Heineken Cup Pool 1 Round 5

Northampton Saints v USAP

Franklin's Gardens Sunday 17th January 2010  KO 3pm

Saints 34 Perpignan 0

The Saints were clear favourites pre-match with a fantastic home record and facing a much-depleted Perpignan team. The late news before kick off was that Courtney Lawes had failed a fitness test and would not take part. However with only Lawes and devout Christian Euan Murray missing this was very nearly the ‘cup final team.'

To the match and it was the proverbial game of two halves; well actually it was a game of two fly halves. Unfortunately they were both Shane Geraghty. In a truly forgettable first 40 air Shane had an absolute mare. His kicking made Dylan's 2^nd half cross field kick look good and his only saving grace were two successful penalties and making a big banana out of Plante when Perpignan really should have scored. The Saints were struggling to play their normal game and were frustrated both by Perpignan's persistence and by Alain Rolland's interpretation of the break down. Half time came and the whistle was a blessed relief as the flat-footed Saints trudged off with a 6-0 lead.

I have no idea what Big Jim says to the team at half time but whatever it is, it works every time. After the break and with the advantage of playing down Mt. St. James the Saints were a different side. Everything started going right and the first try was a thing of regular Saintly beauty with Foden running the ball back, sucking in three defenders and releasing ‘guess who,' Chris Ashton to sprint home under the posts.

The rejuvenated Geraghty dismissed the tee and drop kicked the conversion. Moments later he made good use of ‘nothing on ball,' to put Saints deep in the USAP 22.

Credit should go again to Perpignan at this point. In the first half they were content to slow things down through fair means and foul but they appeared liberated by the Saints expansive play and made a good fist of playing a bit of rugby themselves. However business as usual was resumed with another piece of Foden play releasing Ashton down his flank. This time he turned on the snake charming to bamboozle four defenders before offloading to the tireless Dowson for another try under the posts. Geraghty nonchalantly dropped over another conversion.

The third try was frankly a travesty. I have no idea how it was given but it was 5 points because sir said it was! From a penalty, Geraghty put the Saints in the red zone with an excellent kick to touch. From the resulting lineout Dickson made a break for the line. With the benefit of TV replays I now know he was tackled about 5 metres short, made 12 additional movements towards the line, knocked and then proceeded to place the ball very near to the try line. OK I made some of that up but I think Monsieur Rolland will be a tad embarrassed when he watches the video. Geraghty decided on a return to the conventional and banged over the conversion from a tee.

There we are then, three tries to the good and the best part of a quarter to go. The BP try was surely just a formality so Mr Mallinder decided to get as many players off as he could in preparation for the big one at Thomond Park on Friday. Oh dear, it sort of went a bit wobbly. The previously solid scrummage fell apart and Perpignan started to dominate. The only side that looked likely to score were wearing ‘blood and gold and erm Duck Egg blue. USAP had the ball for a very long time in our 22 and though they never really looked like scoring they were determined not to give it back!

As 80 minutes ticked round surely Saints had blown it and I'm sure that's what all neutral observers must have been thinking. Well we knew better. In much the same way as your PE teacher would have told you that you need to run 110 metres to win the 100m, you need to play for 85 minutes to stop the Saints. From a turnover in their own 22 Saints gained a penalty between the 22 and the 10 metres line. Dickens tapped and went feeding Foden in the 10 channel, he passed to Gray and from there to Reihana, Bruce went to ground and Foden played scrum half feeding Dickens again who passed to Day who passed to Clarke on the right wing who ran in from the 22 in front of a frankly potty, delirious, ecstatic Franklin's Gardens. They'd done it again. That bonus point could be all the difference between HC quarterfinals and the Amlin cup. Was it lucky? Well yeah but this team does this too often to just be luck.

So that was that. A 5 pointer sets up the show down of all showdowns with mighty Munster, the team that have never beaten the Saints. Good isn't it! I'll leave the final word to a FG first timer from South Africa by the name of Bongo. He said: "You have a wonderful team, I'm so glad we moved to Northampton!" Thanks a lot Bongo...you're not wrong!

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