Tales from the Members' Bar

Vol.2 No.20 James Downey

It is always a pleasure sitting down and chatting with our Dubliner about things Saints, rugby, people and places. Better still when the Communications manager is too busy with the new sponsor to put us on the clock. St Marlowe and I sat ourselves down with James Downey - let the banter begin.

A couple of years at Connacht as a player was the pretext to get him there so that was where we started. Connacht may be bottom of the Magners League but they have beaten Munster for the first time in a long while and came to Northampton of a fine performance against the Dragons. Nobody was taking them lightly. As we saw and as was forecast by JD, there will be pace from Duffy and Carr. Ian Keatley, like Seamus, a Dubliner from the Clontarf club, pitched up in Galway to enhance his chances of playing first team rugby. His performances and development have been first class. With a year left on his contract, Leinster will have to wait a while to get him back.

In his time on the west coast James was in the team that made the second consecutive run to the semi-final. In a tie over two legs, Sale came out handsome victors on their way to the trophy and a run that saw them take Guinness Premiership the following year. Muldoon and Farley are the only survivors of that side but at Northampton, we do not need to be told what a sprinkling of good experience can do for a team.

We mentioned the piece in the Irish Times earlier in the week. Nothing so radical as picking up the telephone and talking to the man had occurred but Mrs Downey, back home in Dublin, liked the piece and was pleased to see a picture of her son in the paper.

Having gleaned that James was not averse to reading the odd newspaper we found a way of broaching the subject of current rumours. James is secure in his contract so how did he feel about rumours of Shane Geraghty donning the black, gold and green next season. I felt he was being a little economical with the truth when he said he was not that bothered. If it is true, then there will be someone to share the workload. Only Bruce has played more than James this season - so perhaps he is right to feel confident in his own worth. If all else fails, James's other suggestion was that Geraghty could play on the wing.

Seamus is another that buys into the collective. Everything is about the team. He thinks he strikes up decent partnerships with all three outside centres that have played with him this season. That and the work put in by Paul Grayson on the defence have reaped dividends. Our up and out defence may not be to every coach's liking but it works for us. At times we can give away a bit of ground using it but it has served us well of late. Like everything, when you are new to something (and some of our combinations were completely new to the club) it takes a while to bed in. The over-chasing by the scrum-half and back-row seems to have been fixed. The gaps left for Monye and Goode from set pieces are a thing of the past (please, God.)

The other member of the coaching staff praised for his work was Dorian West. I remember when a tackle was made and a ruck formed there was a frantic waving of arms and wailing for the backs to get out and into their proper positions. Nowadays, it does not matter what number you have on your back, if you are first there, you clear out and protect the ball. Dorian gets everybody working on their technique; it is too easy to give penalties away by doing it wrong.

In talking about how the season had gone, especially recently, we alighted on some of the differences between the Premiership and the Magners League. With games coming thick and fast - there has only been one weekend without a game since the season began - the physical demands of the Premiership are enormous. And, you have to try and get the points every week. With no competitive games through the Six Nations, the Magners League is a different beast. Large parts of the squad are away so even training is a bit surreal.

Here there is plenty of banter as the internationals come in and out of the training squad during February and March. So we asked: who are the characters? The usual suspects emerged. Ashton as the clown prince and Nacho as the thorough professional; deadly serious at his work but has an almost crazy lighter side. His between the legs dummy against Gloucester was something seen many times on the training pitch. "If you are against him, the next thing you know is you get this great big Argentine culo thrust into you as he sets up the next play."

The leaders on the pitch are pretty much the same. Bruce, Nacho and Tom Smith all say their piece and there is another young man who has found his feet and his voice this year. Digger is not shy about having his say. Seamus thanks him for his interventions and tells him to get back to his wing and run the move. Digger's timing of his incursions and aggression in contact make him a good player for whom to run support lines. You can get in behind him and look for the pass or offload. Because he makes ground, even clearing out is easy.

James confesses that his own personal preference is to have the main leadership in the forwards. It is not easy for someone not involved in that level of rugged physical commitment to be demanding it from others.

Oops! Here comes Barfly. More soon.

arw

15.04.2009

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