By Maverick
September 25 2005

“IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Saints back in possession of a good talent must be in want of the ball.” The words of James Austin, head coach of the Old Darconians from way back in 1813. Almost 200 years later and those words are just as apt when looking at Saints today.

 

Saints travel to Gloucester this weekend with a 1 and 2 effort to show for their efforts early doors. Destruction by Leicester, whilst not unexpected (although the manner of defeat left a nasty taste), sent shivers through the Saintly camp. The win at Bath temporarily papered over the cracks but last weekend’s reverse to Newcastle Falcons has certainly focused the minds of those watching as to where our deficiencies currently lie. It’s all very well having a potentially lethal back-line but they can’t perform without decent service.

 

The press pieces before the Falcons game were all, “Carlos this” and “Carlos that”, but in the end he was upstaged by a tactical master-class by his opposite number Dave Walder. As painful as it must have been at the time, Saints coach Paul Grayson must have been purring at what was a veritable exhibition of the skills which Larry used to perform with such aplomb in the Green, Black and Gold. Kick the corners, keep us on the back foot and wait for the mistakes. Hold on to the lead and let’s see what you can do from 70 metres out. And what could we do? Well, not a lot, really.

 

What of Gloucester? Well, they are unbeaten this campaign having served up two wins and a draw in this fledgling Guinness Premiership season (yes that’s Guinness, not GUINNESS! Have we received any incentives to promote the sponsor’s product? Hardly. And until the editors of this site receive copious vouchers to sample said beverage, lower case it will remain). Sorry, back to matters in hand. At the back end of last season, Gloucester suffered an alarming slide in their fortunes. I, for one, felt that they would struggle this year. Credit therefore is due to Dean Ryan for turning round what seemed at the time to be a very unsteady ship.

 

In the corresponding fixture last term, Saints were on a roll. The new coaching team had turned things around and the 18-26 victory seemed at the time to herald a barn-storming end to the 2004/5 season. In match reporter Smurf’s word’s, (the link is below), “If we can play like that for the rest of the season, we should be safe in the league and pushing for European honours”. Yeah right, we all were a part of what unfolded over the back end of last season and you don’t need me to remind you of what we went through.

 

To this weekend, then.

 

On Thursday, Saints announced the following squad to take the fight down to the depths of Castle Grim…

 

15 BRUCE REIHANA (capt)
14 SEAN LAMONT
13 Jon Clarke
12 DAVID QUINLAN
11 BEN COHEN
10 CARLOS SPENCER
9 MARK ROBINSON
1 TOM SMITH
2 Dylan Hartley
3 Chris Budgen
4 Matt Lord
5 Damien Browne
6 STEVE THOMPSON
7 Darren Fox
8 Mark Easter

16 Dan Richmond
17 Brett Sturgess
18 SELBORNE BOOME
19 Mark Soden
20 Johnny Howard
21 Rhodri Davies
22 Seamus Mallon

 

Having returned to full fitness David Quinlan gets the first chance to shine in Saints colours in an otherwise unchanged back-line. The fun and games comes in the forwards with Chris Budgen getting the nod over Brett Sturgess in the front-row and Mark Easter retaining the No.8 berth. It must have been a tough call between Easter and Mark Soden who can consider himself a little unlucky to be getting the splinters. Dylan Hartley retains his place at hooker so, where’s Wally? Yep, I saw the double-take at the back there, he’s there at No.6. A bold move by Director of Rugby Budge Pountney who is asking the England and Lions star to play in the back-row but he obviously sees Wally as giving a little more grunt and go at the breakdown. Thompson has played in this position before (he started his career as a back-row player) but not for some time. It’s a gamble – let’s hope it pays dividends.

 

A quick note about the rest of the replacements. Danny “Jon Jewellery” Richmond must be desperate to prove a point to the coaches who have made him number three No.2 up to this point. The sight of Selborne Boome is also welcome on a bench which certainly has a stronger feel about it. I would have liked to have seen Paul Diggin in the 22 as well just to let the senior backs know that their place is not a “given”. However, that’s not to be this week and the coaching team certainly know more about the game than this observer.

 

At the time of writing there was no team news out of Gloucester although we understand that both Phil Vickery (shoulder) and Mike Tindall (ribs) are doubtful. On the plus side for the Cherry and Whites, James Simpson-Daniel looks to be close to regaining full fitness after an ankle injury after may place a part in proceedings on Saturday. One to watch then for Gloucester? For me it has to be Ludovic Mercier. After last week’s Walder show mentioned above we could see the same kind of treatment being dished out to Saints by a player who contributed 21 of Gloucester’s 41 point total at Bristol just a few days ago.

 

 

A case of how full your glass is then. A struggling pack up against the likes of Adam Eustace and Alex Brown doesn’t sound to promising. It’s all very well saying that we’ve got the likes of Barnard and Harding (perhaps sooner than we think?) to come in to steady the ship. But they ain’t gonna be here until November. By that time we could be ten points adrift sailing along with no steering mechanism up the proverbial natural stream of water (smaller than a river).

 

It is early days and I’m not about to throw in the towel on another under-achieving Saints season. We’ve seen some progress in the first three games. The penalty count was down against the Falcons but still wasn’t satisfactory. Set piece play can be improved. It’s about doing the basics, and doing them well. We have the talent in our side to face up to the given opposition on the day. In last week’s press, Budge commented on the performance against Falcons, “They gave it their best shot but whether their best is quite good enough, I don't know.” Budge, with all due respect, it’s time to find out, because you need to know. And we need to know too. Another season of bumping along the sea-bed of mediocrity or six months of floating in mid-stream below the big fish? It’s going to be one or the other because, as things stand, we’re going to be nowhere near the dolphins breaking the waves at the top end of the Guinness Premiership.

 

Gloucester by a few. Probably.

(ps. To Mr Guinness – details where to send the beer tokens can be obtained by email…)

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