By Saint Tim
October 29 2010

Edinburgh and Saints provided a festival of rugby in what must have been one of the most entertaining matches I have ever seen.  Edinburgh were flinging the ball around with abandon, avoiding contact and running into open spaces.  Saints on the other hand were driving straight through the middle making loads of ground – with the odd unfortunate turn over.

Can you find a MoTM as Saints win away at Edinburgh?

So it was that coming up to half time despite having scored first with an excellent line out catch and drive Saints were looking distinctly second best     and were 24 – 16 down.  Fortunately onthe stroke of half time James Downey was put into space by Roger Wilson who had got in behind the defence and James saw the opportunity and successfully made for the try line.  Unfortunately Stephen could convert from near the try line leaving the score as 24 – 21.

Surely the second half could not be played at the same pace and with Saints conceding so much space to the Gunners.  Fortunately whatever tweaks Big Jim did at half time worked a treat and from the first whistle of the second half through to the final whistle Saints took control of the match and progressively squeezed the life out of Edinburgh.  A converted Paul Diggin try was enough to see the Saints safely home

The biggest disappointment of the match was the sparsely populated stadium with only a few thousand rattling around in the wide open spaces of Murrayfield. If Edinburgh consistently serve up rugby of that quality and the crowd is not responding then you have to wonder about the viability of the professional 15 man code north of the border.

So, who caught the eye?

With such an entertaining game it was perhaps not surprising hat a few people stod out.

In fourth place with 13% was Courtney Lawes.  Courtney followed up his win from the previous week with another barn storming display.  I am sure there are more and more half backs around who dread playing against young Courts – remember he is still only 21 in a position where the best years are often the late twenties.  One wonders just how good he can become under the continued guidance of Jim and Dorian.

In joint second place with 18% each were Stephen Myler and James Downey.  It was a calm controlled display from Stephen and whilst I commented on his missed conversion that was not a dig at the way he played.  Jim seems to give the fly halves a run of two or three games and Stephen looked assured in that role. 

Not sure why this one looks stretched.

James Downey is a rock in the heart of our defence but this year he also seems to be making bigger holes in the opposition than before and so his work is becoming more obvious.  Not the quickest of players but certainly someone it is good to have in your side.

Sorry this one isn't from the Edinburgh match but Sportnetwork doesn't want to upload the image and I need to get to the bar!

The winner with 20% was Roger Wilson.  Roger is a real number 8.  He is fast, dangerous with ball in hand – making the hard yards almost at will – and aggressive in defence.  Without doubt he is the best No.8 I have seen at the club since Pat Lam.  Well done Roger on your first win of the season and surprising yet another new name is added to a leaderboard which has 7 different names from seven matches.  I cannot recall that happening before.

Finally thanks to the 83 who voted and please not that you only have a day or so left to vote for your MoTM against Wasps as Saints finally scaled the defences of the lost causeway.

To see the full results and analysis please click through to the following page.

Edinburgh V Saints HC MoTM

Discussion started by ComeOnYouSaints.com , 29/10/2010 16:40

ComeOnYouSaints.com
29/10/2010 16:40

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Phil.
29/10/2010 16:45

7 different winners, eh? Just goes to show Saints are playing as a team, I guess.

Good read, Tim.

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ChrisG
29/10/2010 16:56

Gone are the days when Andy Blowers usually had it sewn up by Xmas

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Stockers
29/10/2010 19:27

I'm surprised that it's only Rog's first win. He is a rock in the pack and does so much in winning the hard yards and defending the line that we'd be poorer without him.

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Howlin
29/10/2010 22:27

I'm surprised Downey did't win this one. I thought he contributed more tahn any. Well done to Rog tho. As Stockers wrote, it is surprising he hasn't bagged a few in the past.

Saint til I die

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saracens4life
30/10/2010 01:04

Interesting to see Tiny hasn't won any.
As you clearly don't rate him, can we have him? (I'm sure we'll have learnt our lessons from last year and we can do the deal very surreptitiously)

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steve393
30/10/2010 08:23

S4L, we don't mind, but I don't think he wants to play for you. Something to do with what's happening at Saracens not being special enough.

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