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Saints bank points over holiday weekend


By Bedfordshire Boy
March 31 2016

Dare I say this is another "must win" game, five games left in the regular season and we are certainly not in the position that we would wish. Some would say that the league table does  not lie but with a lot more application as well as some luck, things could be so different, same for all teams I guess. Heavy downpours during the drive north to Northampton but thankfully dry with sunshine on arrival. Sat as normal in the southwest corner with not too many Quins fans to be seen, those travelling by coach must have found a new part of the ground to occupy. Franklins Gardens always has been a great stadium but the new Barnwell Stand is really the icing on the cake. Two well matched sides with the return of international players for both teams with an interesting centre partnership for Quins of Jamie Roberts and a first premiership start for young Joe Marchant. Luke Wallace holds on to the seven shirt, with Nick Easter at eight and Jack Clifford filling in at six who must be dying for a good run out after only about 40 minutes total game time throughout the 6 Nations.

Saints kick off and a hesitant Quins defence allow George North to gather the ball and make ground before Saints are penalised for hanging onto the ball on the ground. A good period of play by Quins eventually sees a massive hit by George Pisi on Joe Marchant before Ben Botica puts a grubber kick through to find touch inside the Saints 22. From the lineout George Merrick manages to get through the maul to the ball but is eventually penalised by referee Wigglesworth. Saints kick to touch and from the lineout Quins are awarded the first scrum of the game which results in over two minutes elapsing between the award of the scrum and the ball getting into open play. From the Quins attack Saints are penalised for Craig hanging onto the ball after being warned by the referee which allows Ben Botica a chance to get Quins onto the scoreboard. From 25 metres out Botica adds the points in very tricky wind conditions, Saints 0, Quins 3 after 8 minutes, an encouraging start. As so very often happens, having gone into the lead a team immediately gives away a penalty, so true to form Quins are penalised from the restart. As Myler lines up to kick to the corner one of the Saints coaching staff rushes onto the pitch with the kicking tee, orders from the boss I suppose. As it happens the players on the pitch were far better in tune with the conditions as Mylers kick was well wide demonstrating what a good attempt it was by Botica earlier.

With neither team making any real inroads, a speculative kick from Myler finds Botica stranded in the middle of the pitch inside the Quins 22 and his attempt to find touch against the wind falls short to Ken Pisi who immediately runs the ball back at Quins. Saints really up the pace getting the ball out to the left wing where North is tackled but they continue to press the Quins line before the Quins defence is stretched to breaking point to allow Alex Waller to go in for a try in the right hand corner. Stephen Myler is again unsuccessful with the kick leading to a score line of 5 - 3 after 12 minutes. Quins press from the restart and Courtney Lawes is somewhat harshly penalised for interfering with James Horwill in the line out to give Ben Botica another attempt to add to the Quins total. The kick, which is almost in the same spot as his first attempt, sails through the uprights to bring the score to 5 - 6 with 18 minutes on the clock. Another kick off is messed up by Quins as Charlie Walker knocks on, Collier plays the ball and is penalised for offside. Saints kick to the corner but Quins steal the ball and eventually Danny Care clears the ball to the 10 metre line. Saints attack from the line out but eventually the ball go loose for Botica to break who eventually knocks the ball on. Worryingly, Nick Easter is left sitting on the ground nursing his ankle for several minutes before getting to his feet for the scrum. Saints are straight back onto the attack but Danny Care again clears the ball to touch and Quins are penalised at the line out for pulling down. Myler plants the ball into the corner. the ball is recycled and Lawes has nothing more to do than fall over the line to score Saints second try. Myler lands the conversion leaving Quins trailing by 6 points after 24 minutes against a saints side with their tails up. It is another 8 minutes before there is another score when from a rare period of attack from Quins with ball in hand Tim Visser takes a pass from George Merrick to break the Saints line 30 metres out, leaves Ben Foden stranded to run in for a well taken try. Botica adds the extra points to bring the score to 12 - 13 after 33 minutes. Neither side seemed to be able to hold onto the ball for the rest of the half and not surprisingly the scoreboard operator wasn`t troubled any further. The closeness of the score very much reflected the play of the half, Quins had plenty of ball but Saints looked more dangerous in the attack.

Only one change in the line ups at the start of the second half as Dickinson replaced Gibson for Saints. Quins make the early running with Botica getting the ball to Jack Clifford 40 metres out who steps past Kieran Brookes, heads for the line and hands off Ben Foden 5 metres out to score a well taken try. Botica makes the conversion look easy and all of a sudden Quins are more than one score in front, 12 - 20 after 42 minutes. The perfect start to the half with me feeling very happy unlike the majority of those sitting around me. Quins continue to press from the restart but Saints defence is patient and are eventually awarded a penalty 30 metres out after Dickson makes it obvious to the referee that Horwill is impeding him. Myler converts to bring the score to 15 - 20 after 47 minutes and Brookes is replaced by Paul Hill for Saints. . Chris Robshaw came onto the pitch on 53 minutes to replace Nick Easter with Robshaw slotting in at number 6 and Clifford moving to number eight. The game continued to ebb and flow when Saints are awarded yet another penalty which Myler kicks deep into the Quins 22. Quins certainly on the wrong end of the referees whistle in this half. Luther Burrell made good ground from a Myler pass when the ball found its way along the line to Foden to go in for the try. Myler added two points with the kick to put the home side back in front with the score at 22 - 20 on 57 minutes. Quins are awarded a scrum on half way and before it can be set Dickson is replaced by Fotouali`i  and Waller by Ma`afu. Quins are penalised at the scrum and Saints kick to deep inside the Quins 22 which is a sign for Dave Ward and Karl Sinkler to replace Joe Gray and Will Collier for Quins. The changes certainly seem to have livened up the action in the front row as demonstrated by a series of reset scrums. Both teams continue to attack at every opportunity when on 70 minutes Botica is given the chance to put Quins back in front with a penalty from the 10 metre line. Despite the jeers from the home crowd the ball hits the post and Saints clear the danger but Quins are straight back onto the attack. A neat jinxing run by Botica is stopped by Saints who are then penalised for killing the ball giving Botica another chance to add to the Quins total. This kick is from a similar distance but this time in front of the posts but Botica sends the ball well wide with a little bit of help from the gusting cross wind. From the 22 drop out restart Mike Brown gathers the ball and obviously learned nothing from Boticas attempt as his high kick sails directly into touch.  From the resulting line out Saints set up a sustained period of pressure until Quins finally run out of defenders to allow recent substitute Harry Mallinder to run in for a bonus point try. To add salt to the wounds, Myler adds two extra points to take Quins out of losing bonus point territory with only 4 minutes left on the clock. Before the kick off Victor Matfield comes on as a substitute and Quins now up the tempo to gain some badly needed extra points. Quins press the Saints line falling just short on numerous occasions and Mike Brown spills the ball stretching for the try line after Quins were playing a penalty advantage phase. Danny Care seems to consider taking a quick penalty before common sense prevails and the ball is handed to Ben Botica to add 3 points to the Quins tally with a minute left of the match. That was the last score of the game and Saints ran out winners by 29 points to 23.

It was nice that the rain kept away for the whole match but the very strong gusting cross wind certainly had an effect on proceedings, but despite the wind, the teams managed to put on a good display for the 15249 who turned out to watch. The fact that Saints scored four trys to two by Quins probably indicates that Saints deserved the win and to my mind they did just edge it despite my prediction of a narrow win to Quins.  In a normal season a narrow loss at Franklin Gardens would be anticipated but with Quins desperate for league points it makes yet another narrow loss even harder for the team and the fans to take. Looking at the positives I thought that 19 year old Joe Marchant certainly did not look out of place and tackled like a demon. Tim Visser continues to impress and I thought that it was reasonable all round Quins performance, certainly a vast improvement over last week. Mathematically we are still in with a chance of a top four spot but my gut feeling that it is now a step too far, certainly cannot afford to lose any more games (said that a few times in the last month). We also need to be aware of the teams just below us in the table as even a top six position is far from guaranteed with Bath now finding some form as are Sale Sharks. Disappointing day all round but keep the faith!

As a footnote, I was amused to hear one of the loudest cheers of the day being reserved for the announcement that Leicester Tigers had lost at Sale. 

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Saints bank points over holiday weekend
Discussion started by ComeAllWithin.co.uk , 31/03/2016 13:15
ComeAllWithin.co.uk
31/03/2016 13:15
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gregory p
31/03/2016 18:38
That seems a pretty fair (and good) summary of the game, BB, and thanks for going to the game and doing the write up

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