By Ballagher
January 28 2006

Viadana Lions versus Northampton Saints (Fri 20/1/06) Now, before you start, I need to remind you that all match reports are written from the perspective of the author. Inevitably, not everyone sees the game in exactly the same way. Coupled to this, my memory of some of the events is fading already.

The line-up

 

The Saints were led out by the skipper Bruce Reihana to a frosty reception.  The home side then came out to the roars of literally tens of people who’d braved the tropical January weather conditions to witness this clash of titans.  Had we known at this point what an incident filled cliff-hanger of a match we were in for, some of us might have chosen to be elsewhere for fear of high blood pressure.

 

 

 

 

 

All the pre-match speculation among the large masses (as well as those of us who’ve lost a bit of weight lately) of travelling Saints fans was whether we could afford any injuries just a week before a simply crucial league match against fellow strugglers Leeds.  For those of you with a nervous disposition, can I put your minds at rest by assuring you that no Saints players were injured during the match.  Also, they will all be the better for having had a run-out.

 

Due to the fear of over-crowding, the match kicked off early.  Indeed, it wouldn’t surprise me if some supporters weren’t told of the change of plans and missed some of the early exchanges.

 

Surprise selection

 

The only surprise on the Saints teamlist was a certain EMG.  Following recent criticism (and you have to respect their ability to listen to the man of the people) Grays and Budge bowed to those who didn’t want Bruce on kicking duties.  The surprise was that new Welsh/Japanese specialist goal kicker was in the Challenge cup squad.  Anyway, Eifion Mai Grainne was called upon to take the penalties and conversions.  (As a footnote, his record was 0 from 7, including 3 directly in front of the posts so back to the drawing board I think.)

 

A perfect start

 

From the kick-off, Saints went on the attack (knowing perhaps the importance of not only winning this match but gaining a four try bonus).  Frankly, the Viadana defence was in disarray – they didn’t have the foggiest idea where Carlos would strike next.  So it was no surprise when the first try came; after only 4 minutes.  Slightly surprising was that it came from Bruce with a pick and drive from just in front of the try line.  He gazed over all that lay before him and then cut through with the cool precision we know him for.

 

 

 

Kicking

 

We take it for granted nowadays that King Carlos sends up enormous bombs for the centres to get underneath.  Sometimes, the ball goes so high that it comes down with snow on it.  Well, now it seems, the maestro has developed a grubber that does the same.  Alas, in the next phase of the game, that was not to our advantage as twice we spilled the newly slippery ball forward with the line at our mercy.

 

However, try number two came after sustained pressure followed by a cross-field kick which Ben Cohen gratefully caught to dab down over the line.  Now I know this will make me sound typically biased but I’m convinced that he successfully repeated this trick twice more (and thus scoring a hat-trick) but the referee was too far away (say, 2 metres) so couldn’t see it.

 

 

 

Referee

 

Speaking of the which, I’ve heard it said that a good game for the ref is one in which you don’t notice him much at all.  If this is true, then the man in the middle (Spanish referee; Snr J Kerr – I’m not sure but someone told me his first name was Juan) had a truly masterful match.  Even when the section from C Block shouted in unison “forward”, you can see from the picture below that the ref called it correctly.

 

Set pieces

 

One of the real highlights (because the chap who invented this law decreed that it should take place at the edge of the playing area, thus making it clearly visible) was the line-out.

 

However, it would take a more knowledgeable person than me to explain what was going on in the scrum.  From the photo below, is wee Tam in trouble because he’s being outmanoeuvred by his opponent or is there more to it?

 

 

Champagne moment

 

Chicken’s try!  For those that didn’t see it, all I can say is that one day in the hopefully distant future, you should ask when you go to meet your maker, whether they set the video.

 

He collected the ball from a shortened line-out inside Saints’ own 22.  “You’re running away from your support” we started to realise.  However, Chris Budgen had begun a swirling run from right to left, back and forward, into and out of the nearby carpark (fortunately the touchjudge wasn’t up with play and missed his foot in touch) until he eventually emerged through the fog diving in under the posts.  (Well that’s how Budge described it in our exclusive post-match interview.)  From the phots, you might think Chicken, and indeed the crowd, were quite pleased.

 

 

Key performances

 

It’s a team game of course but many conversations after the match seemed to come to the same conclusion.  Firstly John Rudd had one of his very best games for some time.  Gone was any sense of hesitation of recent games.  I don’t recall him making ant mistakes whatsoever – no missed tackles or handling errors.  Conversely, Tom Smith was disappointing.  Rarely if at all did I see him securing ball at the breakdown or any darting pick and drives.  “He was totally anonymous” said one observer not unreasonably.  “Must do better” will, I’m sure, be on his personal appraisal card.  Apologies to those who don’t like criticism of players but it had to be said.

 

The second half

 

Frankly it was a bit of a wash out.  With the four points looking increasingly secure, Viadana lacking the enterprise to pierce Saints’ solid defence, the only question was could we get that fourth try (well sixth but – see above – two of Ben’s had been disallowed) to get the bonus point.  No matter what we tried, including moving the game to another pitch 3 hours drive away, we simply couldn’t seem to nail it.  Too many off the ball incidents and little niggles were dragging the team down.  It can only be hoped (if not expected) that the citing commissioner doesn’t get a good view of some of the tussles. That went on.

 

Finally, at around 10:30pm on the Saturday (where had all the added time come from – another call for stadium clocks I think, but with extra strength lighting) Saints confirmed their superiority with a fourth try and bonus.  Fittingly, it was a huge driving maul and, as the announcer couldn’t make out who was at the bottom of the pile, I think we should award it to the whole team.

 

Conclusion

 

What to say.  - Saints were Matchless. On the trip back to blighty, many fans had a strange feeling of anti-climax.  Job done – yes.  No injuries (or hopefully suspensions) – even better.  But Saints still didn’t show the full extent of their abilities.  Someone is going to get a right tonking one day.  But for now, it’s a tamer “ciao”.