Northampton Saints
News: Saints get a Cold Reception in Cardiff (but prevail!)
By Frank Chambers
December 19 2010
This was a tough, uncompromising game where last week’s arguments and discussions were as fresh in the mind as the bruises were on the body.
Saints get a Chilly Reception in Cardiff
Match Report Cardiff Blues vs Saints
Sunday December 19th 2010, Kick
off 3:00pm
Cardiff Blues 19-23 Northampton Saints
By Frank Chambers
Well, the game was on in the end, played in a chilly Cardiff City Stadium where there was some heating, but it was under the soil and not in the stands. And the Saints came away with the win, four points, and their leading place at the top of the Pool 1 table intact. Not only that, but they brought to an end Cardiff’s unbeaten run of home wins in the Heineken Cup, which stretched over 12 games going back to 2006.
First, an apology for this match report because it is being written from in front of the TV rather than at the match. This is because the deep snow around my way has brought out the Range Rovers and it’s not safe to be on the roads while they are out playing.
So I am writing this with warm hands and a nice cup of tea by my side, only occasionally hiding behind the sofa when the Cardiff Blues look like they may score.
I am pleased for those who did make the trip though: I have had my share of the faffing about that comes with travel and bad weather (Borders, Viadana, Treviso...) and it’s not fun, standing in the cold and wet in your thermals, wondering if the game will happen, at what time, and in which city. Well done to them for their tenacity, and let’s hope they all got home safely.
One of the peculiarities of the Heineken pool stages is these back to back games that happen just before the season of goodwill. So if, say, one or two of the players had a slight disagreement in the first game, would that, slight disagreement still be simmering when the second kicked off? Or would Dylan and Gareth be on each other’s Christmas Card list now? Well, take a guess!
And so to the game. Hard to tell what it was really like in terms of the atmosphere, but I think it’s safe to say that the CCS is a bit on the large side for the average sub-9000 crowds the Blues are currently attracting. The largest crowd (14,026) was for the visit of the Scarlets last month, and the lowest was a poor 3,760 against Glasgow in the Magners league. Would the visiting hordes from Northampton make a difference? Well, yes, we heard them all right, saw them huddled together in groups, and kudos to them. At least the crowd was bigger than the one for the delayed Edinburgh vs. Castres game that will be played behind closed doors tomorrow...
There were no changes from the advertised line-ups, with Jamie Roberts causing a ripple of interest with his inclusion on the bench after a long layoff. Would he be player to make all the difference? He certainly seemed to be the one the commentators were interested in, but they are easily distracted by new things.
Another piece of continuity from the first episode last week was a French Referee; this time we had M. Jerome Garces. One hoped that he would be good with the scrums but perhaps not as ready with the Yellow as Monsieur Poite was last week... but that turned out to be a forlorn hope.
After the minute’s silence to mark the sad passing of Tom Walkinshaw, the game got underway with Stephen Myler taking the kick off. There was an immediate knock on by a Saints player, setting up the much-anticipated first scrum. Saints push, up it went, followed by some discussion between the opposing 7s. The referee asked the packs to try again. An early engage by the Blues gave the Saints the free kick and they elected to take the scrum. Scrum down again, Cardiff go up, penalty to the Saints, Stephen Myler kicks the three, and after just three minutes it’s Cardiff 0, Saints 3.
The next 10 minutes or so were marked by energetic exchanges with the Blues getting the upper hand and spending most of the time in the Saints’ half. The defence held firm, however, until a Saint was adjudged to be offside and Parks kicked the points. After 14 minutes, 3-3.
By this time it was becoming clear that the television summariser – being of a rather Welsh persuasion – was just a bit focussed on the Blues’ performance, even referring to them as “we” at some point. And he had good reason to be unhappy at the end of the first quarter when a penalty for holding on netted Stephen Myler another three points. After 20 minutes, 3-6. This was slightly against the run of play as Cardiff had played quite brightly without looking like they would penetrate the Saints’ defence.
The Blues’ determined play continued into the second quarter, with a number of turnovers being generated by the hosts, and Xavier Rush seeming to be involved in every ball-carrying escapade. But while they battered the Saints, the visitors’ defence held and their line speed caused the Blues attack to have difficulty getting over the gain line.
Around the half hour mark the anticipated handbags started to appear with Christian Day and Paul Tito having heated discussions after a Blues lineout. At this point some rude words were heard over the referee’s microphone, which were more probably interesting than some of the summarising. A little after this incident James Downey was seen to kill the ball, and then Tito and Hartley squared up to each other after Tito looked to be trying to strangle the peace-loving Saints skipper. Downey got a yellow card and the two captains got a talking to from the referee. It was all boiling up nicely.
Parks took the resulting penalty from in front of the posts. After half an hour, the score was tied at 6-6.
Saints settled down to play the rest of the half with 14 men, resisting Cardiff’s fairly frantic attempts to speed up the game and take advantage of the man in the bin. At 35 minutes they got a small reward when a Saint in at the side of a ruck gave Parks another easy 3 points. 9-6 to the Blues.
The final few minutes of the half saw some promising Saints moves that disappointingly ended in the ball being dropped or nudged forward... however a knock-on by Blues full back Chris Czekaj (the man with the startled hairstyle) led to a Saints scrum. So the story now went: Scrum, up it goes, reset, try again, Cardiff wheel it, penalty to the Saints, three points to Stephen Myler. Half time saw the scores level at 9-9.
The first half had been fairly tetchy with the forwards ready to start a fight in a phone box. Now I’m not saying which side started most of these little spats, (who could possibly know what goes on in a scrum, a maul, or in a forward’s mind?), but only one pack was getting mullered. Go figure.
By the way: nice singing, you Saints supporters: the Wendys were coming through loud and clear.
The second half started in frenetic fashion as the Blues, who had obviously been given a talking to by Dai Young at half time, came out running with their talisman Jamie Roberts having replaced Tom Shanklin. They adopted the All Black tactic of going straight through the ruck to disrupt Saints’ ball and lessen the likelihood of a turnover (which the Saints had been quite successful at so far). From a free kick on half way, the Blues attack swung left and right, but this time crossed the gain line repeatedly. Finally, following a good run by Lualala, the Saints were found to be understaffed on their left and the move was finished off by Mustoe who was tackled but turned on the line to touch down. 14-9 to Cardiff, swiftly becoming 16-9 as Parks kicked the conversion (of course).
Shortly after the Blues’ try, Lee Dickson came on to replace Ryan Powell, and his first act was to take a hugely difficult Garryowen and immediately start a counter attack. A couple of minutes later and Dicko showed his other skill – that of seeming to generate yellow cards for the other side – as Bradley Davies kicked the ball out of his hands. The problem was, Bradley was under a ruck at the time... So the Blues were down to 14 men at the 48 minute mark. Stephen Myler kicked the points: 16-12 after 49 minutes.
A Blues scrum went wrong for them as the Saints pack pushed VERY hard and gained another penalty for lifting. Myler kicked to touch and the line out was followed by a period of enterprising play from the Saints (notably Ben Foden) which sadly frequently ended in a fumble. Then the Saints launched a very good-looking attack, again from a mazy run from Ben Foden, which resulted in a disaster for Cardiff. Foden brought the ball from deep up to around 20 yards from the Cardiff line, evaded three tackles then passed to Chris Ashton who went to ground. In the next phase the ball came to Courtney Lawes who was clotheslined by Xavier Rush with some ferocity, resulting in the referee, after some consultation with his assistant, giving a red card for a “very dangerous” play. There was no protest from Rush, who knew what he had done: left his side to survive without his energy and go-forward for almost half an hour.
Looking at the TV replay, it is clear that the three tackles that Foden evaded prior to him passing were all high, and so was the one on Chris Ashton. But they were not intended to decapitate, as Rush’s seemed to be.
Myler kicked the points for the resulting penalty: 16-15 to the Blues after 54 minutes.
At this point the local crowd became quite animated and started to make themselves heard. After a decision didn’t go their way they voiced their disapproval. The commentator said “the crowd don’t like it but the Saints don’t care”, which made me smile...
On the three quarter mark, Bradley Davies returned from the bin and this seemed to galvanise the Saints into some determined back play as well as a continuation of the forwards power plays... the absence of Rush might have had something to do with it. In any case in the next scrum the Blues pack was “munched” (the commentators used all the adverbs at their disposal), penalty to the Saints, Myler kicked it, Blues 16-18 Saints with 20 minutes to go.
On 64 minutes, just to annoy the assembled Saints supporters, Parks slotted over a drop goal to restore the Blues lead. 19-18 to them. This game was far from over!
The small crowd got quite animated at this point and started to generate quite a bit of noise. But despite this encouragement to the Blues, the Saints inexorably took control of the game and play seemed to be all in the opposition half. Slowly but surely, the visitors took control, and it was just a matter of time before they scored.
Finally the score came following some back-and-forth play. A Blues penalty from a Saints misdemeanour at the ruck was cleared to the Saints’ 10m line. The throw at the resulting lineout was not straight, and the Saints opted for the scrum.... a long push and drive towards the Blues posts was stopped by foul play and the penalty was kicked to the Blues 22. The Saints attempted to build their attack but they were penalised for side entry at a ruck. Parks failed to find touch with his clearing penalty kick and the Saints rapidly arrived at the Blues line trying to drive over. Eventually Callum Clark lunged. And off we went to the TMO.
One’s spirits were raised when the referee was heard to say the word “raison” which could only be part of the sentence “give me a reason why I can’t award this try”! A Blues player helpfully suggested that there was a double movement; I have to say that looking at the TV replays, nothing was clear cut. The referee, who was in the correct position to see, must have been fairly sure about the try or he would have asked “try yes or no?”. Stephen Myler missed the conversion by a coat of paint, so after 72 minutes, the score was Blues 19-23 Saints.
The Blues attacks now had an air of desperation about them, but to be fair this was matched by the equally desperate air of the Saints’ defending! A couple of minutes before time, Calum Clark was sent to the bin for a professional foul and from the penalty the Blues set up their last attacking lineout. Their attack looked quite menacing until Molitika dropped the ball 5 yards out from the Saints line. Strangely, given the Saints exemplary record at the scrum so far, this one had to be reset a couple of times as the clock ticked on. The final sequence of the game was: Sergeant Wilson held the ball for Dickson, Dickson to Myler, Myler to Row Z.
No side: Cardiff Blues 19, Saints 23.
So at the end of the game the top of the table is still occupied by the Saints with 16 points from 4 wins out of 4. They still have two tough games to go, especially Castres away, but the determination shown by the Saints today makes prediction very difficult.
Bits and pieces
Well done to both sets of supporters for sounding like a big crowd! But a special well done goes to those Saints supporters who managed to get to the match. Top supporters.
Finally, a question: Has Dan Parks always had those sideburns?
Cardiff team
15 Chris Czekaj
14 Richard
Mustoe
13 Casey
Laulala
12 Tom
Shanklin
11 Tom
James
10 Dan
Parks
9 Richie
Rees
1 Gethin
Jenkins
2 Gareth
Williams
3 Taufa'ao
Filise
4 Bradley
Davies
5 Paul Tito
(c)
6 Maama
Molitika
7 Martyn
Williams
8 Xavier
Rush
Replacements
16 Rhys
Williams
17 Sam Hobbs
18 John Yapp
19 Michael Paterson
20 Sam Warburton
21 Tom Slater
22 Ceri Sweeney
23 Jamie Roberts
Saints Team
15 Ben Foden
14 Chris Ashton
13 Jon Clarke
12 James Downey
11 Paul Diggin
10 Stephen Myler
9 Ryan Powell
1 Soane Tonga'uiha
2 Dylan Hartley (capt)
3 Brian Mujati
4 Courtney Lawes
5 Christian Day
6 Phil Dowson
7 Tom Wood
8 Roger Wilson
Replacements
16 Brett Sharman
17 Regardt Dreyer
18 Alex Waller
19 Mark Sorenson
20 Calum Clark
21 Lee Dickson
22 Shane Geraghty
23 Joe Ansbro
Referee: Jerome Garces (F)
Attendance: 7,124
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:12:19:23:00:42 by St Marlowe.
With those scriptwriting skills, you could make a bundle!
And congratulations for the sheer inventiveness deployed in writing about the tone of the encounter:
'Handbags', 'heated discussions', 'rude words', 'fairly tetchy', 'fight in a phonebox', 'little spats', and so on - brillant...
Bravo!
"Sergeant Wilson held the ball for Dickson, Dickson to Myler, Myler to Row Z", made me laugh out loud.
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