By Simon Robinson (Smurfomatic)
February 6 2005

Saints scraped the narrowest of victories in a titanic battle at Stradey Park. Budgen spent ten minutes in the cooler after only four on the pitch, referee Darriere dispatching him in an uncharacteristic flurry of decision making that would not last through the match.

Llanelli fly half Gareth Bowen kicked the ensuing penalty to put the Scarlets ahead 0 -3. On eight minutes, Grayson took the chance to level the scores after a Scarlet held on too long in the tackle: 3 - 3. Mark Soden left the field to allow Brett Sturgess to prop. On 13 minutes, Grayson's boot put the Saints into the lead, albeit using the woodwork to help the ball over. 6 - 3 to the Jimmies.

Halfway through the first half, Bowen took an easy opportunity to level again, his sure foot making it 6 - 6 after twenty minutes. Adding insult to injury, Grayson (off form, but strangely not replaced - is Drahm fit?) mis-kicked the restart and it went straight into touch.

A Llanelli lineout on the Saints five metre line four minutes later led to an easy run in for flanker Gavin Thomas, but with Bowen missing a touchline conversion it left the Scarlets 6 - 11 up. Another Bowen penalty on the half hour mark put the deficit at 6 - 14.

Grayson took the edge off the home advantage with another penalty on 36 minutes, leaving the score 9 - 14. Bowen missed an attempt, one very wide out, and Grayson added another in first half injury time to bring the lead down to 12 - 14. One worrying product of this period of play was losing hard-nosed flanker Corne Krige, ably replaced by Darren Fox.

The second half saw Grant Seely replaced in the second row by Damien Browne. Five minutes in, Bowen put over his fourth successful penalty to extend the Welsh lead to 12 - 17. His fifth on 58 minutes extended the lead further, to 12 - 20. Grayson replied five minutes later with his fifth, narrowing the lead to 15 - 20.

Saints rung the changes in the second half, with Tucker making a welcome return for Wylie Human on 67 minutes, followed four minutes later by Dan Richmond replacing a crocked Andy Blowers, with Steve Thompson moving to openside flanker.

This last move obviously worked, as with two minutes left Wally collected the ball from a lineout outside the Scarlets 22, running not only the thirty metres to the line, but the same distance again to put the ball down under the posts. If Grayson could slot the easy conversion, the Saints would take a surprising 22 - 20 lead.

Grayson did not disappoint, the crowd went wild (well, the Saints fans were wild with cheering and the Welsh with disbelief) and the Saints had four minutes to defend a slender lead. This was done with great power and passion, and the Saints had an historic win at Stradey Park.

Saints really rode their luck on this one, they came close on several occasions to losing another player to the sin bin, which would have seriously hurt their chances of scraping this most critical of European victories. It would seem a four-point win over Glasgow would be enough to qualify, but the bonus point should make sure of it. We shall see on Friday.