Thoughts from The Chron

11th March 2010 

Though most focussed on the wayward boot of Steve Myler, who otherwise had a sound game, early on we also overcooked a few try scoring opportunities too and to be fair to Sale some last ditch defensive efforts at crucial moments denied us other scores.
 
Had the rub of the green gone our way in the first period we may well have been twenty odd points up by half time and cruising, but then that's rugby, nothing is a given. 
 
Instead the lads went in just seven points to the good through a Paul Diggin try which he touched down wedged between his forearm and his right ear. It was a fine bit of control by Digger but just a hairsbreadth away from the teams going in level with zero points on the board. That would have been a travesty given Saints dominance and the way they carved open the Sale defence on occasion but by and large we were architects of our own ‘downfall'. 
 
Certainly once the Sale line had been breached and given that the team have somewhat of a reputation as a second half side you might then have expected the floodgates to open but fair play to Sale, fighting for their Premiership lives in the second half they had something of a comeback.
 
Despite a very good try created then finished by Chris Ashton - why oh why is he not at the very least on the bench for England? - Sale edged back into the game, territorially at least. It was now Saints turn to defend and there were fine stoppages with the line begging for the Sale attack. Finally with the clock running down ex Gardens favourite Ben Cohen did make it over the whitewash for his new club and the Charlie Hodgson conversion put the home side within distance of a rather unexpected losing bonus point, precious given their predicament.
 
The opportunity came with a long range penalty as the last kick of the game but Hodgson's effort hit an upright and Saints put the ball dead to end proceedings. The miss perhaps summed up Sale's season, so near and yet so far but for the Saints, perhaps even not playing at full throttle, it was another victory to keep pressure on the Tigers at the top of table. Saints are two points behind now but still have that game in hand but probably more importantly a couple of teams below us lost ground and there is a clear cushion now between Saints in second and Sarries in third. Whether we can catch Leicester at the top remains to be seen but with just six games left a home playoff place does look like a distinct possibility should the lads keep the effort up.
  
STATS
 
A scan of the Guinness Premiership table shows that at the moment we have won more and lost less games than any other club however at the start of the year I looked at the average stats per game for the Guinness Premiership and its interesting looking at how things have changed in the last two months. Back then (Jan 10th) Saints were the runaway leaders in tries scored but had an only slightly better than average defence tally across all the GP clubs, indeed five other clubs defences boasted better returns. Certainly looking at the same stats now there has been somewhat of a turnaround. We may no longer head the try count, being overtaken by a couple of scores by Gloucester, but as for shutting up shop we are now only headed by Tigers meagre defence. 
 
The difference is less than a point per game but even so we are closing the gap on them weekly too. When the tracks dry out we may well still head the tries scored table yet but certainly defence has increasingly been key to Saints progress over the last few weeks.  Sure there are still some small edges to be smoothed and we are still capable of the odd blip as we saw at Quins a couple of weeks back but little by little the team is becoming a very well rounded side. 
 
Talking pre-season with friends the conclusion was that we were perhaps a good 18 months or so off being contenders. We are there or thereabouts already but you sense that Messrs Mallinder and West think there is much, much more to come from this quad as it develops. Certainly as things are shaping up and with both feet firmly on the ground at the moment I see everything we may get this season as a bonus. Next year however I think others may well start to view us as that long time sleeping giant finally awake and a match for anyone be it in England or Europe. 
 
Since I started writing this column a few years ago I have always compared watching the Saints with being on an emotional rollercoaster. Though we have also had periods where it has felt like a terminal ghost train, it has been pretty much the odd high followed by the almost inevitable big dip after dip year in year out. Early days yet maybe but for the foreseeable future I might well be mothballing that rollercoaster for the time being. If Isaac Newton was right and what goes up must surely come down then I am not sure there is a fairground analogy for where Saints are currently heading but whatever mode of transport I am just happy to be along for the ride. Long may it continue! 
 
THE LV=
 
With our eyes on bigger prizes the LV= Cup (I still can't get used to that title) has more or less slipped under the radar but here we find ourselves at the semi final stage with the visit of Saracens to the Gardens on Sunday. In an email to a Saints supporter last week by their own admission the RFU have downgraded the competition to a development one which beggars the question why wasn't that clear from the off and why does it still reward the winners with a Heineken Cup place, a backdoor that needs closing if there ever was one. It might also explain why they have opted to stage the final late on a Sunday afternoon in a small capacity, out of town stadium with poor transport links. Not counting any chickens but 4,500 tickets for a finalist who has 9,000 season ticket holders alone is nothing short of an insult and two fingers at the week in week out supporter. But then television happy, sponsors happy, who cares about your run of the mill rugby
supporter, not the RFU it seems, but then what is new there? 
 
Whether Saints reach the final or not a lot of supporters have already declared they will vote with their feet and not attend. Should we prevail I'll be one of those trying to get a ticket but the whole ramshackle business surrounding the final has left a sour taste for most. Of course the clubs are caught between a rock and a hard place on this. They have no say in the organisation but are expected to pick up the pieces and make arrangements with just a few days notice and no doubt will even get some unwarranted flak from misinformed parties. 
 
At times like this I often think back to Keith Barwell's statement about his ‘friends' Nigel and Rupert at the RFU and the only thing they COULD organise was a drink up in a brewery. We might well think times have changed but it seems old Nige and Rupes still hold the balance of power where daftness is concerned.
 
As for the game itself well heart and head both say Saints comfortably but then again when have they ever both been right? In domestic competition Sarries have not beaten a team outside of the bottom three strugglers in the Guinness Premiership since the middle of November last year and last week they even started losing to them. Watching the highlights of their game up at Leeds you not help but notice how they struggled in the scrum surely an area for Saints to target. As for their title aspirations after they started the season so well winning the first eight in a row well on the face of it they look in tatters and they must surely be looking over their shoulder at the resurgent teams like Bath closing in on them. If their current form continues they may even be in danger of dropping out the top six and the compensation of a Heineken Cup place may disappear too. That could be our problem on Sunday.
 
In their rapidly disintegrating season Sarries might well view the LV= as their last throw of the dice, not only for silverware but for that HC place. They are a side that do not concede many points and let in less than a try a game, their downfall being they do not score as many at the other end. So it could be a low scoring attritional battle but then if we get into them early and disrupt that scrum, which could be the key, we might just take them apart. Overhead kick anyone?

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• News: Life's a Beach as Saints leave Sale Dune and Out
• News: Thoughts from the Chron 4th March 2010