Northampton Saints
MoTM: Saints start with a nervy win against Gloucester.
By Saint Tim
September 13 2011
Why does the summer feel so long when I am not getting to see the Saints play and so so short when it comes to not having to produce a piece on the Man of the Match? I sometimes think English is my second language and gibberish is my first so in advance I will apologise for all typos and grammatical mistakes I will make during the season.
Who was your MoTM as Saints squeaked home against Gloucester?
First up a game on a Sunday afternoon – gee thanks TV schedulers! Not a favoured time for me or for many others and I think it affected the attendance and there were certainly gaps. I know the first couple of matches are difficult, then for it to be a World Cup year and on a Sunday did make me feel for the club.
As a club we have six existing squad members away in the land of the long white cloud and two new squad members also standing on their heads with their countries. So it was straight into the match day squad for a number of the other new faces and the big question was how these guys would gel and would it mean, as we hoped, that the depth of talent at the club has improved as most pundits seem to think it has. Finally would this be enough to overcome a Gloucester team with more experience in the pack and flyers galore in the backs.
So it was welcome to Samu Manoa, Paul Doran-Jones, Noah Cato, Tom May, Martin Roberts on their club debuts, Andy Long for his first start for the club (other appearances having been from the bench) and finally to Ben Nutley for his first Premiership start (his other two starts being in the LV Cup). When you look at that it is half a team that are really new and so we can rightly say a much changed team.
Missing from the team that started those short months ago in Cardiff were Dylan Hartley, Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Courtney Laws and Tom Woods with England, Roger Wilson, Lee Dickson and Jon Clarke injured.
I cannot say it was the most effective Saints performance I have seen but all of the newcomers acquitted themselves well. We were obviously looking of for them as you will see from the results. As ever though Saints tried their hardest to give us heart attacks as from a position of comfort we allowed Glaws to come back and take the lead requiring Ryan Lamb (another newbie but not a starter that day) to step up and coolly slot over a penalty to win the game.
So, who caught the eye?
In fourth place with 11% of the votes was Martin Roberts. Martin joined from Llanelli Scarlets replacing Powell who has had to retire due to injury. I have to say Powell did not really push Lee Dickson much and it was very obvious who the lead scrummy at the club was last season. With performances like this one I am fairly certain that Lee will be having to up his game to get the shirt. This definitely looks like squad improvement.
In third place with over 16% of the votes was Samu Manoa. This was Big Sam’s first game of professional rugby ever. Prior to coming over the pond he played with San Francisco and I am told he had not done gym work. He was certainly a different shape to the video on offer on you tube. He looked a beast – power and pace – but still somewhat raw. As he trains more and ups those basic skills we could have unearthed a real pearl here. Definite squad improvement.
In second place with almost 18% of the votes was Mark Sorenson. Mark struggled to get noticed last season but if you can find it there is an excellent piece from broonie analysing his performance last year and how well he was playing if not actually getting votes in the polls. Some people may say there was some vote rigging going on but I would say it is about time Mark got more notice for th game he plays.
The winner however was Ben Nutley with 28% of the votes. Ben is very young and he put in a towering performance. They say you should leave something of yourself out on the pitch. Well that was certainly true of Ben who required many running repairs to be able to complete the game. This picture which was very early in the game and was a real marker being laid down. Ben is a future superstar if he remains relatively injury free and continues to develop. Another great mark for the Academy and I am sure he step up does improve the squad. Welcome to the big time Ben.
Finally thanks to the 232 people who voted (I cannot tell if there were multiple votes by the same people) as this is a record during my time doing this and it does make it feel worthwhile. Please vote for the Quins game – even though we lost – if you went or saw the game on TV.
Full Result
Previous Winners
Vote History
Who wins?
Leaderboard
Players Used
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Stumbleupon13/09/2011 18:14
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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
Who voted for him?
Can we hear your thinking?
I'm only asking because he did not get much of a mention on the board after the match.
You may gather from my words that I was also a little surprised at the total numbers. He did nothing wrong so it I ruled out friendly Glaws ans skewing the poll as sometimes happens.
So a long way of saying I don't really know.
“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
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:09:13:20:46:59 by propajob.
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