvyan out of a maul. The rest of the bunch of players fell over Vyvyan and Gerrard was pinged for pulling down!

Sarries used their numerical superiority to attack the Saints line. Having had one try attempt held up over the Saints line, Sarries scrum 5 saw the ball at their No 8’s feet and a general movement towards the Saints line when the ref decided that an offence had been committed and awarded another scrum to Sarries! Much confusion in the home side’s ranks about that one and fortunately for Saints, they were able to pinch the ball at the next scrum and clear to touch.

But Sarries hadn’t given up and attacked from the line out, 25 metres out. Several missed tackles by Saints and good support play by Sarries and Scarborough was over for the try, with added conversion points from the accurate boot of Glen Jackson. That accuracy was going to cost Saints dear as the afternoon wore on.

7 – 14 after 28 minutes.

Saints did hit back shortly after with Sarries being penalised for not releasing. Bruce took the 3 points despite unacceptable jeering from the home crowd which went unremarked upon by the PA announcer. Shows how lucky we are to have Uncle Geoff enforcing “respect” at FG.

7 – 17 after 30 minutes.

On 34 minutes “Daddy” Gerrard returned to the fray and the Saints scrum was immediately penalised for popping up in the front row. Jackson took the opportunity to add to the score just as he did 5 minutes later when the ref was conned into giving Sarries a penalty for a Saints player not rolling away after the tackle. How that can have been the case, with our man lying on the right side of the ball, curled up and with his back to the ball is one of those mysteries only Mr Davey can solve when he talks to his assessor.

So at half time, 13 – 17 to Saints.

Saints subbed Tom Smith with Pat Barnard for his debut in the G,B&G at half time with Colin Noon swapping to the loose head position. Not that it seemed to make much difference to the way the Sarries forwards were bossing the game and our new arrival from SA was pinged almost straight away for some misdemeanour at a maul. Another 3 points to Sarries.

Saints brought on Dave Quinlan for Rhodri Davies but lost another 3 points when Noon was penalised for pulling down at the maul. Again 3 points to Sarries and with the scoreboard moving to 19 – 17 the home side were in the lead for the first time.

Having not done so for the rest of the game, Saints decided to contest the Sarries throw at the line out. Unfortunately, they did so illegally and were pinged for their trouble.

Mr Davey then gave another harsh decision, penalising Saints for being offside when they had the ball after winning their line out. Gift of 3 points to Jackson and 22 – 17 to Sarries after 20 minutes.

Sam Harding came on to replace Grant Seely and at last Saints started to take the game to Sarries, moving the ball at pace back and forth across the field and retaining possession well with good recycling. The moves culminated with an attack up the left wing in numbers, only for Scarborough to intervene and knock the ball on to frustrate the move. Deliberate it wasn’t…..in the eyes of the officials anyway. Saints were then weak in the ensuing scrum and the ball was lost.

Saints kept the score ticking over with two more penalties. Unfortunately they were for the home side and were the product of their pack’s strength, belligerence and superior technique giving them the ability to force the visitors into conceding points to Jackson’s boot.

With the clock ticking away and the score now at 28 – 17 Saints had one last throw of the dice. They attacked left and right again and although time had run out, a stream of penalty awards against Sarries meant the ref had to allow play to go on. Eventually Carlos decided he wanted first use of the shower and scampered over in the right corner for a try to some quite pathetic booing by some of the locals! Bruce missed the conversion out wide and the game ended, with Saints having salvaged a bonus point for losing by less than 7 points.

Final score, 28 – 22 to Saracens, who had been outscored by 3 tries to 1 but benefited from the penalty awards against Saints. Glen Jackson kicked a total of 7 penalties and one conversion.

However, considering the surrender of their early lead and high penalty count, as well as the way the Saints pack were made to look like schoolboys, there is an awful lot of work to do yet in the so-called powerhouse department of the team if we are to be able to compete at all in any of the three competitions in which we are currently represented.