By Mav
February 2 2005

The coaching duo of Budge Pountney and Paul Grayson saw all their previous good work thrown out of the window as Northampton threw away the most straight forward route to Heineken Cup competition next year with a combination of awry line-outs, bad handling and most crucially, poor discipline.

There are two ways that this match report could be written. The first is, “just the facts, sir! Just the facts!” The second is to say, ”Stuff the lot of them” and be gloriously one-eyed.

Let’s go for a combination of the two…

The match started in front of a barely two-thirds full and subdued Franklins’ Gardens and almost immediately Saints fell behind. Only two minutes were on the clock when Simon Emms was pinged for driving across the scrum and the Leeds No. 10, Gordon Ross, stepped up to slot the resulting penalty. 0-3 Leeds. Just minutes later Dan Richmond played the ball whilst off his feet in front of the posts and the lead had doubled. Factor in a penalty against captain Andrew Blowers for trying to play the ball after it had clearly left a ruck and it’s ten minutes gone and Saints looking at the wrong end of a nine points to nil score-line.

Indeed, so scrappy had been the Saints play in the early exchanges that it was a almost full fifteen minutes before referee Chris White gave any decision in Saints favour. Tykes’ scrum-half Alan Dickens was penalised at the scrum and Shane Drahm put the first points on the board for the home side. Tykes responded almost immediately with a Gordon Ross drop-goal but this was cancelled out with a further 3 points from Shane after Leeds had be spotted pulling Grant Seely out of mid-air at the line-out.

Twenty minutes gone, Saints 6 – 12 Leeds.

Northampton almost coughed up the first try of the match when Leeds, playing all the rugby at this point, surged forward and Diego Alabanese reached for the try line. It was only firm tackles from first Wylie Human and then Ben Cohen who forced the little Argentine to spill the ball in contact as he reached for the score. Saints marched up field and set up in the most promising move of the half from a Saints perspective. The ball flew through the hands of Mark Tucker and Chris Budgen on the left and then onto Wylie on the right. Indeed, Saints actually played as they had done over the last few weeks, patiently making phase after phase, keeping the ball alive as the ball was fed back out left again. Alas, as we saw all too often in the early part of the season, the final pass to Seely went astray and the move died.

From the most promising play of the half to the first of two game defining moments. After unseen illegal work at the line-out by the Tykes, the visitors forced forward and took a foothold in the Saints half and rumbled forward. Strong defence initially kept them at bay until Darren Fox encroached from the side and Mr White reached for his pocket. A yellow for Fox and from the resulting penalty Leeds scored. Mike Shelley emerged from the pile of bodies as they forced over from five metres out and although the conversion was missed, a half-time 6-17 deficit did not bode well.

And it didn’t get any better.

From the restart Bruce Reihana did excellent work to collect under pressure and the ball was re-cycled to Cohen, who took his eye off the ball and spilled it. Big time! Retired England hooker Mark Regan was on hand to take advantage and Cohen’s schoolboy error had left Saints with too steep a hill to climb. Saints were 18 points adrift but, even with almost 40 minutes to play, nothing we had seen in the previous half suggested Saints could come back.

Wylie Human gave Saints hope ten minutes into the second period. Good work from Fox and Budgen took the ball up the middle of the park before the ball was spun out to Wylie. His exquisite chip beyond the defence was matched with a trademark turn of speed by the Coyote and downward pressure was secured. A try! Quite why Mr White had to go to the video ref for this one is beyond me but the score was eventually confirmed and Shine’s conversion put the home side back within touching distance.

For the next ten minutes, Leeds did what Saints used to do when they held the winning hand. They kicked the corners, they played the territory, ran down the clock they were, very effectively, boring. As would Saints have been in a similar position. Tykes did infringe on 60 minutes and Drahm reduced the arrears further but the nail in the Powergen Cup coffin was to come in unfortunate fashion.

Mark Regan was caught on the wrong side of a ruck in front of the Tetley Stand and our first thoughts were that he was fair game for a little assistance to help him out of the way. However, Mark Robinson had a calamitous rush of blood. Whilst the ball could be probably seen from his position, it was nowhere near Regan’s head, which is where Robinson’s boot ended up. The red card was inevitable. One can never condone foul play and Robinson’s actions got what they deserved. May I however, in my one-eyed-ness just have a little grumble about Regan’s reaction. Yes, he had been caught by a boot, yes it must have hurt but, why the “Italian footballer” style histrionics? If it had been that serious, how come he was back on his feet as soon as the red card had been shown? There’s no place for play-acting in rugby and yes, I would tell it to his face!

So, the game was up. Saints threw everything at Leeds for the remaining minutes and Shane pulled them back to within a score with another penalty. It was never going to be enough.

Congratulations to Leeds for their professional victory. They played the territory and took the points whilst Saints retreated back into their shells. The glass half-full brigade will tell us that we are still in the Heineken Cup. The realists will say that we’ve just thrown away our best chance of HC competition next year with the type of performance we hoped we had seen the last of. Unless Messrs Pountney and Grayson can pull an unlikely sequence of match-winning performances in the Premiership over the next couple of months, we will be looking for European accommodation in Italy and Spain in 2005/6.

Given this performance, it’s no more than we deserve.