By Jonathan Stockham
September 18 2011

Northampton Saints lost their second Premiership game in a row by the narrowest of margins at Franklins Gardens. Neither team contributed to a great game of rugby but horribly inconsistent refereeing and a shocking decision at the end of the game made the pill even more bitter to swallow for the home fans.

Aviva Premiership Round 3

Northampton Saints 13 vs. London Irish 14

Franklins Gardens, 17 September 2011

Generally speaking, this writer tends to steer away from criticising the officials at rugby matches. Without them, we wouldn’t have a game. However, yesterday we had to watch Martin Fox preside over a game in a manner that must have bewildered the players and coaches at times. It certainly had the spectators wondering from which planet he had recently flow in!

Fox clearly doesn’t follow the laws on the scrummage. He thought it was perfectly OK to allow the Irish tight head to line up at the “Crouch” angled in towards the opposing hooker. He still thought it was OK when the prop bore in at almost 90 degrees at the “Engage.” He then penalised Alex Waller, the Saints loose head for collapsing or standing up or something else. More than once.

He allowed Irish to waste time whenever they chose at the scrum or line out. To be fair to them, if the ref lets them get away with it, they’ll take advantage. It’s the law of the jungle.

But his masterpiece came right at the end. After Saints had unwisely taken a quick line out throw back to Jon Clarke in his 22, the ball had been kicked upfield to Irish who counter attacked, winning a penalty on the way. From the line out 35 metres out from Saints goal line, Irish knocked on in attack. Fox signalled the knock on advantage to Saints by sticking his arm out. The players scrambled for the loose ball on the ground and, before any advantage had accrued to Saints, Fox penalised them for handling on the ground! 

What happened to the knock on advantage? The fans had clearly seen it along with the ref’s arm signal, presumably the players had too. This match changing decision was bizarre, impossible to understand and clearly wrong. 

Irish full back Tom Homer stepped up to slot the 3 points for Irish to retake the lead they had lost 7 minutes earlier when Saints had been awarded a penalty try resulting from an increasingly dominant Saints scrum.

There were some good bits. The Saints pack, with Tom Mercey and Alex Waller as starting props were none too shabby and held their own when the ref allowed. The scrum got even stronger when Paul Doran-Jones and Brian Mujati appeared for the final quarter 

Martin Roberts at 9 looked very sharp and quick to break when opportunities presented. Unfortunately moves he initiated weren’t built upon and the effort was wasted. Ryan Lamb at 10 tried to vary the moves but again, a lot of effort came to naught on the back of dropped ball or forward passes.

The selection of Jon Clarke at full back wasn’t a success and one would have thought that Steve Myler, although he replaced Lamb at 10 in the second half, would have been a better choice at the back.

The disappointing things were that there appeared to be little spark or direction in the team, that continuity was lacking and that Saints gained no points at all when Irish were down to 14 men for the first 10 minutes of the second half after Halavatau was sin binned for a professional foul. 

All in all, there is little to get excited about or to be moved to write about other than referee Fox’s poor management of the game and the fact that two fully professional rugby sides failed to deliver much in the way of quality or entertainment. A bright spot for the visitors was Nick Kennedy’s try in the Shrubbery Corner after Man of the Match Chris Hala'ufia blasted through several tackles up the middle of the pitch.

Still, it can only get better……………..can’t it?

Word for the week ahead – OFFLOAD.

Teams:

Northampton: Clarke, Diggin, May, Downey, Cato, Lamb, Roberts, Waller, Sharman, Mercey, Manoa, Day, Clark, Nutley, Dowson ©.

Subs: Myler for Lamb (57), Doran-Jones for Waller (51), Mujati for Mercey (57), Craig for Manoa (65).

London Irish: Homer, Ojo, Joseph, Shingler, Thompstone, Bowden, Allinson, Dermody ©, Paice, Halavatau, Kennedy, Garvey, Siggery, Gray, Hala'ufia.

Subs: Hodgson for Allinson (67), Buckland for Paice (67), Lahiff for Halavatau (50), Evans for Garvey (71), Cici for Siggery (41).