Northampton Saints
MoTM: The Road trip ends in Reading with a win.
By Saint Tim
May 2 2011
The road trip from hell part 3 brought Saints to the Mad Jet – the playing home but not spiritual home of London Irish. So this was the return of the cup final team with the need to get a result to try and nail a play off place. This may be achieved today if other results go our way. Would that team have their eyes on the Heineken cup semi final or the team in front of them?
Who was your MoTM as Saints won away at Irish?
Fortunately the answer to that question for the Saintly faithful was that Jim and Doreen had them fully focussed on the task in hand. Saints always looked dangerous with the ball in hand, especially from turnover ball and it was from such turn over ball that Chris Ashton scored the only try of the first half. The scoreboard however did not really reflect the dominance Saints were showing and after a couple of Homer penalties with only ten minutes of the first half remaining there was only one point in it. Fortunately it was Saints next on the score sheets as Stephen Myler landed a couple of his own before the half time whistle went, still a 13 – 6 lead was not really reward for the control we had shown.
The second half started much like the first and Saints were first on the score board thanks to a Myler penalty and then another converted Aston try to put the score to 23 – 6 with Irish looking a beaten team. It was at this point that Jim started to ring the changes. Some of these were required by the EPS agreement and others to protect players for next week. Shortly after the changes however Irish scored a couple of quick tries and suddenly it was game on with plenty of time left for Saints to self destruct. The first Irish try came from an injection of pace and a good offload. The second however was after another scrum where Saints pushed Irish backwards despite having the reserve front row in place. Irish did manage however to keep the ball, they cannily tied in Lee Dickson and with our flankers still concentrating on the shove it turned into a simple score under the posts for the LI back row.
So ten minutes left, Irish resurgent and the big guns off the field. Tubby Barnes was having a field day, he needs to talk about what is actually happening not what his wine sizzled brain has come up with as the story line – until then he is just the pain one has to suffer to watch rugby on Sky, at how Saints had messed it up. This was despite him having called it game over when Ashton’s second try went in.
I would agree that the next few minutes were uncomfortable watching but Saints slowly regained composure and indeed we were the final scorers as Stephen Myler landed another penalty. Great credit has to go to Myler for his control in this period despite takings some knocks, both legal and illegal.
So Saints ran out winners and I am sure Jim would say job done with two wins on the road trip from hell.
So, who caught the eye?
Four players make the podium this week – In fourth place with just over 10% of the votes was Lee Dickson. Lee has been an almost ever present in this section since his return from injury and the resurgence in form for the team. I hope we keep Lee wrapped up in cotton wool during training as he is such a vital part of this team.
In third place was the captain with over 13% of the votes cast. It is hard to think how nervous many of us were when Dylan was selected by Jim as club captain. Many saw him as a young man with anger issues. Now a couple of short years later we can see what an inspired decision it was. Dylan has grown into the role supremely well. When you watch his interviews you realise how calm and collected he is. I wonder how long it will be before this is more widely recognised than within the confines of our club?
In second place with 26.5% was Chris Ashton. Chris showed both sides of his finishing. Lethal ffom 70 yards and lethal from 5 yards! The first try was a classic as Chris had hands on the ball early in the move as the Mooj flipped it out of the contact area. In previous years we may have seen him try and do it all from that distance – now though he offloaded to Clarke who took it forward whilst Ashy looped around him. JC fixed the defender and offloaded to the looping Ashton who lit the afterburners and left the Irish back line for dead. I find it hard to believe that Chris has not yet won the Man of the Match so far this season and there is now very little time left.
The winner was Stephen Myler with almost 34% of the votes. This is the second win on the bounce for Stephen and establishes him as the clear leader in the MoTM stakes with 5 wins ahead of the chasing pack on 3 wins. With only two guaranteed games left (ok so now I know it is most likely to be four games) the opportunities for others to catch Stephen are becoming limited. It was Stephens game control in the final period when the so called big guns had left the field and Irish had scored two tries to bring themselves back into the game that I am sure caught the eyes. During this time Stephen not only made sure that Saints played the game in the right areas – he also did it whilst coming under severe pressure and not all of it legal. That he just shook it off and maintained control speaks volumes about this young man. Well done Stephen.
My thanks to the 68 people who voted in what was our third away trip in 8 days.
Full Result
Previous Winners
Vote History
Who wins?
Leaderboard
Players Used
I heard from a very reliable source that Munster currently have 44 senior players in their squad – plus academy players. Add to that the fact that a lot of the games are not at the same intensity as the Aviva Premiership and it is not surprising that they are able to rest and rotate their players much more effectively than Saints can do.
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“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:05:02:11:54:18 by Christy.
I will see if I can find something.
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
I think that is ok as a reference point.
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
Remember back in those days we could only have 5 people in the MoTM poll and used to have a nominations thread.
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
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