By Spiteri Darius
September 18 2013

A Friday night match at the Stoop, so early in the season, meaning so much but ultimately meaning nothing? Don't even dream of it! This one was all about the here, the now and how waterproof my shoes are.Saints had a serious trend to buck, The Stoop not being a happy hunting ground since our return to the Premiership with only one win from five at the Stoop.Based mid way up the North stand just behind the sticks, my perspective on the game was accompanied with the constant hum of generators, at least I think it was it could have been the Quins fans growing sense of unease.

Aviva Premiership Round 2 

Harlequins v Northampton Saints

Friday September 13th, The Stoop

KO 19:45

Saints 13 - Quins 6

by Spiteri Darius

The South Stand opposite seemed to be about two thirds full at kick off, not sure if that was to do with the real ale bar and weather, prawn Sandwich brigade or the new ticketing system, but it gradually seemed to fill about  10-15 minutes after kick off.

The banter in the crowd was good, the Harlequins fans that I met were pleasant, decent people to a man and a woman, and were all engaged in what was an by turns enthralling and irritating game and putting up with my frequent, loud support for the Saints.

All the irritation came from the conditions and the impact it had on the game playing ability of both sides, unforced errors, kicks straight into touch, missed penalties (thankfully more Quins than Saints), and a propensity to box kick, I thought that Khans box kicking was ok, the height on them was steepling and felt it gave our players plenty of time to get under the ball and compete, however appreciate that the foreshortening affect of my position relative to the kicking made it hard to judge this aspect of his game (need to see the full match replay to form a real view).

The tightness of the game made it compulsive viewing, and as expected Quins came out firing on all cylinders in their first Home match of the season, for the first 20 or so it felt to me that Saints were very much on the back foot, but managed to go ahead after suffering a few scares with the normally reliable boot of Nick Evans being off the mark.

Nev is starting to feel less like the ominous presence he once did on the team sheet and certainly the home fans around me wanted to see Botica on sooner, or from the start rather than later.

Joe Gray is assisted of the pitch with what looks like a nasty knee injury, I hope that he isn’t seriously injured, looked like possible cruciate damage, hope I am wrong.

With Quins attacking the North stand I get quite a good view of their attacking play, Saints defence was resolute and uncompromising but it did feel like we had to defend a lot of the first half, and in spite of this I didn’t really feel that Quins had the beating of our defence.

With the conditions steadily worsening and the first half ending 3-3, I was starting to seriously wonder what there might be to write about in terms of the game, the localised flooding aka big puddles under the “Temporary” North stand, the long slow moving queues for the beer in the North East Corner of the ground, the constant drone of generators behind me somewhere, I think I mentioned those already, the mistaken believe that there was no clock showing time remaining, didn’t see that till someone took a step to the right.

The second half kicks off with the Saints kicking towards me and Saints weather some pressure, conceding a few kickable penalties, but only three points, usually should Saints miss that many kicks it comes back and bites us… The Quins fans want Nev to be taken off, I want him to stay on!

To be fair to Mr. Evans, it’s hard for anyone to kick at goal in these conditions (Both Bottica & Myler later miss what in regular conditions would be sitters).

Lawes is replaced by last week’s star man Sam Dickinson, the TV camera’s judging by the big screen seem to focusing on the banged up looking knee of Courtney, I do hope he isn’t broken again!

About 60 minutes have passed (still cannot see the whole of the countdown timer) and GN is gone, makes a characteristic (can that be said after two of them?) break down the wing and creates pressure and space in the Quins defence, forcing a scrum near their line.

The travelling support inspired by the break by North and the pressure on the line, raise their game the home fans try to shout us out but from where I am sitting don’t seem able.

A charge down and all hell breaks loose, after a bit of pin balling about the ball is spread fast and the try is on Wilson the executioner, Myler gets the extras from the touchline, boy can he kick, whatever the conditions!

7 points to the good and if there was ever a time for up the jumper rugby and plenty of patience this is it.

The remaining 20 or so minutes fly by, Saints largely control the game and don’t seem to have their defence severely tested. The two remaining moments of drama for me were Smylers missed penalty that would have made it 10 clear and match over and his subsequent yellow carding.

In summary I would say;

A fantastic result

It’s nearly always better for your charge down not to smack Sir in the face

If you need a beer and there is a puddle in the way, walk through it (the puddle) it’s only water

The only people who I saw wetter but happier than the Saints this weekend were the Serpentine Swimming Club (All clothes fancy dress race – pictures available on request) the Saturday morning after the match.

News: AP Match report Quins v Saints - First it Rained

Discussion started by ComeOnYouSaints.com , 18/09/2013 23:11

ComeOnYouSaints.com
18/09/2013 23:11

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Phil.
19/09/2013 11:05

A fine piece of work, good sir!

Many thanks.

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serious_saint
19/09/2013 17:33

Just how I remember it! Nice one SD.

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SAINT_aitch
19/09/2013 20:28

That was an excellent review of what was a dreary, though enjoyable evening. Thanks

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Saint Tim
20/09/2013 17:16

Taken me a while to get round to reading this - excellent read. Many thanks



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