By Saint Tim
October 2 2011
After the disappointment of two defeats on the trot, Saints were faced with a tricky away game – the so called Enya match. Sale is never an easy place to go and play and this time we had Steve Diamond lying in wait. Steve helped with the acquisition of many of the Saints squad and so he would have a lot of inside knowledge on how to beat us.
Well what a disappointing Friday evening it was for this particular supporter. At half time all seemed quite good in the Saint Tim world. Saints were leading away at Sale (although they couldn’t seem to get more than a single score ahead) and Leeds united (also playing on a Friday evening) were 2 – 0 up away at Brighton. At this point I needed to go out for some family duties (Dads taxis if you want to know) and by the time I arrived home Saints were playing with 13 men and slipping to a disappointing defeat and Leeds had let Brighton score 3 times and were also behind. I turned off the computer in disgust and went grumpily to bed.
I tried to stay away from both message board as I didn’t fancy reading the inquest – the blood letting on the Saints facebook page as I checked up towards the end of the match was bad enough.
I do hear that the first half performance was excellent apart from being unale to turn pressure into real points. We again managed to blow an opportunity when Sale were down to 14 men. It must be our style of play but it is getting damned annoying. We turned down 3 points to take a scrum and then turned the ball over – D’oh. The lesson there is to take the points when they are on offer.
Nothing much to add apart from finding out mid way through Saturday that Leeds had managed to score an equaliser at the death. That helped cheer me up slightly.
So where in the stats did we appear to be better than Irish. Well in the following we looked better:
Metres run with ball (Sale 330m, Saints 364m)
Defenders beaten (Sale 5, Saints 11)
Turnovers conceded (Saints 6, Sale 9)
Lineout success rate (Saints 83.3%, Sale 72.7%)
Passes (Saints 123, Sale 91)
Tackles missed (Saints 5, Sale 11)
So based on that all looks quite good. Even when you add in penalties conceded (Saints 14, Sale 13) it isn’t that different so where did it go wrong? There is one surprising answer and one obvious one:-
Yellow cards (Sale 1, Saints 2) and those two were mostly at the same time
Scrum success (Saints 77.8%, Sale 100%) I am not sure I believe those figures as I heard the scrum was on top but perhaps they are correct.
So a match that in the stats Saints appear on top but still managed to lose - but who were the best performers for Saints, according to the stats?
Once again Calum Clark made the most tackles with 10 missing none. Martin Robert made the most distance with ball in hand with 53 metres and Tom May beat the most defenders with 4.
Make of that what you will.
I didn’t see the game but only 42 people voted – which is a big disappointment. I know the game was away at a place very tricky to get to but it was on the TV so I am sure quite a few saw it.
Those that did vote only had two stand out players. In second place with 12% was Ben Nutley. Ben has been a permanent starter and he has not let us down. Yes he is still raw and will make mistakes – but it is obvious he has talent and he is learning quickly.
The winner however with exactly half the votes was Stephen Myler. Stephen has his fans and his critics. He does however attract a consistent level of support in these polls. From reports his goal kicking was flawless but I am sure that will not change Stuart Barnes record as this game was on ESPN and so I am sure does not exist as far as Sky is concerned.
With Stephens first win of the season we now have four different winners from the first four games. Two forwards and two half backs. It says something about the Saints season so far that the backs are yet to make an appearance.
The other thing I want to talk about is that we have only started 21 players so far and eight players have started every game. But a big difference is that does not include the front row where rotation definitely appears to be the order of the day.
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