By Claire Jones
December 14 2003

Everybody without exception regarded this game as ‘Le Crunch’, Wayne Smith asked for us all to be ‘very strong’ and Saturday saw Saints take four points but I can’t help thinking that this was a case of what might have been. It should have been five points in the bag – Merci, mais quelle domage! When Sharky made his break in the first minute, it was the best start I’d seen us make since my last match report at Edgeley Park. We looked sharp. Agen gave away a penalty which Larry slotted over and we were 3-0 up.

Mark H’s preview stated that the Saints front row would be one of the key points of this game and so it proved. But we were given a gift when Crenca obligingly dished out a head butt. Nigel Whitehouse had no problem with instantly wielding the red card despite M. Crenca protesting pointing to his side, claiming Saints foul play and only six minutes on the clock. Is it the fastest ever red card in the Heineken Cup I wonder?

The Agen restarts were always low – I imagine hoping to causing trouble with a wet ball but we were off again, Wally and Connors were involved in an excellent drive, Hunter working well in midfield but Agen cleared their lines. Then Agen tried the same line out on us, as we did on Tigers at Welford Road last year but some excellent defending won us a 5 metre scrum. The Agen try was from an unfortunate slip by Sharky Robinson, a clever chip by Lafforgue from which he scored. Suddenly, the 14 men were 3-7 up after 15 minutes.

But Saints were playing well with Hunter, Wally and Connors making excellent breaks and being supported by Tom Smith, Grant Seely and Foxy. These drives earned us another penalty that Larry converted without difficulty – 6-7 to Agen.

Now this is were it all went a bit peculiar – Agen’s pack were down to 7 men, we were still making breaks but it was a bit lateral and flat. Wally was running around the field like a man possessed but the backs couldn’t make the break, Ben Cohen appeared to be having difficulty holding on to the ball, which either slowed us down or resulted in a knock on. Twenty-six minutes in and we had the shove on in the scrum only to give the ball away.

The drives in midfield kept coming, we kept re-cycling the ball – Fox, Connors, Benjy, the whole pack drove towards the Agen try line resulting in Saints penalty. Surprisingly, we took the scrum. Our scrum was creaking both props were suffering with Wee Tam having already been penalised and now Morris was pinged. Robbie Morris can have no complaints – I had my head in my hands as we gave away excellent field position. But Grant Seely didn’t give up – he kept the kick to touch in play and set up a brilliant attack. Desperate defence resulted in the Agen fly-half, Gelez being binned.

Still the attacks kept coming and still Saints didn’t look quite right. A chip over the top to Benjy, resulted in him flattening Elhorga (accidentally) and missing the ball completely and giving away a penalty. Half time – Agen down to 13 men, Saints 6-7 down – it was looking like one of those days.

Second half and Agen tried to bring back their flanker Kahler who had come off when Cencra had been sent off so that Blanco could come on. Nice try but the observant officials stopped the kick-off to have him removed and replaced by Sverzut.

Saints came out the traps flying (how many clichés can I get into one match report?) – we drove through the midfield, spinning the ball first out to the right wing and then when it seemed the attack was going to stall, up popped Andy Blowers on the left wing, to keep the attack alive and put a delighted Ben Cohen in for the score. Larry slotted over the conversion and we were 13-7 up, 43 minutes gone.

Wally was still running around the pitch like a mad thing. He popped up at the same point on the wing as Grant Seeley had in the first half to keep the ball in – the Saints’ determination to keep the ball alive was thrilling. And may I congratulate Wally his line-out throwing and Rob Hunter on his jumping - it was superb! And we were nicking their line-out ball – I know who had the better line-out day and it wasn’t Curnier!!

46 minutes Shane Drahm was on for Larry who was off for a blood bin, Bernie decided to wave two Saints flags at the French supporters in Block Z who were less than impressed! I enjoyed it though!

Saints lost concentration and gave away a silly penalty – ooh it was getting a little close at 13-10. Agen were hanging in with some stout defence.

An excellent drive gained us a penalty – I did enjoy the 20 metre rolling maul from our forwards that resulted in a penalty. 45 metres out in a swirling wind was brave from Shane Drahm but it failed, drifting left. From the 22 metre drop-out, Agen gave a penalty again even further out – Drahm tried again and missed pulling it left again. It must have been frustrating for Drahm to be sat on the bench for most of the game – he has been Saints’ maestro this season but Larry was having a good solid game and he returned from the blood bin to continue his good work in midfield. Yet we couldn’t get the ball out wide enough, fast enough and we weren’t running our lines well.

Dancing Queen Wally was still at it and on 61 minutes burst through the centre of the midfield but again we couldn’t break through. The crowd however, stayed with the team, there were no disgruntled murmurings just some good shouting and singing. And it paid off, we gave away a silly scrum and it looked as though we were all over the place, some how we scrambled it out to Benjy who took his opportunity well, scoring a try on the left. Larry converted 20-10. Sighs of relief all round.

On 78 minutes, we should have scored a try when Agen attempted a suicidal quick throw in. Five yards out was still three yards too many for Chicken and an opportunity was missed. But still Saints kept going, Andrew Blowers nicking the ball at the line-out, for Shane Drahm to cross-kick the ball to the world’s best ball poacher in the air – Benjy grabbed the balled, juggled it and got it down to the delight of the Gardens faithful. I was chuffed for him – he’d had a tough World Cup and this was a great return.

11,523 saw the match and I’m sure many felt the same as the Joneses, that we had done enough to win and thank god, we were only competing against 7 men up front.