By Chris Gleadell
March 30 2007

As the season moves into its final stages I’ve just noticed that on the keyboard I’m typing this column on the letters that spell out ‘so near yet so far’ have almost worn away.

THOUGHTS FROM THE CHRON

The loss at Bristol on Sunday still keeps us rooted to the bottom of the Guinness Premiership. The difference is still that single point but alas we now have no games in hand and it looks like a head to head battle between us and Worcester to decide who is playing in Division One next season.

 

However a look back over some of the tables of recent years shows you that there has been some dramatic movements in the last month of the season and with just about every team having something to play for there could well be more shuffling of the pack yet. Indeed it is not outside the realms of possibility that Newcastle and Sale could dragged back into the relegation reckoning. A win for Saints up at Newcastle on Easter Sunday could well and truly put the cat among the falcons.

 

Though the gods were not with us Sunday I thought the lads applied themselves well and but for a late missed opportunity we might well have come away with two points from the game. The league position may be the final yardstick but I think we’ve still got the nous on Sundays showing to still be playing in the GP next season. The fat lady might be just about to warm up, but despite all the pessimists, it could still a tad early to book her to sing at our wake just yet.

 

But enough of the dreaded R word for this week as we have a little game down in the Basque country to look forward too this Sunday as in San Sebastian, or Donostia to the locals, Saints take on Biarritz Olympique in the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup. We might be having a dismal time domestically but the HC has given us some respite and at times something to cheer about and who knows this weekend could be no different.

 

Despite the temptation to rest a few players Paul Grayson has stated that “We owe it to our supporters to give it everything we've got”.

Now to be honest that’s the only way it should be. Not only is it the top club competition in the northern hemisphere and if you are in it you have to give it your all but if you field weakened teams at your peril. It is not that long ago that a couple of French sides received bans from European competition for fielding understrength XV’s because their eyes were on other prizes. If we do survive, or indeed return in two seasons, European rugby would be increasingly central to the season and to miss out because we were not giving it our all in a single game would be criminal.

But when alls said and done well done to Grase for still targeting this game with all our available firepower.

 

And who knows the outcome as we travel south with absolutely nothing to lose. We are heavy underdogs and are expected by all outside the club to be a mere stepping stone for BOPB to the semi finals. Nice bunch that they the Biarritz supporters are even talking about that semi already and their second visit to the Stade Anoeta the venue for this Sundays clash. However there will be no monkeys on our back, nor the weight of expection, that will be reserved for the home side, the pressure on them in front of 30,000 of their own will be immense. For our lads it’s a weekend away from domestic worry a chance for a pressure free run out and who know we might just pull something off, after all it is not the first time we have moved in to the final stages of the Heineken as underdogs. In 2000 some would have you believe we were just there to make up the numbers and look what happened then. On the day, who knows?

 

 

As always the Saints will be taking a healthy support down to the Cote Basque. Though I’m sure quite a few will return unhealthy it is expected that around 1500 Saints will be making the trip, although until kick-off time you never quite know as supporters seem to come out of the woodwork from every direction. With the game being in San Sebastian the support will be split over the two locations for the duration all meeting up on Sunday for the carnival atmosphere. Some fans have opted to stay at the games location whilst a sizable number have chosen to stay in Biarritz again and travel down to the game with the local support on Sunday (and if you are remember your passport). It will be our fourth time in Biarritz since the first game between the clubs in 2000 and most of us know the town like the back of our hands by now.

 

There seemed to be a shift in the favoured watering holes last year. With Pascal Ondart’s ocean front ‘La Caritz’ increasingly becoming more of an chic restaurant and the other bars in the area moving upmarket too, most of the support set up camp a little inland and centred their drinking around the Red Bar and the Café Kirola on Avenue Foch. It was certainly party time there last year with the traffic stopped for dancing in the street at one time and I’m sure it will be no different this time.

 

For those staying over the mythical border (despite needing a passport some locals will tell you it doesn’t exist) in San Sebastian there is no word of meeting places yet but I am sure the forward parties who started travelling out yesterday will be informing the mass following on where to go via the message boards on the clubs official site and ComeOnYouSaints.Com. See you all Sunday. Enjoy!

 

ML

 

And now this weeks thoughts from Maurice Lindsay. Last week the Wigan Chairman was almost insistent that those beastly rugby union types had signed young Chris Ashton for his weight in gold, the Mayorship of Northampton and Lord Heskeths country residence. This week he almost surpasses himself. I know a lot of Saints supporters tuned into Sky on Friday to watch our latest recruit play for his current club against Hull. Every time he got the ball you could hear booing. Post match Lindsay insisted it was the Hull supporters. Now quite why he thought that I don’t know but there was certainly no booing when Chris got his try and if it was Hull fans then you would have thought then it would be at its loudest given they were the dominating number. Of course it is a complete coincidence that on a Wigan supporters message board last week there was a thread with 270 postings talking about how and why the player would be booed. Funny that eh. Next week Maurice explains that the moon really is made of cheese.