By Saint Tim
June 4 2011

Leeds are a cussed team.  They were fighting for their lives as a premiership team – but we have never found them easy to play.  For Saints it might have been a question of after the Lord Mayors show but in reality this was still a game we needed to win to make certain of the play offs (much as many of us despise them we would rather be in them!). So the first 27 minutes were not what we Saints fans needed.

Who was your Man of the Match as Saints eventually overcame Leeds at the Gardens?

What happened in those 28 minutes – well despite a scrum that seemed well on top we leaked three  converted tries and a penalty to a single penalty to Geraghty.  Alarm bells were ringing all round the Gardens at 24 to 3 down.  Then local hero Paul ‘Digger’ Diggin was sent to the sin bin along with his opposite number for an altercation that was too far away for me to comment on.

Fortunately for my nerves Phil Dowson then went over – but Shane failed to convert the extra points.  On 37 minutes the Leeds tight head who was being given a torrid time by the young tyro Alex Waller was also sent to cool his heels and almost immediately afterwards whistler Small lost complete patience with the Leeds scrum and awarded Saints a Penalty try which was converted leading to an almost respectable half time score of 15 – 24.

At this point, if my memory serves me correctly, Saints were not in the play offs, Falcons were in the relegation position and Leeds safe.  Surely the second half could not be the same.

In the first six minutes of the second half Saints made a number of telling substitutions.  Firstly Clark on for Dowson and Dickson on for Commins.  Neither had played badly but Dickson has more poise and drives his forwards better than Commins does yet and Dowson needed the rest.  Then on 46 minutes Dylan came on for Sharman.  You could see the team belief take a huge step up as Hartley arrived.  He was confident, positive and it showed what a pivotal leader he has become for the squad.  This is good and bad as we need to be good when the skip isn’t playing – but you could see the step up he produced.  It must be great for young Alex Waller in his second start of the season to pack down for a period with the England hooker.   Almost immediately space was created for Ashton and he dived over with Shane converting bringing Saints within two points of Leeds.

Saints continued to ring the changes but they also progressively took a grip on the game and there followed a series of penalties as Leeds under pressure struggled not to concede further tries.  Three penalties for Myler (on for Geraghty) took Saints clear of Leeds and also took away a losing bonus point from the Yorkshire side.  These were to be the final scores of the game.  It was a result which gave Saints a play-off spot and put Leeds in the relegation place.  They were to have a further week or so to wait for confirmation of relegation as Worcester were the only team which met the requirements for promotion.

I felt really sorry for the Leeds team and supporters.  The guys had played their hearts out.  They could hardly walk off the pitch at the end.  The supporters had made themselves heard all day.  I for one hope they are back real soon.

So, who caught the eye?

First of all my thanks to all 88 people who took the time to vote.

There was only really one player who caught the eye in this game.  Step forward Alex Waller with 57% of the votes.  Alex has an amazing record now with the first team from the supporters’ perspective.  He has three first team starts and three man of the match wins.  I cannot remember any other player who has achieved this.  I have a feeling with another pre season from the hood under his belt we may see a lot more of Alex next season.  I am sure that Sonane is looking forward to the opportunity for more rotation.

This means that with two games to go Stephen Myler has a two game lead on the chasing pack – including Alex Waller.

Full Result

Previous Winners

Vote History

Who wins?

Leaderboard

Players Used