Thank you for the music – NOT!
By Props Are Not Stupid November 26 2007
Irish at Sarries has, in the most, been a happy occasion. We've won a lot, many at the death to the home-support's disdain. It was about time Sarries mugged us. We sent our Spanish ambassador to report on the game for us. Here is his view of the game...
Irish at Sarries has, in the most, been a happy occasion. We've won a lot, many at the death to the home-support's disdain. It was about time Sarries mugged us. We sent our Spanish ambassador to report on the game for us. Here is his view of the game...
I got to the Red Lion about two hours before kick off to meet the usuals having a quiet liquid breakfast, until we were deafened by extremely loud music. It didn’t take me long to realise that they enjoy their decibels in Watford, the noisier the better. We can see from the pub people handing out white Saracens flags for free. They were also giving away Go Sarries boards in the South Stand and players were signing them away. This was also a “bring a friend for free” game. It was quite apparent that this was going to be a close game and they needed to get all support they could. Will we ever see similar marketing offers at the Madejski? I’d be gladly surprised if we did.
While both teams were warming up to the deafening beats of Ruby by the Kaiser Chiefs, I decide to conduct a survey amongst the Irish supporters around me. Most of them predict a very even game, and despite having our strongest team available, not many are confident about an Irish Victory.
Kris Chesney leads the Saracens into the pitch. He is congratulated by the rest of the team and appreciated by the home crowd. I imagine that he has reached a milestone number of games for the club [it was 300 games for Sarries at their previous away game in Barritz – Griff].
From the start it became quite obvious that Saracens game plan was to put pressure on the Irish scrums, and they won the ball against the head in the first scrum of the game. Dan Murphy was tested by tight head Visagie, but managed to stand his ground for most of the game.
After a few phases moving the ball across from one wing to the other inside Saracens 22, Delon gets his try after a great Paice break. Hewat’s conversion goes wide. 0-5 after 6 minutes.
Making another advance into Sarries 22, Tagi receives the ball in the overlap, but knocks on without opposition. Neither Irish winger had a good game today.
In the 9th minute Gordon Ross slotted a drop goal, scores being now 3-5.
Yet another Irish scrum going backwards, which cost us 35 meters, but Catt kicks us out of danger. The PA system lifts the local team up to the beat of Shake the room. Saracens are awarded a penalty from a collapsed scrum, Ross taking the 3, and the local crowd celebrates with Chelsea Dagger. Have I mentioned loud music yet? The truth is that a few Irish supporters were a lot noisier than the Fez boys (and girls), so they needed all the help they could get from the loudspeakers. Even the Sarries cheerleaders were shaking their pom-poms to our bodhrán beats of Irish!! Well, 6-5 after 14 minutes.
This follows a period of Saracens domination, with Danaher and especially Mapusua putting huge tackles to keep the Saracens away from our try line. Mapusua was very close to get sin binned for one of his feroceous tackles, but after consultation with the touch judge, Dean Richards decided to leave it with a telling off, to the boos of the local supporters. Saracens kick for the corner and are awarded a penalty for pulling down at the line out. Gordon Ross keeps his 100 record so far, and it is 9-5 after 18 minutes.
Dominance belongs now to the men in white and green, especially in open play. We are awarded a kickable penalty, but Hewat stays away from it, so Delon has to take it. The crowd is respectfully quiet, apart from the odd chap who thought he was coming to a football game. The kick is successful, so 9-8 to Saracens.
Our gameplan today is to move the ball across the field with the backs, and seems to be working well. Great passes from Richards, Catt, Mapusua making the scissors to De Vedia, who eventually knocks on.
We get another penalty 25 metres away. This should be an easy one, but Hewat isn’t taking it. If he is injured, why is he still playing? This should be 9-11, with us back in the lead. Easy peasy. A supporter’s horn puts Delon off and misses. I am thinking that this could be the make or break moment in the game, when we could have taken the lead, but didn’t, and we will end up regretting this easy chance to take the lead, stopping the Sarries to gain momentum. 5 minutes later Catt misses a drop goal by a country mile and more handling errors spoil scoring chances for Irish.
With 5 minutes to half time, we are awarded a penalty as Catty is blocked on his kick and chase. This is a long one, about 45 metres away, dead in the middle. Delon goes for it and… YES! 9-11 now, all my fears are abandoned.
Delon would have another chance before half time, but this one is a lot trickier, to the left of the half way line. He takes his time to place the ball, and when he is about to kick it, the ball drops. The crowd really puts him off as he repositions the ball and misses.
At half time I go for my nicotine fix, but at Vicarage Road you are not allowed to smoke anywhere, and if you leave the stadium you are not allowed back in. So it is cold turkey for me until the end of the game. This game was a nail-biter, just as well you are still allowed to bite your nails at Watford.
I asked the same people for their opinion on how they thought the game could go, and all of them thought exactly the same as before the game. Pretty nerve racking, it could go either way. Our narrow lead was by no means deserved, as with our possession and chances we should be 10 points up at least.
It was turning very cold for the second half, but I don’t think any of the players noticed the cold much. Mapusua kept the tackles coming and going in a man of the match performance.
Jackson replaced Ross at half-time and immediately put Saracens ahead with a drop goal. 12-11.
In a nice piece of Saracens attack, Jackson kicked high towards the left corner of Irish goal area, and Richard Haughton was inches short of catching the ball and getting the try. I’d blame it on his afro hair style, I am sure someone like Topsy would have had that one.
Great attaking play by Irish now, moving the ball across the Saracens 22. We have a 3 man overlap in the corner, and what could have been a try was just a penalty. Nevermind, Hewat decides to take it this time and gets it. Nice one, the man looks fit enough to kick now. 12-14 and looking good.
It is looking so good that we decide to put our arms down, letting Adam Powell run through the middle of our defence like a knife through butter to score. Glen Jackson gets the conversion, and, as a Spanish proverb says, good times never last long in the poor man’s house. 19-14 with 25 minutes to go.
We are awarded another penalty in front of the posts, and because it would be rude not to, Hewat takes the three to put us within one score again. 19-17, 22 minutes to go.
We seem to be camped in their 22 for a while now, the next score needs to be ours, what a close game! I am so excited that my handwriting becomes impossible to read now. I can’t believe my eyes when Hewat misses a drop goal attempt just 15 metres away, but Delon would take the next very hard penalty kick. 19-20, and just over 7 very long minutes to go. We need to fight to keep this lead.
The local crowd get lifted again by a very loud Shake the room, and it did indeed shake, as Sarries would enjoy possesion. Who wants to win this game the most? Sarries are awarded a penalty in front of the post with barely 2 minutes to go. As I am writing in my notepad, Jackson does the unthinkable by kicking high into the corner while all the Irish players wait for the kick with their hands in their hips, resigned by the defeat. Haughton was waiting and he managed to gather the ball and scored unopposed to give Saracens the victory, winning the man of the match award, according to the speaker. 24-20 after the missed conversion meant that 3 points were not going to be enough, and we had about one minute left to get a try. We did try, but the Gods were not on our side today as all we came back with from Watford was a losing bonus point and a Monday morning hangover.
We had our best side out and we didn’t play that badly, so why did we lose?
1. We have been used over the last two weeks to play on Saturdays, not Sundays.
2. The music was too loud.
3. It was too cold in the second half.
4. We have been spoiled by Heineken Cup rugby and we couldn’t change the chip into local tournaments.
5. We didn’t use our bench, only Steffon and Skuse came on with 15 minutes to go. I would have given Topsy a chance, especially since both of our wingers had the slippery fingers disease.
6. We missed 11 points at kicking, or even more if you count all the drop goals.
7. They didn’t have any wine (white or red) or Baileys at the Red Lion one hour after the game. What kind of pub is that?
8. I’ll leave this one for Brian Smith to find another excuse.
Many thanks to all the Sarries supporters who helped me getting back to my car as I was awfully lost. They were very happy with the victory, as it puts them into third position in the premiership and they didn’t feel very optimistic either before the game.
Some of them were saying to me that they are hoping to play us in the Heineken Cup quarter finals. I don’t know if this could happen, but let it be at home, please!
While both teams were warming up to the deafening beats of Ruby by the Kaiser Chiefs, I decide to conduct a survey amongst the Irish supporters around me. Most of them predict a very even game, and despite having our strongest team available, not many are confident about an Irish Victory.
Kris Chesney leads the Saracens into the pitch. He is congratulated by the rest of the team and appreciated by the home crowd. I imagine that he has reached a milestone number of games for the club [it was 300 games for Sarries at their previous away game in Barritz – Griff].
From the start it became quite obvious that Saracens game plan was to put pressure on the Irish scrums, and they won the ball against the head in the first scrum of the game. Dan Murphy was tested by tight head Visagie, but managed to stand his ground for most of the game.
After a few phases moving the ball across from one wing to the other inside Saracens 22, Delon gets his try after a great Paice break. Hewat’s conversion goes wide. 0-5 after 6 minutes.
Making another advance into Sarries 22, Tagi receives the ball in the overlap, but knocks on without opposition. Neither Irish winger had a good game today.
In the 9th minute Gordon Ross slotted a drop goal, scores being now 3-5.
Yet another Irish scrum going backwards, which cost us 35 meters, but Catt kicks us out of danger. The PA system lifts the local team up to the beat of Shake the room. Saracens are awarded a penalty from a collapsed scrum, Ross taking the 3, and the local crowd celebrates with Chelsea Dagger. Have I mentioned loud music yet? The truth is that a few Irish supporters were a lot noisier than the Fez boys (and girls), so they needed all the help they could get from the loudspeakers. Even the Sarries cheerleaders were shaking their pom-poms to our bodhrán beats of Irish!! Well, 6-5 after 14 minutes.
This follows a period of Saracens domination, with Danaher and especially Mapusua putting huge tackles to keep the Saracens away from our try line. Mapusua was very close to get sin binned for one of his feroceous tackles, but after consultation with the touch judge, Dean Richards decided to leave it with a telling off, to the boos of the local supporters. Saracens kick for the corner and are awarded a penalty for pulling down at the line out. Gordon Ross keeps his 100 record so far, and it is 9-5 after 18 minutes.
Dominance belongs now to the men in white and green, especially in open play. We are awarded a kickable penalty, but Hewat stays away from it, so Delon has to take it. The crowd is respectfully quiet, apart from the odd chap who thought he was coming to a football game. The kick is successful, so 9-8 to Saracens.
Our gameplan today is to move the ball across the field with the backs, and seems to be working well. Great passes from Richards, Catt, Mapusua making the scissors to De Vedia, who eventually knocks on.
We get another penalty 25 metres away. This should be an easy one, but Hewat isn’t taking it. If he is injured, why is he still playing? This should be 9-11, with us back in the lead. Easy peasy. A supporter’s horn puts Delon off and misses. I am thinking that this could be the make or break moment in the game, when we could have taken the lead, but didn’t, and we will end up regretting this easy chance to take the lead, stopping the Sarries to gain momentum. 5 minutes later Catt misses a drop goal by a country mile and more handling errors spoil scoring chances for Irish.
With 5 minutes to half time, we are awarded a penalty as Catty is blocked on his kick and chase. This is a long one, about 45 metres away, dead in the middle. Delon goes for it and… YES! 9-11 now, all my fears are abandoned.
Delon would have another chance before half time, but this one is a lot trickier, to the left of the half way line. He takes his time to place the ball, and when he is about to kick it, the ball drops. The crowd really puts him off as he repositions the ball and misses.
At half time I go for my nicotine fix, but at Vicarage Road you are not allowed to smoke anywhere, and if you leave the stadium you are not allowed back in. So it is cold turkey for me until the end of the game. This game was a nail-biter, just as well you are still allowed to bite your nails at Watford.
I asked the same people for their opinion on how they thought the game could go, and all of them thought exactly the same as before the game. Pretty nerve racking, it could go either way. Our narrow lead was by no means deserved, as with our possession and chances we should be 10 points up at least.
It was turning very cold for the second half, but I don’t think any of the players noticed the cold much. Mapusua kept the tackles coming and going in a man of the match performance.
Jackson replaced Ross at half-time and immediately put Saracens ahead with a drop goal. 12-11.
In a nice piece of Saracens attack, Jackson kicked high towards the left corner of Irish goal area, and Richard Haughton was inches short of catching the ball and getting the try. I’d blame it on his afro hair style, I am sure someone like Topsy would have had that one.
Great attaking play by Irish now, moving the ball across the Saracens 22. We have a 3 man overlap in the corner, and what could have been a try was just a penalty. Nevermind, Hewat decides to take it this time and gets it. Nice one, the man looks fit enough to kick now. 12-14 and looking good.
It is looking so good that we decide to put our arms down, letting Adam Powell run through the middle of our defence like a knife through butter to score. Glen Jackson gets the conversion, and, as a Spanish proverb says, good times never last long in the poor man’s house. 19-14 with 25 minutes to go.
We are awarded another penalty in front of the posts, and because it would be rude not to, Hewat takes the three to put us within one score again. 19-17, 22 minutes to go.
We seem to be camped in their 22 for a while now, the next score needs to be ours, what a close game! I am so excited that my handwriting becomes impossible to read now. I can’t believe my eyes when Hewat misses a drop goal attempt just 15 metres away, but Delon would take the next very hard penalty kick. 19-20, and just over 7 very long minutes to go. We need to fight to keep this lead.
The local crowd get lifted again by a very loud Shake the room, and it did indeed shake, as Sarries would enjoy possesion. Who wants to win this game the most? Sarries are awarded a penalty in front of the post with barely 2 minutes to go. As I am writing in my notepad, Jackson does the unthinkable by kicking high into the corner while all the Irish players wait for the kick with their hands in their hips, resigned by the defeat. Haughton was waiting and he managed to gather the ball and scored unopposed to give Saracens the victory, winning the man of the match award, according to the speaker. 24-20 after the missed conversion meant that 3 points were not going to be enough, and we had about one minute left to get a try. We did try, but the Gods were not on our side today as all we came back with from Watford was a losing bonus point and a Monday morning hangover.
We had our best side out and we didn’t play that badly, so why did we lose?
1. We have been used over the last two weeks to play on Saturdays, not Sundays.
2. The music was too loud.
3. It was too cold in the second half.
4. We have been spoiled by Heineken Cup rugby and we couldn’t change the chip into local tournaments.
5. We didn’t use our bench, only Steffon and Skuse came on with 15 minutes to go. I would have given Topsy a chance, especially since both of our wingers had the slippery fingers disease.
6. We missed 11 points at kicking, or even more if you count all the drop goals.
7. They didn’t have any wine (white or red) or Baileys at the Red Lion one hour after the game. What kind of pub is that?
8. I’ll leave this one for Brian Smith to find another excuse.
Many thanks to all the Sarries supporters who helped me getting back to my car as I was awfully lost. They were very happy with the victory, as it puts them into third position in the premiership and they didn’t feel very optimistic either before the game.
Some of them were saying to me that they are hoping to play us in the Heineken Cup quarter finals. I don’t know if this could happen, but let it be at home, please!
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StumbleuponRe: Thank you for the music – NOT!
Posted by: JamesC (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:11:26:15:58:40
top report - thanks, PANS person
Re: Thank you for the music – NOT!
Posted by: waltham (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:11:26:19:54:51
Absolutely - top reportage and tres elegant. Nice to meet you - albeit only briefly to concur about the no-smoking nonsenseRe: Thank you for the music – NOT!
Posted by: ascotintheantipodes (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:11:27:10:01:55
Thanks Props,
I always read the reports although I don't always acknowledge them (I know, I'm slack at times!).
For us, who live some distance away, they are always appreciated.
I always read the reports although I don't always acknowledge them (I know, I'm slack at times!).
For us, who live some distance away, they are always appreciated.
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