Northampton Saints
News: HC Cardiff Blues vs Northampton Saints - Match Preview
By St Anger
December 17 2010
Round Four of the group stages of the 2010/11 Heineken Cup and Northampton Saints travel to Cardiff this weekend in a bid to consolidate of Saturday's victory over The Blues. St Anger has once again been making notes...
CARDIFF BLUES vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
HC: Sunday, 19th December 2010 - 3pm
MATCH PREVIEW
So, here we go again. In a reverse of last weekends fixture, Northampton are the visitors to The Cardiff City Stadium, where they will hope to show The Blues the Heineken Cup door and take a step closer to a ‘home’ quarter final. Cardiff though have a reputation as well as a season to salvage, and though The Saints did not put them to the sword last weekend, they were woeful, and will be desperate to put a stop to their poor form and lay a marker down before a difficult Christmas in the league.
Northampton were clearly the stronger of the two sides in last weekend’s game, looking comfortable despite playing 30 minutes of the game with only fourteen men. The Saints indiscipline cost them the chance to really break free from a Blues side that offered little aside from the occasional Dan Parks penalty. What The Blues have to call upon in reserve is unclear however, and it could be that a couple of Cardiff big guns come back in to their side.
Having said that there is also scope for Northampton to shake up their starting 15, and Jim Mallinder must decide whether Ryan Powell’s form, and what he offers with ball in hand, is enough to keep Lee Dickson out of The Saints’ side having returned successfully from injury off the bench last weekend. He must also decide whether Digger should retain his place after his well taken try, or whether it is time for Reihana’s first game back after injury.
For Cardiff Blues, while everyone is aware the Jamie Roberts is a prodigious talent, he has been absent for a long time, and it may well be a bridge too far to bring him back playing directly opposite James Downey in European rugby. Besides, The Cardiff centres didn’t look too bad at all last weekend. Both Shanklin and Laulala looked dangerous, coped well in defence and made yards in contact, and I don’t think their Northampton opponents bettered them.
The one area where Northampton really shone was in the pack, where Cardiff, with a couple of acceptations, where made to look like boys playing against men. Were you to have offered Dai Young a new hooker and tight head this week he would probably have bitten your hand off. Given that the only thing Gareth Williams managed to hit with any real accuracy last weekend was Dylan Hartley, you would have to assume Rhys Thomas were in plaster or else on his death bed for him to not be taped up for this contest.
Without significant re-enforcements it would be a massive achievement for The Blues to turn around their deficiencies in that department this week. However, Young, who himself was a tight head of some note, will have been very disappointed with the account the forwards gave of themselves and him. It’s fair to assume that he’ll be doing everything in his power to ensure a repeat does not happen. Whether Cardiff have the power and skill to stop The Saints’ scrum time dominance is one thing, but you would expect their line out to up its game considerably.
The Blues will definitely not go quietly into the night, and this game represents a far tougher challenge than last Saturday. I think it is fair to say that home teams, with a vociferous crowd behind them, do tend to often get the rub of the green with a lot of referees. Though I have every confidence in Monsieur Garces’ ability, I would expect Cardiff to come out and rough up The Saints, and if Williams is really the best fit hooker available then he has absolutely nothing to lose in having a go at Dylan again. A yellow card or two would be even more costly in this fixture. With our indiscipline making the last match a competition it is of utmost importance that we don’t annoy ‘Sir’ by getting involved.
Though Northampton possess the bigger pack, the Cardiff forwards showed they make the hard yards well, with Rush, Molitika and Shanklin making gains despite Northampton’s abrasive tackling. The Saints will seek to use Tonga’uiha, Dowson, Lawes and others in the same way, getting over the gain line, putting Cardiff on the back foot and hopefully disorganising their defence.
What The Saints have found in the league is that the first up tackles against the likes of Tonga’uiha are often missed which leads to cracks appearing, with gaps and mismatches appearing all over the place. This is where many of our scores have come from this season. Cardiff’s defence impressed greatly around the fringes though, and the fact they missed only two of 97 attempted tackles is testament to the work they did to stop the Northampton machine steamrolling up the park as it has done so often against Premiership opposition. In contrast, London Irish missed 11 of 107 tackles at Franklins Gardens. What Cardiff lacked in creativity they made up for in defence.
Indeed looking at those statistics it makes it all the more impressive that we almost scored three tries on Saturday.
It would be a serious achievement were Cardiff to match that defensive feat this weekend, and I’m hopeful that their being at home will lead them to play a more open and attacking game. Also, with our England contingent now back in the fold with a game under their belts they should get stronger and regain their form at club level.
I think this will be a tougher game by some distance than last weekend’s fixture. I think The Blues will seek to throw it around a bit more than last week. As I haven’t seen The Saints out-played in a long time I’m still pretty confident that Northampton have what it takes to go to Legoland and bring home the win as a nice Christmas present for those of us who are making the journey.
Predicted line ups
Cardiff Blues
15. Czekaj
14. Mustoe
13. Shanklin
12. Laulala
11. James
10. Parks
9. Rees
8. Rush
7. Williams
6. Molitika
5. Davies
4. Tito
3. Filise
2. Thomas
1. Jenkins
Northampton Saints
15. Foden
14. Ashton
13. Clarke
12. Downey
11. Diggin
10. Myler
9. Dickson
8. Wilson
7. Wood
6. Dowson
5. Day
4. Lawes
3. Mujati
2. Hartley
1. Tonga’uiha
Prediction
Though I don’t believe Cardiff Blues forwards will hand us the win like last week I cannot see their pack, and whoever comes into it becoming that much better by Sunday. I also think with the extra game back our team will have settled a little and that will allow our backs to throw the ball around with a bit more confidence. I’m going for a higher scoring game, but the same margin, Northampton by 8.
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Tetleys Block F E143
See you there Sunday (weather permitting!)
Quote:looking comfortable despite playing 30 minutes of the game with only fourteen men.
Er, we were down to 14 men for just 20 minutes (and for 4-5 minutes of that second spell we were down to 13 after Dylan got carded).
Whilst I agree that we'll have another tough day at the office scrum time, I cannot see our lineout failing for a second time. That really cost us last week. Can't play without the ball.
Expect Jamie Roberts to play at some stage - he's been off for some time with a wrist injury but his style of play doesn't need a lot of match preparation and his teammates know him inside out.
Can't see you doing the double on us, to be honest, but I think you will come away with a losing bonus point, which would not be a good result for us.
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