Efficient Saints see off the Irish

Match Report London Irish vs Saints 8.5.10

London Irish 7-31 Northampton Saints

It has now been three seasons out of three that the Saints have won silverware under Jim Mallinder, and there is still a chance of more.  Whatever happens from now on, it's been great, hasn't it? 

As with each season, the last games are synchronised so that there is no psychological advantage for a team playing earlier or later than another team (or something).  In any case, matters at the other end of the table were decided a couple of weeks before with Worcester missing the cut, so the main interest in today's fixture list was which will be the fourth club in the playoffs, and who would join the Tigers with a home semi-final?

Three clubs were in with a shout of the fourth place slot:  Bath (56 points), Wasps (53) and London Irish (52).  In order for Irish to get the fourth playoff place, they needed not only to beat the Saints but also needed Wasps and Bath to lose.  With Wasps away to newly DoR-less Newcastle, and in-form Bath at home to Premiership survivors Leeds, this was a tall order.  The Saints' objective was the home semi-final, which they could secure by beating Irish or by Saracens losing at Leicester.  Would our chums up the (Welford) road do us a favour?  We hoped so.

Today was also Mike Catt's last game before his (deserved) retirement at the age of 38.  Catt has one of the outstanding rugby brains of his time, and I am sure we all wish him success in the next phase of his career.  Would he make one last appearance off the bench?  Will he be writing any more books?  Will he be beastly to Brian Ashton again?  Who knows...  certainly he has started practising with the word processor, writing a short piece in the "Mike Catt Commemorative Edition" match programme, worth £3 of anyone's money.

And so to the Madejski stadium, the most famous landmark in Reading apart from Ricky Gervais.  The biggest question of the day was:  would the bar code readers on the turnstiles work this time, or would we have to queue for help like we have for the last four years?  Happily, we sailed through and took shelter from the rain in the capacious areas underneath the east stand.  

The weather was cold, grey and drizzly, The pitch was in fine condition, with the worn areas (the goalmouths) out of the way behind the posts.  However the soccer markings were poorly disguised:  would we see a repeat of the error made by a visiting team a few seasons ago when they touched down for a ‘try' just inside the penalty area?

The Saints' travelling support was pretty much concentrated at the south end of the East stand (the opposite end to the drummers, thankfully!) and nearby in the South stand.  So singing was to be loud and mainly synchronised.    As kick-off approached, the pre-match entertainment became very loud, with "The Fields" being blasted out over the loudspeakers at white noise volumes.  This was followed by some largely unintelligible shouting from the on-pitch chap with the microphone who rather rudely yelled "where are you, Shane Geraghty" when the man himself was only standing a few yards away, warming up with his teammates.  Good grief, some of them are still bitter about Shane leaving the Irish last year!

The Irish were missing a few big names today - Casey and Kennedy for starters, but Topsy Ojo was back, along with Tagicakibau who along with Homer and Elvis gave their backs a bit of menace.  A weakened team, but not by much.  One had the feeling that the Saints would do well to win here (they hadn't managed it in the preceding five seasons!).

The Saints were pretty much at full strength, with Irish old boy Shane Geraghty on the bench, assured no doubt of a warm welcome back to Reading by the friendly, even handed and generous Irish supporters.  And as we like to point out on these occasions, the Saints had two more Irish players than their opponents - Best and Wilson.  Yes, I know the joke is wearing a bit thin but it still has some legs.

And so to the kick off.   Anyone who has been to a game at London Irish will be familiar with their match announcer, a proper Irishman with a voice like your favourite uncle from Dublin.  He's the one with just two catchphrases during the match:  if the Irish score, or if they do something good like gain some yards, then it's "Keep it going Irish!" (KIGI!).   After an opposition score has been read out, then it's "Come on you Irish!" (COYI!).  Hopefully we would be hearing a lot of the latter today.

Saints kicked off down the slope towards the South stand (oh all right, I invented the slope) and a couple of lively rucks that showed both teams being up for a scrap.  Saints enjoyed a bit of early possession before exchanging penalties for misdemeanours in the ruck by both sides.  Following a rolling maul and a Saints infringement, the first kickable penalty was awarded on the three minute mark to the Irish and Tom Homer stepped up to take the first three points.   However, uncharacteristically he hit the right hand post and the ball was snaffled by Saints on the 5 metre line, Stephen Myler clearing to touch.

Early on it seemed that despite having their virtuoso wingers, Irish preferred to play safe and mainly drive forward via route one in the early stages.  That is, apart from a clever cross kick to Topsy on the wing which he took but was immediately caught by a well-timed Foden tackle causing him to spill the ball forward.  Ten minutes in, and the Irish seemed to be shading it with some enthusiastic rucking.  The set pieces however were pretty solid on both sides.

A few minutes later, and the announcer decided to gee everyone up with a "COYI!"  This resulted in a rather loud Wendy by way of response from the visiting supporters.

A quarter of the match gone, and it was clear that the Irish defence was Wasp-like in its flatness (read mostly offside to the one-eyed), and the Saints struggled to make ground at times.  However, happily they managed to go round the Irish once or twice, and one of these breaks caught the Irish properly offside and gave Stephen Myler a kicking chance from just outside the Irish 10m line.  A good kick amid some shouting, but 3 points making the score 0-3 after 18 minutes. There was now another COYI!, followed by a plea to keep quiet at kicks.

By now we had noticed a new-ish tactic from the Saints - throwing long into space at the lineout worked well at least three times, starting some promising Saints moves.  Obviously they hadn't just been lying around reading newspapers during their two week break. 

A neat bit of handling from the Irish backs saw an excellent clearance by Homer move the play to the Saints 22 and bring the crowd (and the drummers) to life again.  KIGI!  However, the Saints pinched the ball from the ruck (again) and cleared.  Now the Irish start doing what the Sarries did two weeks before, that is move the ball from wing to wing.  Unfortunately for them the penetration wasn't there as the Saints' line held firm.

After half an hour or so the game still looked pretty well balanced, although the Saints defence looked stretched for the first time as it repelled a couple of Irish shoves near the line.  Fortunately for them, an Irish player dived over the top of a ruck, giving the Saints a relieving penalty.  From the resulting lineout, the Saints got a decent maul rolling, resulting in the whistle as the Irish fiddle with it illegally (actually, a player went in from the side but I wanted to get "Irish", "whistle" and "fiddle" in the same sentence).  Stephen Myler went for the posts from 45 yards on the right, a fine kick, three points, 0-6.  COYI!

By now the crowd was getting itself ready for half time, with early queues beginning to form at the bar and the urinals (pre- and post-processing, we call that).  However, for those who stayed in their seats there was a treat in store as Ben Foden collected a bomb from Homer and broke from half way.  Myler took it on, fed to Ashton who sped past two defenders before passing to Jon Clarke for the Saints first try in the left hand corner.  0-11.  Myler missed the touchline conversion and there was just time for a quick COYI! before kickoff, a knock-on, and half time.

Half Time:  London Irish 0-11 Northampton Saints

The half time scores were picked up on someone's smart phone.  A reservation for the fourth playoff spot was being claimed by Bath with a 17-0 lead, but of slightly more concern to the Saints was the Tigers-Sarries score which was 13-16 in favour of the visitors.  So the Saints had to do it themselves, which is how we wanted it.

The Irish kicked off to start the second half.  What kind of talking-to had Toby Booth given them?  Would they be energised and motivated?  The Saints started with purpose, giving the impression that Jim had also had a word.  Three minutes later, and a man over the top of the ruck gave Saints the chance to go further ahead.  Myler misses this one but only just, the ball sailing to the right.

A couple of minutes later, an excellent rifled Homer clearance moves play to the Saints 22 but their lineout remained safe and Myler made his point by clearing 50m downfield.  COYI!

After 40 minutes, after some decent Saints work along the line, Tiny broke free and crashed through the Irish line before passing to Juandre Kruger who fed Chris Ashton to score between the posts.  Myler took the two points, and after 50 minutes the score was 0-18.  COYI! 

(On a personal note:  well done Chris, your dad would have been proud of you.)

Now the Saints seems to have moved up a gear (or maybe they were playing with a confidence that a three-score cushion gives?), and it no longer seemed to be an even contest.  They started to shift the ball about with some skill, and even stole the Irish lineout which had hitherto been pretty solid. 

With around 25 minutes to go, the Saints started to make their substitutions with Brian Mujati replacing Euan Murray, and the excellent Nacho going off and being replaced by Courtney Lawes.

Another good rolling maul by the Saints resulted in a penalty in front of the posts, popped over by Stephen Myler for another three.   0-21 after 60 minutes.  COYI!

A few minutes later, and following an excellent penalty to the corner by Tom Homer, the Saints were put under severe pressure by a determined Irish attack camped on their line for what seemed like ages.  Penalties followed, and a harsh word to the Saints from the referee, but it seemed like the line would survive until Paul Hodgson took a quick free kick two metres from the posts.  The second pick and drive resulted in the ball being placed against the padding on the post by Danie Coetzee (also playing his last game here), and there was the first score for the Irish.  With the conversion a formality, the score after 66 minutes was 7-21.  KIGI!

This lifted the Irish somewhat, and there was a heart-in-mouth moment for the Saints as Topsy Ojo set off down the right wing with open field in from of him and only Juandre Kruger anywhere near him.  Now something must have happened because Topsy appeared to slow and was caught by the Saints lock.  Indeed it looked as though Topsy might have hurt himself, because he went off to be replaced by - wait for it - Mike Catt!  The was a big, emotional, devotional, standing-ovational sort of moment as the great man cast aside his Zimmer frame and strode onto the field for the last time.  Could he do it?  Could he?  Well we would have to wait because another hero around these parts, Shane Geraghty, came on the field to replace Ben Foden who had hurt his ankle/foot.   Saints cheers, Irish boos.  Nice.

Well Catty definitely was up for it, flinging passes left and right to try and get his back line moving again.  Unfortunately for the Irish some studied Saints concentration in defence ensured that the play only moved laterally, and with just nine minutes to go Saints extended their lead.   An Irish player entered a Saints maul via the tradesmen's entrance and was pinged, again.  Myler stroked the penalty over from 40m on the right, and the score was now 7-24.  COYI!

With six or seven minutes to go, Catty was now doing a LOT of passing, some of it with good results.  Then a promising Irish attack was halted by a knock on inside the opposition 22, much to the relief of the Saints, and they took some time to catch their breath by bringing on three more substitutes. 

By now it seemed that the Saints forwards had decided that they would deal with the rest of the game, keeping it close with the freshly subbed men doing most of the gruntwork.  And so it was, until Shane Geraghty (who else?) started off a move just inside the Irish half which resulted in the ball being swung left and Join Clarke crossing for his second in the left corner.  This was a bit of a Geoff Hurst moment, but the Irish did look as if they had stopped playing at this point, however much Catty passed the ball.  The score was 7-29 now, with a touchline conversion to come.  Myler makes this difficult (but no-pressure) kick to huge cheers and the match ends with a convincing win for the Saints, 7-31.  Much celebrating followed, for Mike Catt whose playing career is now over, and for the Saints, whose season is not.  A nice feeling all the same, and some VERY loud Wendys rang around the stadium at the end.

No Side:  London Irish 7-31 Northampton Saints

So that was it, the Saints had achieved a home playoff semi-final under their own steam - and just as well, as the Sarries did a number on the Tigers at Welford Road.  Bath took the fourth place by comprehensively beating Leeds.  Well done the Saints for working so hard for the win, well done the Irish for Keeping It Going, and a big well done to us, the supporters, for our loud supporting and singing.

This was the Saints' highest finishing position in the regular Premiership season for over 10 years.  Not only that, but they have won more league matches than the other 11 clubs.  They have also played more matches than anyone else in Europe apart from Toulouse, largely with the same 25 or so players.  They should be tired, let's hope they can keep it going for the last two (hopefully) matches of the season.

Finally, just before the end of the match the announcer informed us all that the "Man of the Match was number 22, Mike Catt!" - who had been on the field for all of 10 minutes at that point...  Now I don't mind a bit of lachrymose sentimentality now and again, but surely this decision undermined and devalued the whole Man-of-the-Match system?   Now we understood how Nick Clegg felt! *

Teams:

Northampton

15 Foden (Geraghty 67mins)

14 Ashton

13 Clarke

12 Downey

11 Reihana

10 Myler

9  Dickson (Dickens 75mins)

1  Tonga'uiha (Dreyer 75mins)

2  Hartley (Sharman 75mins)

3  Murray (Mujati 53mins)

4  Fernandes Lobbe (Lawes 57mins)

5  Kruger

6  Dowson (Easter 75mins)

7  Best

8  Wilson

London Irish

15 Homer

14 Ojo (Catt 67mins)

13 Joseph

12 Seveali'i

11 Tagicakibau

10 Lamb (Lennard 59mins)

9  Hodgson

1  Corbisiero (Murphy 59mins)

2  Coetzee (Herring 71mins)

3  Rautenbach (Tideswell 67mins)

4  Roche

5  Garvey (Perry 59mins)

6  Thorpe

7  Armitage

8  Hala'Ufia (Gibson 41mins)

Hala'Ufia (Gibson 41mins)

Referee:  Dean Richards

Attendance:  14,314

* For the avoidance of doubt (and outrage), this is a joke.

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