Northampton Saints
News: Cherries put 3 on the top - Gloucester 27 Saints 24
By St Francis
February 11 2012
Having written the match report for this fixture last year, it was tempting to do a cut and paste job, just changing the date and the result, and to see if anyone noticed. Given the weather and the ESPN coverage, it was also tempting to forgo the trip to Castle Grim and do the whole report from the comfort of a sofa. However a live match is a live match, so thermals on and off we went.
Tractors pull away from Saints
Match Report Gloucester vs Saints
Saturday February 11th 2012, Kick off 2:15pm
Gloucester 27-24 Northampton Saints
By Frank Chambers
Disclaimer: as usual, this is being written from the perspective of someone sitting in the corner by the 5 metre line with a fairly restricted view of the pitch and only the announcements and the big screen to go by. I have not seen the match on the TV yet. So if you think you know better than me what happened, well, you probably do.
The Glaws team was quite similar to the one that won last year’s rearranged match when a not quite first choice Saints XV were well beaten 27-15. Looking at the team sheets then and now, Freddie Burns moved from 15 to 10, Jonny May from 11 to 15 and Olivier “the Entertainer” Azam has finally hung up his stamping boots, put his forehead and fists away, and cleared off back to France. Gloucester were missing a few important players such as Luke Narraway and Strokosch, and of course Saints were missing their England contingent.
Along with many other Saints supporters, if you had offered me a losing bonus point before the game I would have taken it. As it was, the Saints nearly shaded the game and this performance bodes well for the rest of the Six Nations period.
Arriving at Kingsholm thinking that we were really early for the 3 o’clock kick off, it turned out we had got it wrong and there were 45 fewer minutes to wait around in the cold. Consequently there was no time for a critique of the local pies and other delicacies.
It was a bright and sunny afternoon, with the temperature hovering around the zero mark. We were sitting in the relative genteelness of the C&G stand, with a poor view of half of the pitch, but a good view of the ravening hordes in the Shed opposite who had the sun directly in their eyes. Naturally this would not impair their vision one jot and they would still be able to call every forward pass and crooked throw in by the Saints with unerring accuracy.
Gloucester kicked off northwards towards their pavilion. A determined Saints tackle immediately drew loud accusations of attempted murder from the Shed, the referee waving play on which elicited even louder howls of anguish.
Gloucester started the game quite brightly and the Saints defence was getting an early workout.
Just a couple of minutes in and we had the first scrum. So how would the Scrum’s (© L. Barnes) scrum cope? Would we see one of the classic battles? Well, not yet. Saints started early, free kick to Gloucester.
A few minutes later and the Gloucester attack was moving ominously from side to side, stretching the Saints defence. Suddenly Charlie Sharples got the ball wide on the right, put on a burst of speed to round the narrow Saints defence and touched down near the posts. An easy conversion by Freddie Burns put Gloucester 7-0 up.
An unseen (by us) injury to Jamie Elliott brought Tom May on very early, after 6-7 minutes.
As the match settled down, the Saints started to put together a few moves but with less than perfect handling. However, pressure on the Gloucester defence paid off and Ryan Lamb converted the resulting penalty from in front of the posts. 7-3 after 14 minutes.
This was cancelled out a couple of minutes later when, following an excellent touch finder by Burns, Saints conceded a penalty for something or other (JP Doyle’s signals weren’t exactly clear at times) and Burns knocked over another three. 10-3.
As the half progressed, it seemed that Ryan Lamb might be suffering from that hammering the Saxons got at Galashiels, where he was subbed at half time. He seemed a bit tentative, and his kicking from hand was either too short or too long. Certainly the people in the Shed, those models of fair play and politeness, were constantly offering him advice, accompanied by witty donkey noises. Nevertheless, the Saints were playing themselves back into the game and a couple of breaks from Courtney Lawes and some disrupted Gloucester lineouts gave their supporters some encouragement.
On the half hour mark there was a messy phase following a stolen Gloucester lineout. Calum Clark got a talking to from the referee and the offence, whatever it was, attracted a kickable penalty. The score moved to 13-3 to Gloucester and there were some noticeably more cheerful Cherry and White supporters in the stand.
The Saints hit back immediately from the kick off. A good chase led to pressure, an infringement in front of the posts and Lamb made it 13-6.
With half time approaching, the Saints got themselves into a stronger position with a converted penalty on the Gloucester 22. 13-9 and looking good for half time. Well, it was... but with two minutes to go and following a dropped restart by the Saints, Gloucester again found the right wing and hooker Dawidiuk bundled the ball over in the corner. At last Freddie missed a kick, and that was that for the first half. 18-9 to Gloucester, not out of sight but comfortable-ish.
Half time: Gloucester 18, Saints 9.
Now to the half time entertainment. Yes, it was the Jewson’s “Cement Mixer Challenge”. What was that? I hear you say. Well, the idea is to throw a rugby ball into er, a cement mixer. Probably one from Jewsons, but I’m guessing. The most cheering aspect for me of this was that “Derek from Leinster” failed to get a ball into the cement mixer. Yes, small minded, I know. So what’s on the agenda for the next home game? Tractor Pulling, anyone?
The Saints kicked off the second half and immediately applied sustained pressure. A penalty was awarded when Gloucester pulled down a maul (I think), but Ryan Lamb sent the kick wide to the right. Still 18-6.
More pressure from the Saints sent Paul Diggin through on the left, almost breaking through. The speed of the attack left some Gloucester players offside, the penalty was from a kinder position and lamb took the three points. 18-12 after 49 minutes.
Again, Gloucester replied soon afterwards with a penalty of their own, but this time with help from the referee and his assistant who both missed a huge knock on by a Gloucester player and allowed play to continue until the Saints were penalised. 21-12 to Gloucester after 55 minutes.
At this point Paul Doran Jones entered the fray to loud boos from the even handed crowd. One was expecting to hear cries of “Judas!”. Welcome back Paul.
Three quarters of the way though, and the Saints were looking more and more likely to get a score. Their discipline (or their inability to ‘get’ the referee) was causing a number of attacks to fall short though.
On the hour mark Stephen Myler came on for Ryan Lamb and made an immediate impression, a 
bit Dicksonesque. Suddenly the back line had a bit of purpose and some go-forward. A Gloucester infringement for pulling down resulted in a 5m line out, a rolling maul, and a Tiny Try in the corner. Excellent. Suddenly the Saints were only four points behind with a conversion to come. Which Smyler got. 21-19 to the Saints and it was all looking interesting...
Gloucester extended the gap a little with a Freddie Burns penalty on 65 minutes. 24-19. Straight from the kick off, the ball was put out by the Saints for a Gloucester line out. Which the Saints nicked. The ball went wide, wide wide, until George Pisi crashed over in the same spot as Tiny had a few minutes earlier. Sadly Smyler missed the wide-out conversion but the scores were level at 24-24 after 67 minutes. The crowd hadn’t been expecting that...
Play now became a little more frantic as both sides sensed there was something to win (or lose) here. Unfortunately my attention at this point was diverted by a person behind me farting, and then being surrounded by a ring of silent recrimination as his fellow spectators quickly identified the culprit.
Dragging myself back to the rugby and manfully carrying on despite the toxic atmosphere, I watched referee Doyle miss a Saints jumper being pulled down at the line out and then penalising another Saint for hands in the ruck when there were none. At least, that’s what I thought his hand signals said, but they were very confusing throughout the match. More Mrs Doyle than JP Doyle.
Freddie Burns stepped up to take the relatively easy kick but hit the post... still 24-24! However the rebound wasn’t dealt with very well by the saints and another increasing frantic attack from Gloucester was mounted. This time they got a penalty bang in front of the Saints posts and Burns made no mistake this time. 27-24.
With three minutes to go, the Saints mounted a careful, methodical attack, working their way towards the Gloucester line. The final dash was itself dashed by Mr Doyle, who penalised the first forward pass of the game (or the 100th, if you were in the Shed). The resulting scrum gave us hope even if it was Gloucester’s ball, but ex-Saint Mathius Cortese and his fellow front rowers held his old team at bay, got the penalty and that was that, game over.
This was an encouraging performance from the Saints who came up against a team with a strong home record and who played well. They showed hard work, spirit and adventure, especially in the second half. Going to Kingsholm, and having all three results possible with seconds to go was some achievement for the squad. And with Leicester achieving a pointless loss at Exeter, the Saints have opened up a massive one point gap between them and the Tiglets in fourth place. Little things like that may be important at the business end of the season.
No side: Gloucester 27, Saints 24.
Match Facts
Saints Jesters hats – the ones with the bells on – are great, except if they are being worn by two tall men in front of you, and your are trying to write a match report.
Gloucester supporters have two chants, “Glawsterrrrr”, and “Eeyore”... They use the same two notes for both. Maybe they only know two notes. Maybe learning a third would be a bit of a stretch.
Gloucester team
15 Jonny May
14 Charlie Sharples
13 Mike Tindall (c)
12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu
11 James Simpson-Daniel
10 Freddie Burns
9 Rory Lawson
1 Nick Wood
2 Darren Dawidiuk
3 Rupert Harden
4 Will James
5 Alex Brown
6 Toim Savage
7 Akapusi Qera
8 Matt Cox
Replacements:
16 Matias Cortese
17 Dan Murphy
18 Shaun Knight
19 Koree Britton
20 Rob Langley
21 Dave Lewis
22 Ryan Mills
23 Tim Molenaar
Saints Team
15 Paul DIGGIN
14 Jamie ELLIOTT
13 George PISI
12 James DOWNEY
11 Vasily ARTEMYEV
10 Ryan LAMB
9 Martin ROBERTS
1 Soane TONGA’UIHA
2 Andy LONG
3 Brian MUJATI
4 Samu MANOA
5 Christian DAY
6 Courtney LAWES
7 Calum CLARK (capt)
8 Roger WILSON
Replacements
16 Mike HAYWOOD
17 Alex WALLER
18 Paul DORAN JONES
19 Mark SORENSON
20 Ben NUTLEY
21 Ryan GLYNN
22 Stephen MYLER
23 Tom MAY
Referee: J P Doyle
Attendance: Not published yet, but it was quite full.
Photos courtesy Simon Robinson
Jim Mallinder says: -
Tom May says:-
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(but as I think I was a couple of rows in front of you that is not surprising!
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
Donkey noises at every Saints error. Such lovely people.The treatment of Lamb was fairly predictable . Hope the Saints crowd never stoop to these levels.
I cannot understand why however...
I ended up reading it all and had a few chuckles along the way. Top reporting.
Quote:tws
Donkey noises at every Saints error. Such lovely people.The treatment of Lamb was fairly predictable . Hope the Saints crowd never stoop to these levels.
tws, 'tis the Glaws way and has been for many a year - we like it and enjoy the fun! It's not going to change! The Shed can turn some players to nervous wrecks, witness the performance of a cetain ex-Glaws fly half yesterday!
Saints have a different, but still enjoyable atmosphere that is unique to the Gardens - again, long may it continue and you to enjoy!
It's when you turn up and there is no crowd and no atmosphere that you should start to worry!
Quote:adi glaws
The Shed can turn some players to nervous wrecks, witness the performance of a cetain ex-Glaws fly half yesterday!
I think the Shed being loud is something of a myth. I stood in the west stand (because we cocked up buying the tickets) and was surprised, nay shocked, at just how quiet it was.
As for Lamb, nowt wrong with him yesterday. Burns must've been a nervous wreck being as he missed a couple of kicks n'all...
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012:02:12:16:43:17 by shizlebot.
Quote:Chris B
As for Lamb, nowt wrong with him yesterday. Burns must've been a nervous wreck being as he missed a couple of kicks n'all...
Fortunately our nervous wreck managed to kick the important goals - yours failed with two easy pens and gave us a try ;-)
Enjoy the rest of the season Saints fans - a true rugby club with proper supporters - really
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