EUROPEAN CHALLENGE CUP FINAL

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS VS. CSBJ BOURGOIN

Friday, 22nd May, 2009 – 7.45PM

TWICKENHAM STOOP

MATCH PREVIEW

Coming up from under the radar...

The Saints head to the Stoop with a 100% record in this competition and face a side in Bourgoin who have absolutely nothing to lose. Yet oddly this cup final has turned into something completely different. Why? Wasps are involved…

Now, regardless of what you think of Shaun Edwards and his pack of under-achieving wieners, when it comes to the press corps of our fine nation they’ll do anything to make a mountain out of a molehill. So as this preview is eventually posted on the boards of the rugby network we can expect to find that Danny Cipriani has signed on for one week for Les Berjalliers and taken three bags of tapes and player analysis with him. Still the Saints plan to counter this by inviting James Haskell to act as a water boy for them at pitch side….

Ok, ok, I’m kidding, but still Wasps being involved by proxy has given this game a heightened profile and meant that the National Press has decided not to write about us…

Which is good.

Why?

Well, I’m asking more questions than I’m answering but lay me this one on you and see if you like the sound of it...

Modus Operandi

Saints’ Modus Operandi this season has been one that I know all to well from 10 years as a stonemason…

 “Head down, ‘Arris up!”

We’ve gone about our business like professionals, worked hard and earned our place back in Europe’s premier competition. Mind you, don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret!

Y’see Jim, in his wisdom, has taken a leaf out of the Dean Richards book of getting it done.

Right? Wrong? It doesn’t really matter just get it done really…

While the gods were kind enough to give us Wuss at home on the opening day we didn’t rip up any trees and we slow but surely started to build a team and build a quiet reputation. Those inside the game experienced enough noted this and started looking at us a different way.  There are still plenty of folks however, like Mr. Edwards and Mr. Booth who have not seen this, have not adapted and have had to contend with a Saints team which not only beat their sides at Franklins Gardens but also gave them a real scare away from home. Yeah, they still think Los is playing for us, Dyl is likely to start a punch up with his own reflection, that our back row is slow and our lineout is weak, we have no kicking game and love trying it on down the 12 channel. Wake up ladies, do we really have to draw you a picture?

Now, the reasons why the Saints have slipped under the radar of the two notable coaches vary but both need pointing out simply for a cheap laugh. Do I care? Not a jot, (for I see Wasps and Irish as derby matches for the Saints these days, I just wish others would recognise this.)

So the reasons. Well poor old Mr. Edwards is far too busy doing his best impression of ‘Stretch Armstrong’ up and down the M4 to bother with such a feeble and wet bunch of misanthropes as the Saints while Mr. Booth is far too busy trying to sell the idea that his hero should get one more bite of the cherry after having already knocked off the whole knickerbockers glory on more than 3 occasions.

Ok, they weren’t particularly clever or funny put downs. It featured no mentions of flat caps, whippets or bulldogs licking urine off of thistles but you don’t need me to tell you they’re a pair of ghastly looking individuals. What they are though is pretty near the mark of correct.  

What Booth and Edwards share in common is an ornate ability to under-estimate, like plumbers who promise to stoke your RFU installed boiler for a large amount of cash and then moan that they not had enough because they had to use so many English workers on the job. They are consummate professionals in blaming everyone around them and walking away from the problem and spouting off to the press that it was the fault of ref, the weight of the ball, the ELVs or the half time bananas were quite badly bruised.

Now, I hate this with a passion, its, its just so Allerdyce-y.

When the Saints went down, we were gutted of course but we made no excuses. Too many big name players, too many lacking in heart and the pride was sucked out of the club quicker than my old friend Wellsaint knocking back a pint of the black stuff (We’ll be thinking of you mate…). But we dusted ourselves off, got back on the horse and have been plodding back along the road to Tombstone ever since. FG is now a bull-hockey free zone.  Honesty is the best policy. Honestly, we deserve to be back in the Heineken Cup next season. But will we?

“Head down! Arris up!”

The mantra of the Saints has completely changed yet so few people around the premiership have pricked their ears up and noticed. We are still very much under the radar…

Don’t believe me?

Want some proof? Ok enlightenment is but a poorly written paragraph away.

Under the radar

Many still look upon Dyl as a ticking time bomb of frustration waiting to go off like a 15 year olds tallywhacker on his first visit to a massage parlour. Wrong. Any fool with two eyes can see that his throwing has moved on vastly and his temper is in control. You need only watch tapes of the demolitions of French 2nd stringers in October and early December to see this…

Saints can’t kick goals and have no shape…

No, wrong again. Stephen Myler has grown into a magnificent young player. Is ‘Boom-boom’ the best in the country? No, but good enough to be selected in the England squad for the tour to Argentina ahead of a man vaunted as the best thing since the fried slice by one S. Edwards.

Saints are slow in the back row…

Well, Scotty Gray, the turnover machine would beg to differ while Mark Easter finally fit after years of playing through the pain is showing plenty of people what his brother would have been capable of had he had any gas. Oh yeah, there’s this guy called Bestie, you might of heard of him, tackles anything that moves and then tackles them again for thinking about getting up and trying it again. Not heard of him? That’s probably got something to do with the media trying to tell you that Quinlan, Easterby, and Worsley are better than him. They’re wrong of course, but hey! They are the Press and they are always wrong. You need only open a paper to see them telling the country that the club is still the play thing of Keith Barwell and not a fully functioning and profitable publicly limited company or if you have been watching carefully recently that we are, in fact, Newcastle Falcons.

“Head down! ‘Arris up!”

So much are the Saints flying under the radar that we aren’t even being spoken about as regards this weekend. Splendid, says I, its all the more shock when we bite everyone on the bot-bot next season.

Bourgoin’s danger men

Well, it’s tough to pick out one or two here from the CSJB because they do have plenty of talent to worry us.

Top of the list is Benjamin Boyet and his metronomic boot. Boyet has been at the club since 97 and is the heart and soul of the club. However, now pushing 30 his better days are behind him and any ideas he may have of slotting over penalties from 50 or 60 metres, of which he is well capable, may come to an end when he starts to appreciate the swirling wind inside the Stoop.

Secondly we have French international scrumhalf Morgan Parra. Capable of operating at both scrum half and fly half his ability to offer a clean service is often marred by his inconsistency. His excellent kicking game will need to be spot on Friday or Fodes and Digger could have a field day.

Anthony Forrest also has the potential to throw a spanner in the works for the Saints. Despite a howler of a mistake against Brive (Come on, he is French after all!) he has often shown the ability to burst through the line and cause all manner for grief in the final third of the field.

Saints team

No surprises for me…

1 Tiny
2 Dyl
3 Big Evil
4 Nacho
5 Freddie
6 Bestie
7 Scotty
8 Easts
9 Dicko
10 Boom Boom
11 Digger
12 Jimmy D
13 JC
14 Bruce
15 Fodes

16 Sharman
17 Wee Tam
18 Courtney
19 Hoppers
20 Al Dickens
21 Barry the Boot
22 Joey A

For me, it’s the Saints by quite a few. Pushing hard in the final 20 and making the most of tired props in the back line. Our "head down 'Arris up!" attitude and focus will give us the advantage. The tighter the game is the more likely that Boyet or Parra will have an influence, but it’s important to take into account that swirling wind. Kicks could easily be pushed off to the side all day long. The Saints’ focus, determination and pride should see them home.

It's also important that we the supporters make sure our voices are loud and proud. The support of the Franklins faithful deserves a big night and a bit more silverware.

And as soon as we win, all of a sudden it will become a tin-pot trophy that no one cares about...

But it will be our tin-pot trophy that no one cares about...

The secret will be out come Saturday morning, and we will suddenly start popping up on the radar of some of Europe's' big clubs again. Still, not to worry, there is a big game featuring the Tigers for the press to talk up instead…

The ECC Final is live on Sky Sports 2.

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