By Olney Saint
September 25 2006

On the first of September 2001 my son and I made our first away trip with the Saints Supporters Club; it was to Gloucester and as someone famously said (in French) the more things change the more they stay the same. Nice city to look around, great chippy and just as our first trip the Saints were well beaten.

 

September 23rd Kingsholm - Guinness Premiership - Gloucester 28 Saints 7

 

Five minutes in and that old Saints' fan favourite Andy Hazell charged through to try and get to a clearing kick and like all open sides he decided to let the kicker know he was there. Darren Fox immediately decided to show Hazell that he for one meant business and several players from both sides traded pleasantries. you thought to yourself this could get interesting but the next thing that happened could only be described as a nightmare. Bruce chased an up and under and an accidental collision took place with Gloucester's fullback. Bruce tried to play on but it was obvious things were bad and he had to go off. Saints brought Robbie Kydd up to centre and put Luke Myring at fullback. To my mind this unfortunately defused Robbie's attacking flair that we saw last week and you wonder who will get that position next week.

 

Luke Myring

 

Gloucester took the lead with a straightforward penalty from Mercier but moments later Saints scored what was to be their only try of the match. A scrum against the head near midfield saw an attack launched which was stopped just short of the Gloucester line. The ball came back to the King who put a lovely grubber through for the workhorse that is David Quinlan to score. Kydd converted and things looked promising.

 

 

 

David Quinlan

 

Boy would that change.

 

Both sides missed penalties before James Forrester broke through some ineffectual tackling to score and give Gloucester a lead that would only grow bigger. A couple of minutes later and Paul Tupai was given a yellow card. Second one already this season Paul-your reputation has gone before you as far as referees are concerned and they're on the lookout for you.

 

Despite Gloucester's best efforts Saints kept them out during the sin bin period and at half time I was optimistic that we could go on to win the game.......how wrong i was.

The second half started badly as Carlos, who had a rare poor game, knocked on in front of his own posts. The resulting pressure saw Gloucester kick a penalty and then Tom Smith had to go off and that was basically the beginning of the end. The lineout which had come up with so much possession in the first half dried up and you could have put money on the fact that every time we had an attacking lineout in the second half we would lose our own throw in. It just seemed to me that as Gloucester went up a gear we dropped down two.

 

A driving maul saw Gloucester extend their lead and even after time had expired they still had enough in them to get a further try. A three point half time deficit turned into eighteen unanswered points after the break and Saints could have no complaints about the final score.

 

So what next? We look strong at home and have lost to two sides away who i feel will finish in the top four. Let’s face it if we win nine home matches and three or four away we'll be in the Heineken next season. Next week's cup competition is the most realistic chance of silverware with on paper our two most difficult games at home. With both props doubtful do we bring in Soane, Damien and David and give a jumbo pack a run out? Who gets the cursed outside centre position? Or do we try and get some confidence back to the bulk of what is the first choice fifteen by hoping that our current home form gives us our first Franklins Garden victory over Worcester? I'm doing the report again next week and my two goes so far have resulted in heavy away defeats ( Wasps a couple of seasons ago was the other one) so if it all goes wrong next week I’ll answer to the name Jonah and keep my own albatross around my neck.