By The Supporters
August 28 2002

Northampton Saints played Stade Francais in their final warm up match before the season starts for real. Here are the supporters reactions to the new players, the new surroundings and the play of the team. Old Pete
Thinking about yesterday and the changes made during the game the more I am impressed with Wayne’s team building. Putting aside the errors and obvious shortcomings what we have is a potentially consistently competitive team with great cover in depth for key positions. We have senior players, youngsters who are improving all the time (not all of them though) and the overseas summer signings. This not only gives cover against injuries but also against the predations of Woodentop, Geech and others come the sick nations and other irrelevancies. The other plus is that with such cover in key positions there will be competition for places - not a bad thing. Quietly confident - but still worried about goal kicking when Larry is not available.

Sall
Well for my two penneth I thought today was cracking!!!! Sleights (you know I’m a big fan!) scoring was a highlight, it was a stormer and right near where I was sat too!! Beal’s try was cracking too, just how tall is that guy. Thought we looked uncomfy when Larry and Daws and Beal went off. No it wasn't the best match ever but tonight I’m a happy wee lassie!

WellSaint
Thought it was a good performance in the main; at least we are scoring tries (which will be important for those bonus points, which we need more of this season.) Had a very good view of the Ripol score; the guy looks very fast and could prove a real handful.

Smurf
Great match. High point has to be Beal's try saving run down on Dominici or Ripol's superb try.

TJS10
Fantastic tackle by Beal. (& This praise from a Tigers fan!) Ripol's try was right in front of where I was standing. Impressive, especially as the announcer had just said that he had been subbed.

Broonie
I’m terrified. I thought despite some decent individual efforts, we were awful. The tackling wouldn't have scared a girls' school. The lineout-aaarrgghh ! hundreds of thousands of pounds down the plug !if that's the product , Wayne either needs to sort it himself, NOW, or he needs to get in an expert who can. Williams is quite clearly a class act, but the throwing, lifting, timing and tactics are a shambles. they need to be drilled till their eyeballs bleed. Muttley and Robbie both got done by the French no.1, only Budgen coped with him and the passing of the backs was so slow and so far behind the man it just wasn't funny. improved only when Howard and Russell came on. Daws standing studying the ball at the base of the ruck again, Larry deep and watching the tacklers coming up, the forward acting as inside support not close enough and standing still- it all just looked pre-Smudger. the clearing-out was powder-puff stuff compared to how Wayne had them playing last year-with Olivier of course. I hope to god the last week of training gets it right for the sale game ,as that was a bad joke. ps. thoroughly impressed with Ripol(deadly), sleights (great try-he's still got gas ! ) Williams (really good hands), Hepher (I don't remember him being anything like so fast and explosive, hope his head's o.k. ) Howard, Budgen, Soden, Hyndman.

WMS
Although there were some positives it was really just powder puff - friendly - tackling. The lineout was still poor - Simon Hepher looked useful - Johnny Howard looked sharp. The pack never really got going though Budge was - well, Budge. Sleights owes Jar Jar some - I've heard of man and ball but Sleights had 3 men and a ball the first time he got it. The fringe runners looked predictable but when given space to work the 3 wingers all showed finishing skills - particularly Raspberry taking his man easily on the outside. Hard to make any judgement really - it was interesting to see the interchangeable positioning in the backs though I did worry when Daws ended up at outside centre trying to organise the defence when he was the one missing. I can't see Bealer breaking 3/4 tackles to score against Sale. Still - it was a nice day and my immediate reaction - "That was fun" - was about all it was. Potential, but I hope we see the real McCoy on Friday. Agreed Broonie - Chris Budgen looked well up for it. First scrum - "Don't mess with me sonny"

Broonie
the cheering thing was that the lower end of the squad list provided most of the good performances. this bodes unexpectedly well for the autumn international period-traditionally our Achilles heel. The worrying thing for me was how fragile our unit skills looked, and how frankly poor some of our senior players were.

Connect
Regarding Ripol's try.........the announcer (Steve Short) was given the information about substitutions from an official source...he was as shocked as myself (sitting next to me), to find Ripol still on the pitch......Incidentally the first try of the second half, ALL the press were begging Corletto TURN AROUND SO WE CAN SEE YOUR BLOODY NUMBER! The reason that the PA went quiet just before the game was that, due to a wiring problem, all the PA announcements were going out live in the changing rooms, and as Wayne Smith was giving his pep talk to the boys, coming out of the speakers in the changing rooms was " hello to little Johnny, who's ten today, happy birthday etc" Sitting opposite the Tetley’s stand, the singing sounded awesome......Can I claim to be the first to watch a game from the new stand...?

Mark H
The tackling was pretty poor, but I'd rather have a poor performance this week than a poor one next week.

Old Pete
It was a nice day for a friendly - but some of our lot seemed to me to be a bit too friendly - One was reminded me of the incident before the battle Dettingen 1743 when all were lined up ready and an English officer went out front - doffed his hat and said " Tirez vouz ke premier messieurs " We slow on the tackle and I was wondering whether we had a front row at all in the first half.
Kept thinking what a difference AB would have made taking them out in the middle. Good points loved Bealy's try and his run down and tackle - Raspberry has won our hearts I think - not just fast but brave too ( just like the Roth fan said on this board earlier ) reminded me in some respects if the great Batman - low fast running etc. Steve Williams was good but let down by the throwing and others around him. Still I enjoyed it and it was just great to be in the gardens again.

David Taverner
in general a good run out and like what was said previous the team we played are still probably the most flamboyant team in Europe and can practically attack from anywhere. Both sides still had players missing from the set up too so in all a good pre season game I would say. A few concerns arise around the lineout where several throws ended up being placed almost in line with the centres. they did have a tall pack and made it hard for saints to retrieve their own possession. I noticed that saints struggled to pick a loose ball up off the ground and I hope that area will be seen to over the next week. Raspberry showed us his determination and speed with a well-executed finish, good things will come from him. Daws started off well but ended up trying to be too fancy with his new gloves on, when Howard came on he stuck the basics and nearly scored a fantastic scrum-half darting try, felt he produced a better performance than Daws and had maybe the 7's to help for that. Ben Russell looked a lil nervous for his first real outing in 1st team but that should get better the more utilised. Enjoyed Bealer's try and also that tackle. Sleights played well and I think its Daws that owes him something as Daws kept passing him the ball only to find 3 Stade Francais players on him in seconds. Whether sleights was getting into a bad position or he was meant to do, I don't know but good try by him. Simon Hepher (Ali with a head cap on) also helped turning the tide when he came on and showed us great things he can bring to us, I think he is better as a back row than second row. All in all most performed well in some areas but not in others. Smudger did say that he was not really looking for a win but a team that he can put out on Friday against Sale and win that one instead. The key areas has to be tackling as it seemed to go to pot at the end by letting in those soppy tries and the infamous lineout, I agree drill them till they can't go wrong, we have some of the best lineout jumpers lets train right to get the ball to them. Lets see the Saints go marching on into Sale and walk out heads high.

Tedge
Lots of interesting comments about the game - it was very enjoyable but I do share concerns about defence, and line-outs (lines-out ???._ we seem to have had line out problems for years - even with Rodber, Bayfield et al we always seemed comparatively weak in that area. Other teams seem to jump higher than we do - I'm no expert but why don't the Saints employ a lineout specialist to help them get it right?

Ben Dover
Not too much to add to the comments above, but there was a strange feeling of deja vu about the game. Didn't I read somewhere that the team had been working hard on the lineouts? Nice to see some genuine pace in the team, but it's still all wrong in the backs, and the forwards were out smarted for long periods of the game. I thought that some of the youngsters far outshone our more senior players. Well here's hoping the game got some errors out the system, Ho Hum!
On the plus side I reckon the new stand will help create a great atmosphere when the ground is full, it will make a big difference having the pitch fully enclosed on three sides.

St. Bart
Why is it that Wally seems unable to find the jumpers at FG but manages well in an England shirt? His first throw would have done justice to a quarter back trying to reach the other side of the pitch. I know SF were hoisting and maintaining their jumpers before the ball left his hand (still illegal in my book), but we really must find a way of improving our game in this crucial area. Everyone knows its our Achilles heel and will play on it mercilessly. Ironically, virtually the only time we got clean line out ball was when Steve William snaffled a couple on SF's throw. So perhaps its down to timing (the art of comedy for us at the moment) or not hearing/remembering the calls properly?
Having said that Wally is still a great force in the loose, as was Danny when he was on. Daws has to give up his membership of the black hand gang, his passing in the first half was poor, right on the toes and dropping people in the acky cacky far too many times. Good points? Raspberry is really quick, and difficult to put down, just the job. Larry looks to have gained an extra yard and put in two beautiful cross kicks to Raspberry. Bealer is still deceptively quick, and Johnny Howard made in instant mark when he came on, as did several others of the younger brigade. Chris Budgen at last looked like the guy recommended by Gary Pagel. Solid and abrasive straight away. Bring on the Budgies.

Broonie
We fell off too many tackles on Saturday and the midfield engagement was nothing likes aggressive or physical enough, they got the shoulder past our tackles far too often. One of our main weaknesses last year was that we were putting in too few really big hits in the midfield-ignoring Jorgy’s guided missile stuff wider out. If you can get a big hit in, the support often overruns and you're in turnover country. As for the French try in the south/Tetley corner, the defence completely lost discipline and communication. We have trouble with French teams lying deeper in attack (remember Montferrand), and JL. Also had to stay back to cover Grays' outside channel, but JL. Got his man, indeed from where we were that was never in doubt, he had him all the way, but both 13 and wing had stopped drifting, and been attracted in to JL's man, so were dead in the water when he shipped it out. Schoolboy stuff. The foot-speed does indeed look better, and I think, provided his upper-body strength is up to it and he isn't a sick note, Simon Hepher may be a much more important signing than we've yet realised. I had absolutely no memory of him having that kind of pace and athleticism before. He absolutely took off like an outside centre on that break for the posts. Hyndman also showed a very good burst. However, the ball-speed among the backs struck me as poor-still not up to the standard we saw from the pcp academy last boxing day. Did anyone else think Grays was back in the pocket again? JL. Certainly looked too deep to me, and that's normally a sign that Larry 's too deep, as he can't very well stand in front of him? Pick & go RIP? Maybe. We certainly showed few signs of developing any momentum through the forwards on Saturday. Admittedly we struggled in both set pieces, but it seemed as if we had no way to replace Olivier’s power and ability to get the pile moving, and we weren't getting through their line close in, which was how we spread the field last year. Is it deliberate? Has Wayne abandoned pick & go? If so, it certainly won't mean trying to score schoolboy tries from sweeping outside moves off primary possession- that would be foreign to any NZ way of doing things. Also, we are extremely fast outside compared to last year, but not uniquely so within the ZP. I suspect we tried to do it but couldn't execute, which worries me.
We had Williams at 4 but repeatedly under-threw him, he was losing ball, which the French were taking from ahead of him practically at head height. We also persisted with that move where hunter or Soden were brought up in a rush to jump at 3, which must have a fairly limited percentage of success from what I’ve seen. JP, bless him, just looks as cumbersome as ever. Surely this year we can sort the lineout. Maybe Connors can bring some Ozzie secrets and do some coaching? If Wayne reckons he can do it himself, fine, I trust the guy. But if he doesn't, I doubt if we have anyone else who can, so I’d like to see a consultant brought in. we have bled there for long enough. We have a culture of failure at the lineout. No amount of "aerial skills " could help Steve Williams if he's being under thrown that badly.