Man of the Match Analysis 2007/8

So that was the season that was. The Saints second demolition tour of ND1. We were led to believe, by ND1 supporters, in advance that:

-          thoughts of immediate promotion were arrogant and not treating the opposition with respect.

-           if we thought Saints would go undefeated through the season we must be smoking Amsterdam’s finest. 

-          Quins had failed to go through the season undefeated two seasons ago and the league was much tougher since then.

-          those fancy dan All Blacks won’t like playing at proper (grass roots) rugby grounds.

-          Saints forwards were lightweight and would get pushed all over some gluepots in the depth of winter.

That said however for me the best thing about the season was the opportunity to visit new grounds and towns.

The results

The results as we know would show that points one to three above were not true. Saints treated every match with respect (as did most of our supporters) and managed not only to gain promotion – they did so without losing a match. But how did the voting go?

Votes

Over the season we had a grand total of 2934 votes which is an average of almost 84 per match.  There was, as you could expect, a distinct difference between votes in home matches and away matches. The average votes for the home matches were 105 compared to 68 for the away games (including the cup).

The maximum number of votes cast in home games was for the end of season Jamboree against Launceston where 147 voted (with Tom Smith winning the poll). The lowest was a miserly 53 against the Pirates (Mark Hopley winning) although I have no idea why the vote was so low as it was a decent crowd, perhaps we had so much fun we couldn’t remember the game the following day/week.

For the away games (excluding the cup) the highest number of votes was 87 for the Cornish All Blacks game which as we all know was actually held at the Gardens. Whilst this is the highest we also had similar votes 85 for Coventry and 83 for Bedford so perhaps no that out of line. The lowest for away game was 46 for Exeter away.

For the cup (all away games) the lowest was for Doncaster away – probably a reflection on the fact that we played them the following week, also away, in the league. The highest was for the final where 140 votes were cast.

Detailed Analysis

One interesting point however is that if you look at the number of votes cast as a percentage of the total attendance then there is actually a much higher rate of votes at away matches (almost treble)  – which goes to prove that readers of COYSDC are hardy travellers.

The Winners

This was the closest season I can remember with several players in contention right up to the end.  In all we had 17 different names make an appearance on the winners’ roll of honour. The eventual winner, on count back, was Carlos Spencer, who had tied at the top with Bruce Reihana on 4 outright wins each, next came Stephen Myler on 3 together with Dylan Hartley who was the top forward.

That puts paid to item four on the pre season list – the fancy dan All Blacks were up for a season of grass roots rugby. Well done Carlos and Bruce.

The final list is:

Carlos Spencer 4
Bruce Reihana 4
Stephen Myler 3
Dylan Hartley 3
Mark Hopley 2.5
Matt Lord 2.5
Darren Fox 2
Joe Ansbro 2
Chris Ashton 2
Paul Shields 2
Soane Tonga’uiha 2
Tom Smith 1.5
Paul Diggin 1
Euan Murray 1
Mark Robinson 1
Dave Ward 1
Tim Visser 0.5

So what about the final pre season comment?

Would our “lightweight” forwards be pushed all over the park by knarled old hands in the packs of Division 1 clubs?  It soon became apparent that most of the ND1 clubs played a very different game to that we were used to seeing in the premiership with an emphasis on the set piece. Certainly the shape of some of the props reminded me of the old days. Whilst those clubs did excel in certain areas they did not have the all round game of most of our pack – even in the mud of mid winter. This was apparent when you look at when the forwards won their places on the leader board.

Looking at the graph below we see that the forwards won the majority of their victories in the middle of the season.

So that is the final item on the pre-season list debunked.

I just hope that Jim, Dorian and Paul can debunk those that we will go straight back down etc, just as effectively.

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