Saracens
Class fly-half display earns Northampton a draw
FH display
By Jeremy O'Gorman
November 8 2010
Frankly, Geraghty was the difference between the sides; clever running, using all the angles and making use of passes both inside and out. Just the sort of thing that Sarries don’t seem to be doing at the moment.
The afternoon was crisp and cold with the hint of rain in the distance; fortunately it stayed dry until well after the game was over. Both sides were liberally sprinkled with players not normally chosen. Saint chose almost a complete set of youngsters with Geraghty and Digger providing the class. Sarries chose around 50% of normal squads and young players. It was Saints whose choice seemed better as the familiarity of playing more often together started to tell. Saints were able to dominate the early possession and Geraghty was quickly pulling the strings, moving one way and then another. Sarries defence however was more than equal to the task, looking secure.
With Saints playing pretty much all of the game in the Sarries half for the first 10 minutes it wasn’t surprising when they got a penalty award for offside and Geraghty stepped up with the easy kick. The advantage didn’t last long, as pressure from the defence after a sliced kick-off return meant Sarries got their own penalty attempt. Wiggy popped over the kick. Saints kept up the pressure though and it wasn’t long before another penalty was awarded; this time Geraghty pushed it wide. As Sarries know well he is not the best of kickers; especially under pressure. Perhaps it’s just as well for Saints he isn’t; I feel sure that if he was as good with the boot as he was with ball in hand he would have been at Twickenham on the Saturday.
Sarries did get a penalty on halfway and a speculative kick from the line itself from Wiggy went over. Still, Saints were beginning to outmuscle Sarries up front and the pressure was beginning to tell. Mr. White punishing Sarries for a number of penalty awards; Tom Mercey (of this parish) seemed to have Matt Parr on toast. Driving up the Rous side, gaps appeared across the pitch and when the ball was pushed out wide Sarries appeared to have recovered. Mr White seemed to take a dim view of Saull’s slowing of the play; frankly it wasn’t as bad as the tactics that Saints had for the whole match, but it was inside the 22 and earned him 10 minutes in the bin. With their tails up and a man down Saints kicked for the corner, collected the throw and drove over around halfway to the posts. Geraghty had a simple kick for 10-6
Or as the scoreboard had it 13-3 to Sarries then 10-3 to Saints and finally it was third time lucky for the poor lad doing the totting-up. From the restart the 14 Sarries men were playing like tigers and pressure led to another penalty following a mazy run from Strettle who was held up around 2 yards short making it 9-10. I’m not sure what it was awarded for; offside in the build up or a high..ish tackle on Strettle but it all counts. There was a great opportunity during the advantage period to score in the corner, but the ball was dropped as the line was crossed.
From the Saints restart a cock-up from Sarries letting the ball bounce with two players watching it; The Saints number 8 Easter collected and drove well; after a couple of phases Geraghty was in space on the 22. Jinking to the outside, he passed inside to Diggin who crossed unopposed. This is the second try of similar type in as many weeks; same as Exeter’s last week. I would not criticise the defence for this; but the attacking coaches should note that this is a good method of opening up a defence, rather that the bash up the middle which isn’t getting us anywhere.
Saull came back on just afterwards and for the rest of the half Sarries were in control. Mr. White seemed to have finally noticed Saints driving over the ball in the rucks and a number of penalties were awarded. The first was kicked for 12-17, but two more were missed, the last being the end of the first half. It was pretty easy to be honest and should have been taken, since Wiggy kicked 3 that were a lot more difficult. From that penalty Sharman was given 10 minutes in the bin; I for one was surprised that it took so long; there were about three offences as bad and as red-zoned as Saull’s before yellow was forthcoming
Then half-time with the interview between Hilly and Gavin Henson. Most of the words were lost due to a dodgy microphone, but we were close enough to pick out the gist of the conversation. I did pick out a couple of snippets; Gavin didn’t think we were playing well (very true) and thought he could help us improve (probably also true). Hilly seemed shocked by an honest opinion; Gavin seemed to indicate that the girls on the dancing show were a bit tasty (also very true). I did seem to get the impression that once the coaches gave him the go-ahead a bad performance on the TV was likely to follow (don’t be surprised). Gavin then went down to the South west corner and started to sign some autographs. I noticed that he was still there when there was 21 minutes on the game-clock; he may have stayed even longer.
Saints started the second half with 14 men and a great deal of purpose; moving the ball both ways and driving up the flank; Strettle took a knock and was replaced by Short. Geraghty had a drop-goal attempt that was about as good as the half-time crossbar challenges. The shock seemed to galvanise Sarries and the ball was being moved around in the backs well with Mordt playing easily his best game for Sarries that I have seen. The same was also true of Ransom and Powell who were wriggling into gaps but not quite finishing off the final play. Powell drove in beautifully between a couple of forwards; his final offload not going to hand. Perhaps we would have been better served by another phase but who am I to complain about adventure at last.
The props were replaced by Nieto and Carstyns who quickly upped the forward pressure and shortly afterwards Sarries finally scored a try without Shalk Brits on the field. Justin Melck who had come on as a blood replacement for Burger (his stitches looked like a boot) grabbed hold of the ball in the 10 channel and bashed his way over. It wasn’t quite Chesney-like but fairly similar. Coaches please note; the first serious attack for 3 games up the 10 channel results in a try. Wiggy popped over the conversion and a few minutes later a penalty was awarded for offside and Sarries were 22-17 up.
It did seem only a matter of time before Sarries scored again. George Kruis replaced a hurt Hayden Smith and was able to effect a charge-down. He followed up at pace; that kid is seriously quick, it’s not often you see a second-row outpace a centre. Unfortunately, his boots were too heavy and his kick-on ran over the dead ball line. Ransome came into his own, sometimes stepping up as first receiver, but Saints defended well once they were back up to full strength, but it was small mistakes in the last play that seemed to cause Sarries the most problems. All in all I counted 5 try-scoring situations that ended in a knock-forward; three in this period of play. Saints were there for the taking but Sarries were unable to deliver the killer punch. Even a penalty would have provided an 8 point cushion.
Saints seemed to grow in stature as they weathered the storm and as the last few minutes came along a steal seemed possible. Finally a line-out and a scrum in the Sarries 22 was all the space they needed. It was a fine dummy run by Geraghty that sucked the defence in and allowed him to cross in the corner. He had the opportunity to win the game with the kick but took so long walking up to the ball that the chasing players almost charged it down; Farrell hurt himself throwing himself at the ball; it missed and it was a draw. Probably a fair result as no team deserved to win.
Positives were the performances of all the young lads; I don’t think one of them had a bad game and in a few cases were as good as the player they were replacing
There was a small trip down memory lane halfway through the second half. Huge in space with the ball, belted up a big up-and-under; not the same result as Biarritz but brought a smile to my face
Glass halfish full.
Saracens: Ransom; Strettle, Ratuvou, Powell, Tagicakibau; Mordt, Wigglesworth; Parr, George, Skuse, Smith, Vyvyan; Burger, Saull, Wray.
Replacements: Short for Strettle (41), Farrell for Powell (56), Carstens for Parr (48), Nieto for Skuse (48), Kruis for Smith (23), Melck for Burger (47).[Soft Break]Not Used: Reynecke, Barrett.
Sin Bin: Saull (27).
Northampton: Tonks; Elliott, Ansbro, Cornwell, Diggin; Geraghty, Powell; Dreyer, Sharman, Mercey, Sanderson, Sorenson; Clark, Nutley, Easter.
Replacements: Ford for Cornwell (67), Waller for Dreyer (73), Long for Sharman (73).[Soft Break]Not Used: Parkins, Hicks, Ingle, Cummins, Sadler.
Sin Bin: Sharman (40).
Att: 6,015
Ref: Chris White (RFU).
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Stumbleupon08/11/2010 13:54
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010:11:18:16:40:56 by TonyTaff.
Conceding fourteen points when Saull was in the sin bin and failing to take our chances when in the opposition's twenty-two basically cost us the win.
Almost everyone in a black shirt had a good game on the whole but many were also guilty of the odd unforced error and hence we were less than the sum of our parts.
Geraghty was very sharp though.
I enjoyed the match but I find it worrying that a couple of really basic things are continuing to cost us points/tries. The same things seem to be in common no matter which players are on the pitch.
1: Unsure at re-starts. As higlighted by Jermemy, Saints first try came as a direct result of faluire to catch ball at the restart. How many times have we said that this season? (Seymour -
)
2: Fantastic possession deep in the oppo's 22 being squandered by handeling errors. We were paticularly guilty of this yestaerday, but we have also witnessed this too many times this season.
I am worried, because these errors are persistant. If we could work on them and iron them out I feel we would be nailed on for a top 4 spot, rather than looking 'there and there-abouts'
Who was it who conceded the penalty from their restart immediately after we'd got the try? That was one of the most disappointing aspects of the afternoon for me.
Overall it was certainly two points lost, but at half-time most of us would have taken the draw.
is it just me, or do we simply pass the ball to early? We never seem to commit the defenders into making a decision and it is so easy to drift across the field and cover us.
Some excellent stuff from the youngsters though.
Quote:The Bard
is it just me, or do we simply pass the ball to early? We never seem to commit the defenders into making a decision and it is so easy to drift across the field and cover us.
At the moment (since Clermont it's been really noticeable) - Yes and Yes.
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