Saints slip to defeat against Saracens
By Jonathan Stockham
December 28 2006
No festive cheer for Northampton Saints at Vicarage Road last night as an efficient and competent Saracens team put the visitors to the sword. Saints now find themselves next to bottom of the Guinness Premiership, with a home game against the tail enders, Worcester Warriors, to come on New Years Day.
Saints slip to defeat against Saracens and to eleventh in Premiership.
Guinness Premiership Round 11, Wednesday 27 December 2006
Oh dear! Back to earth with a bump! After the conditional joy resulting from the fortunate win against Wasps before Christmas (fortunate in that Wasps didn’t pack a goal kicker on the team bus), Saints fans’ balloon of festive cheer was cruelly burst by an ever improving Sarries team.
Saints only points of the evening came from 5 Carlos Spencer penalties, all in the first half. The only likely try was defeated by the goal posts when Carlos chipped through for Robbie Kydd to attempt the touchdown but the curve ball rebounded off the right upright, as did Kydd seconds later.
Saints opened the scoring with an early penalty and by half time were still well in touch at 16 – 15. This didn’t reflect the reality of the half however, as Saracens had the better of possession and territory as the first period wore on. However, their only try came from a Saints “own goal.” After a period of aimless kicking back and forth by both sides, Sarries kicked to touch 35 metres out from Saints goal line. Steve Thompson launched an Exocet of a throw, which sailed over the rear jumper and into Sarries’ hands. They worked the ball quickly to the left wing and over for a try for Kameli Ratuvou. Glen Jackson added the conversion. 13-6 after 23 minutes.
Saints upped the pace briefly after Cobus Visagie had complained to referee Pearson in “naval language” about that nasty Tom Smith getting the better of him at a scrum. From the subsequent line out, Saints mauled the ball upfield and when released left, Sean Lamont dropped it!
Saints then managed to get pinged three times in quick succession, relieving the pressure on the home team and ending up in a penalty kick and another three points for Jackson. Saints came back strongly just before half time and the final act was another 3 pointer for Carlos after Sarries front row buckled under pressure in a Saints scrum under the posts.
16-15 at half time.
Spencer’s immaculate goal kicking had kept Saints in touch but on occasions the Saints backs had looked like rabbits caught in the headlights, despite the fact that their forward brethren were getting the upper hand against the Sarries pack. The home backs had looked ominously fast and controlled when in possession and worked well defensively.
Saracens opened their second half account early after Saints had been penalised for not releasing in the tackle. Sarries won their line out on the visitor’s 10 metre line and worked the ball rapidly left and right to stretch Saints defence and create a gap for Jackson to thunder over at the posts. He was never going to miss the conversion either and after only 6 minutes of the half, the score was 23-15.
Saints were getting careless with possession, losing their line outs and getting pinged for offences in the tackle zone. Saracens nearly scored again after 12 minutes but the final pass from Skirving at Seymour’s head was both a tad forward and impossible to hold. Saints then crumbled at the resulting scrum on the tight head and, despite Wally’s protestations, Pearson awarded the penalty to Sarries and Jackson increased the lead to 26-15.
Coach Paul Grayson then seemed to decide on damage limitation for Saints and subbed Barnard, Going and Dan Browne with Budgen, Diggin and Tupai respectively. Shortly afterwards, Smith and Thompson left as well to be replaced by Tonga’huia and Hartley.
Saracens now won a scrum against the head and attacked but dogged defence by Saints kept the Men in Black at bay until the visitors were pinged for being offside. Sarries chose the scrum option and, after several collapses where Saints were penalised, the referee lost patience and awarded a penalty try as an advancing Sarries scrum was illegally dropped just short of the try line. The extras were added from in front off the posts and now it was 33-15.
Carlos was replaced by Jonny Howard after 31 minutes and Saints cohesion, which had looked shaky for most of the half, collapsed completely. Pointless kicks upfield handed the initiative back to Saracens, putting unnecessary pressure on Saints.
Then, to cap it all, Kydd was shown the yellow card for a high tackle. Saracens drove the ball from the resulting 5-metre line out and mauled Samoan prop Census Johnson over the line for a very valuable fourth try and a league bonus point. Jackson missed the conversion from wide on the right.
The finale for Saints was to be penalised in the front row again and Sarries hoofed the ball high into the stand as the countdown clock reached zero. The man behind me in the stand said, “How on earth did that lot beat Wasps?”
How indeed and how do Saints get their Premiership campaign back on track? How do the coaches sort out the lack of a team on the field? Instead of the 15 hard working individuals we saw last night, we need to see a strong team playing rugby at pace and looking for gaps, not heading for contact and slow ball. The word offload seems to have been forgotten again.
The line out and the particularly the scrum deteriorated, especially after the wave of substitutions. I have no doubt that the senior players were withdrawn to save them for New Year’s Day against Worcester, a game which Saints must win and with a bonus point if at all possible to get away from the relegation zone.
Congratulations to Saracens for a job done and done effectively, efficiently and with control.
Teams:
|
|
Saracens |
Northampton Saints |
|
|
|
|
|
15 |
Scarborough |
Going (rep Diggin) |
|
14 |
Vaikona (rep Penney) |
Lamont |
|
13 |
Sorrell |
Mallon |
|
12 |
Powell |
Kydd |
|
11 |
Ratuvou |
Bourett |
|
10 |
Jackson (rep Taylor) |
Spencer |
|
9 |
De Kock (rep Rauluni) |
Vass (rep Howard) |
|
1 |
Lloyd |
Smith (rep Tonga’huia) |
|
2 |
Byrne |
Thompson (rep Hartley) |
|
3 |
Visagie (rep Johnson) |
Barnard (rep Budgen) |
|
4 |
Chesney |
Damien Browne |
|
5 |
Raiwalui (rep Ryder) |
Lord |
|
6 |
Gustard |
Easter |
|
7 |
Seymour (rep Russell) |
Harding |
|
8 |
Skirving |
Daniel Browne (rep Tupai) |
|
|
|
|