Thoughts From The Chron – 21^st January, 2010

PERPIGNAN

I pondered last week on which Perpignan side might turn up, maybe not so much in personnel but mentally. Would it be the dogged side we saw demolish Racing Metro the week before or a team with their minds on other things with their European campaign all but over.  Just to confuse me, in fits and starts, it was both.

In the first half, combined with our own jitters at times, the Catalan side kept us down to just a brace of Shane Geraghty penalties on the board for a slender 6-0 half time lead. As always playing down the slope in the second half into the wall of sound you have to fancy the Saints but on that first half showing that bonus point looked a very tall order.

A sign of things to come came a couple of minutes into the new half when Ben Foden went on one of those elusive runs that he is turning into an art form. A shimmy to the left, a shammy to the right, a pirouette and the full back left the Perpignan defenders for dead before offloading to try machine winger Chris Ashton who celebrated his England call up by touching down for the first try of the afternoon. Minutes later it was the same combination again with the fullback carving the opening to send the winger into space before the latter selflessly fed Phil Dowson coming up on the wing for the second score.

A well taken Lee Dickson score that might have suggested the refereeing gods were smiling on us for once had us earlier non-believers starting to think it might just well be Saints day after all and surely now we would win at a canter.  However with eyes on the five day turnaround between games with a raft of changes we lost a bit of rhythm and the French Champions edged their way back into the game.

For the last twenty minutes Saints spent long times defending in their own twenty two as the clock ran down even to the extent that I thought we would be better off sacrificing a try just to get a restart and a chance not only to get our hands on the ball but a chance to get out of our own half and maybe a shot at that bonus point. Oh me of little faith. Despite the clock having run its full 80 minutes and the ball still being in Catalan hands a matter of yards from the Saints line somehow big Roger Wilson turned it over and a combination of offloads saw Christian Day sending Jon Clarke scampering off down the wing to score the all important fourth. It was hard to tell whether the biggest cheer of the day was for the try or the huge sense of relief, but job done!

MUNSTER

So here we are, just a single game between us and Heineken Cup quarter final qualification.  Whilst a lot of onus was put on that fourth point, not least by me above, there is no reason why we cannot make it academic and go and get a result in Limerick on Friday night. Sure Munster have a great history and record at Thomond Park but records are there to be broken.  

Perhaps given that history more of the pressure will be on the home side this weekend especially given the fact that having read some of their supporters websites this week a noticeable number think they just have to turn up to win. Some state we are an average team with overrated players. Well let them think that, let them overlook the ten wins in a row now, I’ll even let them have a large dose of denial that this average overrated team beat them earlier this season. You see we’ve heard it all before have we not?

The sign in the Agen bar that said Northampton are the boil on our backside waiting to be lanced. Hadn’t lost at home in a few years, they did that night.

And what of Biarritz, they already had shirts on sale in town advertising their visit to Twickenham in the final. Saints were just a stepping stone on their divine road to glory. We stopped them in their tracks in San Sebastian.  

What price a win in over confident Munster too? Now whilst I don’t believe Paul O’Connell and his boys will quite be buying into the underrating bit it does have its advantages having their supporters thinking this way. If Saints can cause problems early on then those who thought the game would be a cakewalk for their team might well go into their shell, we were hardly a cacophony in the first half on Sunday ourselves.  Some might even get on their own teams backs. Who knows, small cracks in the Thomond factor might be infectious the longer we stick at it. Most of all though I wonder what our lads think knowing some opposition supporters think they are going there as pure whipping boys ten wins in a row or not. I know how I’d feel. Most probably our boys do not need any extra motivation though. If there is such a thing as the big one, this is it.

As Dylan Hartley said after last week’s game they are treating this as the last game an one they have to win. We do however have to temper that with the possibility of a best runners up spot up for grabs if we don’t prevail. Not only are we at a disadvantage over the five day turnaround but being the first game up this weekend all others jockeying for a runners up play off spot they will know exactly what they have to  do. In that respect everything we can get is a bonus, then just pray what happens elsewhere is to our advantage. It’s a heart versus head argument predicting a result but I travel in hope of a real upset but at the end of the day the game might pan out that a caution to the wind bonus point sees us through.

FUN AND GAMES IN IRELAND?

By the time you read this I’ll already have been in Ireland a couple of days opting to take the leisurely route out by ferry on Wednesday morning and a night in Dublin at either end of the trip. Despite the Munster hordes buying up a sizable chunk of our allocation, and of course it being a Friday night, I’m still expecting well in excess of a thousand Saints supporters out in Limerick.

Usually writing these columns before a European trip I recommend a meeting place for Saints supporters but in Limerick you are spoilt for choice. Just about every bar in the centre of town has something on this weekend and I’m sure the Gold. Black and green will be well in attendance just about anywhere. After I’ve done all the museums and art galleries I might even visit one or two myself. There’s been a growing tradition for travellers to pick up another game locally over the weekend. The guys at the Munster site inform the pick of the games in the city on Saturday afternoon are UL Bohemians v  Shannon a local derby at Annacotty and Garryowen v Cork Constitution at  Dooradoyle. Both games are in Ireland top domestic league and both kick off at 2:30.

It looks like being a grand weekend. Coming home with a Heineken Cup quarter final berth would make it all that much grander. Bring it on!

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• HC: Munster vs Northampton Saints - Match Preview (again!)
• Thoughts from the Chron 14th January 2010
• News: Saints (34) take the 5 points against Perpignan (0)
• Thoughts from the Chron 7th January 2010