By Mark H
January 11 2004

Ever had one of those days when you knew it was a bad idea getting out of bed? Add Saturday 10th January 2004 to list if you have any love for the Saints, either playing, coaching or supporting. The Borders came down to try and restrict the score, and showed the sort of fight that was so sadly lacking when they were turned over by Llanelli four weeks ago.

Or was it to do with the fact that the Welsh side, now clear favourites to qualify from pool four, were clinical with their chances when they had them and Saints were so not anywhere near clinical that it literally was painful. Never can a home win at the Gardens have been greeted by such a muted reaction at the final whistle. Three tries, two in the second half, one short, no chance of qualifying? Well, not quite - the group is still there to win, but it probably now needs three wins, plus a favour from Agen in beating Llanelli next Friday night, to get that quarter final spot.

So what went wrong? Well, naivety, poor decision making, and an error count that seemed to run into three figures by the end of the game were three factors that were self inflicted; resolute Scottish defence was another. Certainly Saints set their stall out from the start to try and score tries, shying away from kickable penalties in going for lineouts and attacking positions, and they could quite easily have had a couple of tries through Grant Seely in the opening minutes, one where he was held up over the line, the other from a Johnny Howard kick to the corner which he collected from behind himself before flopping over the line, only to be called back for offside.

The breakthrough came on ten minutes, coming from a penalty awarded in front of the posts. With the Saints’ pack having already overpowered the Borders eight (and how many times have our pack worn opposition down that early this season?), the choice was a scrum which Grant came off the back of, and when he was held short of the line, Darren Fox followed up for the short range score. Shane converted, and part one of the four part job was done. Little did we know at that point that there would only be another three points scored in the next 44 minutes from a Saintly point of view.

We’ll all have our own impression of what went wrong, so here’s mine. Too much “showboating”, too early a reliance on sevens rugby, clever passes, players getting in the way of each other - this with an opposition pack as weak as I think I’ve ever seen at FG. Why the ball wasn’t mauled up the field more often is one for the players to answer. When you have a fifteen man line in front of you, you are not going to get past it by going round it, you have to get them to commit men to rucks and mauls and then try to take advantage of any gaps that appear. You also need basic handling skills, and they were sadly lacking. I’m not going to pick out any players in particular for criticism, basically because they were all as bad as each other, but I would be very surprised if the same back line was selected next Friday night - in fact I’d be surprised if there weren’t at least three changes. If they happen to be in the three key decision making areas, then so be it.

Shane kicked a straightforward penalty, only for it to be cancelled out by a Clark Laidlaw penalty for Borders from a similar position, if not distance. In between and after times, what we got was massive Saints pressure, but too many errors, too many lacking in ideas, and it nearly cost a try on two occasions, once where Nikki Walker kicked clear and forced Ben Cohen to concede a five metre scrum, and then another chance, where from yet another Saints mistake the ball was shipped out to Craig Moir, who raced clear down the line and was only stopped by a desperate (albeit very good) tackle from Ben. How many of us would have begrudged Moir a try on his return to the Gardens?

At half time the question around us was around what the score would be ten minutes into the second half. One cynic who shall remain nameless but is typing this rubbish said 10-3, not wanting to be right. Something needed to be changed, and the first lambs to be slaughtered in the name of more tries were the half back pairing of Howard and Drahm, neither of whom were having their greatest day in a green shirt, with Howard’s distribution variable and Drahm appearing to have run out of gaps to exploit. (And before anyone says, I know Robbie Morris went off first after his charge up the field, but such was the way Saints were playing the game, prop was not a potential try scoring position - even though it should have been).

Within a minute, the second try came. Finally the ball managed to stay in hands for more than two phases, and it eventually found its way to the wing for Bealer to dive over in the corner. Grays missed the conversion, but by now conversions were merely an insignificance. No one could realistically see the Borders pegging back a twelve point difference, as they really were standing in defence and waiting for the next wave of attacks to repel. Indeed, have any side shown as few attacking ideas in a visit to the Gardens - Leicester aside of course…

Even a rallying cry from Uncle Geoff failed to rouse the troops out of their mediocrity, but a third try did come on 65 minutes as Saints went back to the gameplan that should have been used a lot earlier - forwards taking the ball up the pitch shepherded by Farmer Sharky, before using the basic tactic that brought success last Sunday - pass to Grays, grubber kick for Bruce to exploit his pace. Bruce didn’t quite make it, but the Borders cover left enough of a gap fro Oriol to pick up off the back and jink over the line. Another missed conversion, but fifteen minutes to score a fourth and get the bare minimum from the game.

And that ticked down to the 81st minute, and a kick to the corner in desperation. Mark Connors won the lineout, but once again as the swaying mass of humanity tried to breach the whitewash, a pair of hands dropped the ball, and it was all over. It wasn’t quite silent at the Gardens, but it was very much indifferent.

One of the ironies of this season’s Heineken Cup will be that if Saints do miss out, then it will probably be because of failings at home - three tries versus 14 Agenais, three tries versus ailing Borders - than poor results away. One thing now seems sure, the group will be won and lost in Agen, either next Friday when Llanelli visit, or seven days later when our little army visit. We can all hope that when it comes down to 1st February that we only need a basic win to win the group, as I don’t think any of us could take the agony of having to watch a battle for four tries.

Borders were poor, never looking like winning, but where they did outshine the Saints was in the ferocity of their defence. It did look at times like the fifteen men were stretched out in a line saying “come and try it”, and some of their players came out with great credit - Utterson for keeping both Reihana and Leslie quiet, and Nikki Walker for ensuring that Ben was having to come from very deep every time, but really Saints should have scored four tries, and at the time of writing, it is difficult to see where four tries are going to come from next Friday. If that target is missed again, then we really can pack up and go home.

Referee Alain Rolland did not do himself any favours either. It was clear in the first half when Saints were pinned on the Borders line that the entire Borders defensive line was offside, but this was repeatedly ignored during the afternoon. He also had a very strange interpretation of the advantage law, seeming to give Saints all of two seconds whilst allowing Borders ten minutes. All we ever ask for as spectators is consistency, and I think that I can genuinely say that we didn’t get it. Added to the (significant) mistake from David McHugh at Stradey in allowing Quinnell to score from an offside position, and it seems that Irish referees have really got it in for us. I won’t mention that we’ve got who I consider to be the worst of the lot when we go to Agen…

Rolland’s timekeeping was also interesting. 39 minutes in the first half (something I’ve only seen once before, by Lander at Welford Road), and 42 minutes in the second when every replacement was used and Sititi was down for at least two minutes, tells its own story, but the fact is that if Saints can’t score four tries in 81 minutes, then it’s unlikely that another few minutes would have made any difference.

So, back to the drawing board we go. In Smudge we trust…