Not counting too many chickens, nor disrespecting Saturday’s opponents the Bees of Birmingham, but if as expected the Saints pick up another five point victory at the Gardens we will be heading into the winter months of the season with that 100% record still intact.

 On the face of it as a supporter, you could not ask for anything more and week on week the team looks like they are gradually improving and taking what is thrown at them in their stride. The score in last Saturdays 41-0 win up at Rotherham may not have truly reflected the game as a whole as the Roth pack gave as good as they got but at the end of the day the Saints defence held firm and seven tries at the other end of the pitch kept the scoreboard ticking over in Northampton’s favour.

The plaudits again went to Chris Ashton for his four second half performances but another couple of youngsters are starting to catch the eye and maybe cementing themselves into first team slots long term. Neil Starling, who spent last season out injured improves week on week and is starting to show the potential he hinted at early on in his career whilst our other rugby league convert, Stephen Myler is making the No.10 shirt his own.

We got a glimpse of what a prospect young Myler might be last term. One silver lining to the dark cloud of relegation certainly looks like the time a year in Div one is giving Stephen to learn his trade at fly half in union. He is starting to look assured and confident on the ball and will no doubt be honing those tools of the trade with the support of a few knowledgeable souls around him at the club. With three mentors advising him in Paul Grayson, Barry Everitt and Carlos Spencer, who between them could probably write a definitive book on flyhalf play, he might have just as bright a future in the game as those grabbing the headlines.

You have to applaud the clubs selection policy in giving players like Myler and Ashton their chance. Of course there is no denying that in the cut and thrust of the Guinness Premiership things might have been different this season, on that we’ll never know, but it would have been all too easy to fall back on tried and tested players this season to secure promotion. Instead the coaches are letting youth have their chance alongside a group of older, wiser heads and already it looks like paying dividends long term. Looking five years down the line we might see a core of the likes of Ashton, Myler, Lawes and Hartley taking the club back to the top. Exciting times ahead.

RULE CHANGES - PAH!

Yet again more law changes seem in the offing to try and ‘improve’ our game.

The greatest support for these changes it seems is coming from the southern hemisphere and the performances of both France and England, when they strangled the life out of Australia and New Zealand, are being held up as what is bad about the game and why change must happen to make the game more free flowing or ‘entertaining’ as one Aussie official said.

To be honest I cannot see where they are coming from. Unless I am mistaken New Zealand had gone through the last four years beating almost all before them using these exact same laws? The problem is of course that someone has found a way to negate their game. It might not happen every week but when push came to shove France frustrated them on the day just as England did with Australia. Now I have always thought of rugby as a bit like chess.

If you are stopped down one alley you regroup and try something else, change your tactics to try and find another weakness in the opposition. Not for rugby it seems. In chess terms some people just want to do away with bishops and knights to make their style of play easier rather than trying to undo a defence by themselves.

Adapt to whats in front of you or lose. To be able to play and negate both styles should be any teams aim rather than rely on law changes to ease your plight. Don’t change the structure of the game to suit any one individual style or there is a big danger of throwing the baby away with the bath water.

Defence is as big a part of the game as offence and as for that entertainment well a hard fought 10-9 win can be just as entertaining, if not more, than a candyfloss basketball score drubbing. It may all be too late though, some changes look like they are very likely to be adopted. If they are rushed through it could be a disaster for the game.

SHHHHHH LAWRENCE

Despite the relative success of England at the Rugby World Cup it did not take long for the knives to come out on their return to this country. Surprisingly it was a couple of players that chose to put their heads above the parapet to tell the world just how bad things were in their eyes. Forgetting the adage that what goes on tour stays on tour and not content with using the RFU internal enquiry to put forward their views both Mike Catt and Lawrence Dallaglio chose to air the squads dirty washing in public in an outright attack on coach Brian Ashton.

I must say I was a bit surprised at Catt a long time servant under Ashton at Bath but it was Dallaglio who was most vociferous on the matter. No stranger to self publicity Dallaglio’s musings came over more as someone bitter and resentful over being dropped than anything constructive that England might learn from.

Of course it is a complete coincidence that he has an autobiography coming out and there was no thought that the attack on Ashton, which was hurriedly added to the book, would improve sales as it was serialised in this weeks press.

One other snippet from the book did make me smile though. Dallaglio was bemoaning the fact that Jonny Wilkinson played for Newcastle rather than a top side like Leicester or Wasps. In fact he thought all top players should play for top clubs playing in the top competitions for the sake of England. Odd that. I don’t remember Dallaglio jumping ship when Wasps were in the bottom half of the premiership and not playing in the Heineken Cup.

As always with Lawrence, its do what I say not do what I do.

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