Saracens
Northampton V Saracens Report: Schhhsh!
Goode: Impressive
By Jeremy O'Gorman
February 17 2009
I must admit I like Franklin Gardens; apart from the officious and unhelpful car park stewards (you can’t park here and no I can’t tell you where else you can). The crowd are well informed and fair; slightly one-eyed as we all are. The facilities are good and beer is easy to buy. Thanks to the terrace we were in, I think block 10, for making room for me and my over-tall son.
The game started brightly enough with Sarries playing well, running the ball on every occasion; the South Africa interlude seemed to be paying dividends. Alex Goode certainly made his presence felt with a good take and a winding run well into Saints territory, before a penalty was given for coming in from the side (I think). Glen slotted the points. The referee’s hand signals (and decision making) left a bit to be desired, so I may be wrong in some instances. The crowd around me seemed to agree he only could give penalties with only arm – the statistics do seem to reflect that.
Shortly afterwards another penalty was driven deeply into the Saints half by Glen and from the resulting line-out Sarries drove on. The ball was lost, but Saints held on in the tackle and another penalty was also slotted home by Glen; 0-6. The penalty count was not all one way and shortly afterwards, Sarries were guilty of not rolling away; Myler made the most of it; 3-6. During this kick was the comedy moment of the match. Saint supporters seem to view silence during kicks as the singly most important part of the game. I like it, but the extremity does lead to a silly situation. The Saracens reserves were training behind the post, with a coach I didn’t recognise in charge. He was calling out the drills in a normal voice, but Saints supporters started schhhing from all sides. He didn’t quite get it until the schhhshes were almost putting Myler off. With a big grim on his face the Sarries coach stopped and put his fingers to his lips.
There then followed 20 minutes of Sarries pressure that should have finished off the match. Firstly, Skirving picked up from the back of a scrum just outside the 22 and was allowed to run up to about 10 yards from the line before being stopped. Unfortunately for Saints the smother tackle was too expansive and a penalty for not rolling away was easily slotted for 3-9. From the restart Sarries ran well and gaps were appearing all over the pitch; Goode and Glen were looping around well making one or two overlaps, especially for Cato, but his normal lethal finishing was kept in check by a brilliant game from Diggin, who for me was the best tackler on the pitch.
Saints managed to get a turnover and put in a very long clearance, making touch well inside the 22. Although Sarries won the line out, the ball was scrappy and Marshall appeared to have passed directly to a Saints player who scored in the corner. It was the opposite corner from me and both packs were between me and the ball, so I may have called it wrong. I gathered from a Saints supporter, that Marshall passed to the referee who deflected it to the Saints player.
Sarries kept pressing though and had 3 clear chances to cross the line. From the first Diggin held Cato up, when it seemed certain that Sarries had a two man overlap, but good drift defence kept them out. Then Sarries had a try disallowed for crossing. Unfortunately, my position in the ground was just about the only one without a reasonable view of it, but from the running of the players it seemed like a stock Jackson / Farrell run around, which we have seen all season. Just afterwards a missed pass to Powell – who had just come on for a groggy Sorrell, seemed a certain try. Unfortunately a little white-line fever meant Powell was tackled 2 yards short, when Del was unmarked outside him.
Then the turning point of the match. Myler picked up a fairly innocuous pass just outside his 22 and ran; splitting Jackson and Farrell who both thought the other was making the tackle. The ball was passed back the other way and after 5 or so good Saints runs the ball was shipped to Reihana who crashed over in the corner. The conversion was missed, leading to an 8-9 half-time score.
I did notice that Saints backs ran is a slightly different way to the Sarries backs, specifically for that try, but other times as well. I am not sure if it is my imagination, but the pitch did seem narrow to me; but I really don’t know. Saints used this to their advantage, running slightly infield every time they could, meaning that when the pass came out, there was more space to work with. Sarries could not seem to work this out, drifting slightly outwards in their runs, meaning Cato and Del had little or no room to work in; it was easy for Diggin especially to work Cato towards touch.
The second half was a completely different game; the pitch started to cut up a little. Not surprisingly given the amount of water on it in the last month. Saints played to this, keeping the ball in the forwards and driving it on. Sarries seemed to keep trying to skip over the surface, but could not seem to make any headway. Saints wanted it a little more and the game seemed to be played on or around the Sarries 10 yard line. Any digression was punished by Myler who had a great game with the boot. Three kickable penalties were given away and all were slotted, before Sarries did anything else in the half. Cencus not rolling away, Ches in from the side after he replaced Tom Ryder and Marshall who kept trying to pick up the ball when on his knees in a ruck.
There was one great run from Goode after taking a high ball, darting and dodging his way through four players. But it seemed only a few Sarries players were content to put in the hard yards. Saints simply wanted the game more and did enough to win it. Sarries did get close enough with a penalty from a rare incursion into Saint territory to make it a one-score game. A flash of brilliance from Reihana when he dummied to kick and ran 50 yards before a great covering tackle from Justin Marshall. Unfortunately, Sarries killed the ball and gave away the penalty that put them 8 points behind. I thought we were a trifle fortunate to avoid a yellow card.
There was just enough time for a bit of handbags from Huge, after a Saints player was heavily tackled into the hoardings before a last drive from Sarries set up Glen for a drop-kick to gain the bonus-point; 20-15. All in all Saints were good for their victory, playing with aggression even if then never really looked like scoring a try. Sarries simply didn’t get any ball in the second half to run, but Saints midfield was solid in defence. We also tried to run the ball as if it was in South Africa, when it was obvious from about 30 minutes that the pitch was getting heavier. Fair play to Saints. However, if the crossing try had counted and Sarries had gone in 3-16 up we would have had a different result; we didn’t
Plus points; Goode continues to impress and Powell looked sharp; fitting into outside centre better than he has of late. The wingers had enough ball to win the game, but were tackled well – perhaps Cato needs to develop another strategy with a chip and chase. Lastly Tom Ryder did not give away one penalty; New Zealand seems to have imparted some knowledge. Marshall looked good and was certainly up for it. Cairns looked sharp
Bad points; we seemed not to have any fire up front in the second half and did not adjust to the conditions as well as Saints did. Sarries seem to give up on the hour mark; this is worrying, especially if it happens again on Friday night. The substitutions on 70 minutes were all a little too late; we needed them 10 minutes before I do think that Sarries have more fire-power returning for the potential rematch on 2/3rd May and the result that day (assuming we both get there) will be much closer.
Northampton: Foden, Diggin, Clarke, Downey, Reihana, Myler, Dickson, Tonga'uiha, Sharman, Stewart, Fernandez Lobbe, Kruger, Easter, Best, Wilson.
Replacements: Shields for Sharman (67), Smith for Stewart (63), Day for Kruger (79), Lawes for Easter (76). Not Used: Dickens, Everitt, Mayor.
Saracens: Goode, Haughton, Sorrell, A. Farrell, Cato, Jackson, Marshall, Lloyd, Cairns, Johnston, Vyvyan, Ryder, van Heerden, Saull, Skirving.
Replacements: Powell for Sorrell (28), Barritt for A. Farrell (72), Visagie for Johnston (70), Chesney for Ryder (63), Barrell for Skirving (70). Not Used: Kyriacou, Wilson.
Att: 13,153
Ref: Greg Garner (RFU).
Picture Credit: PhilFez
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009:02:26:21:51:13 by Kat.
A very fair appraisal of the game - especially the observation that our forwards were up for it for longer.
[lowrence.com]
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
Those for football tend to be 'squarer'. This usually manifests itself as football grounds used for rugby being regarded as having shallow in-goal areas (exacerbated since the 'scrum back for kicks going dead' law came in).
That those used to playing on a football pitch regard traditional rugby pitches as being 'narrow' is simply the other side of the same coin.
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
“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
Excellent stuff.
I would rather have the kicking silence at Saints than the yammering and squarking of infants (I think they're infants) that goes on at Quins, but anything in between is fine with me.
As you say, it's one each... let's hope for a re-match in May at the ECC semi-final.
Thanks for the replies chaps - makes it worth doing
Speaking as a Saints supporter, I was really looking forward to seeing Cato - such a great talent and plays with a smile on his face - good to see. But you are right about Digger doing a storming job on keeping him quiet.
I had a play with Google Earth tonight - a bit imprecise, both pitches 'snapped' in summertime with ours dug up at one end for stand extension
Goalpost to Goalpost
Saints 97-98 metres
Saracens 100 metres
Touchline to Touchine
Saints 71 metres
Saracens 72 metres
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
Saint til I die
That was my point - Saints running lines made the pitch look wide, but Sarries running lines made the pitch look narrow
We probably ran the ball more, so the pitch appeared narrow - classic optical illusion
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