Thoughts from the Chron 10th September
By Chris Gleadell
September 10 2009
Well here we go again! After another typically English "summer" it is back to the main focus in life, the rugby season, and for Saints supporters lets hope there are a few more rays of light in that than we have seen weather wise over the last few months.
Though on the opening day last Sunday everything looked like it was going to remain dark till that little ray of sunshine Paul Diggin saved the day late on.
When the Guinness Premiership fixture list was released and Worcester were named first up I am sure most of us thought well what a nice start to ease yourself into the season. Indeed when the usual midweek subject of "How do the think the Saints will get on this weekend?" was raised I was firmly in the ‘we'll stuff em' camp. Saints, a team on the rise who had recruited quality, against Worcester who struggled last term and as a squad looked no better this time round, surely a landslide was on the cards. Well not quite.
Fair play to Worcester they took their opportunities well and defended like demons at times but I think early jitters from ourselves contributed more to the closeness of the game than anything. Better sides would no doubt have put us away but even at 17-0 down you still had that inkling that Saints would come good. Playing down that infamous slope in the second half into the bearpit of support surely it was just a matter of time before Saints started to rack up the points and run away with it? But no, as much as the lads plugged away and dominated territory and possession the visitors upped it and repelled what was thrown at them.. Certainly at times the forwards were guilty of overcooking things when we had the advantage in numbers out wide but it took a change in personnel to finally break the shackles. An ankle injury to Steve Myler saw the introduction of James Downey while debutant Shane Geraghty moved to flyhalf and all of a sudden we sparked into life and looked to have a more fluid urgency about our play. Smyler may well be talked about as a future England international but on Sunday's showing he could well have a battle on his hands for the Saints number ten shirt. But then with it being the coaches vision that there is competition for all places that can be no bad thing as candidates raise their game.
Whilst it was a new face that added the spark it was a mainstay who provided the touch of class for the winner as Bruce Reihana drew the defender to send Digger in for a score which not only took the game but which almost took the roof off the Gardens. To be honest even given the closeness I was not too dismayed, whilst there are things to work on we will get better in time, much better as everything gels.
SARRIES
So played one, won one and the travels away start this weekend with the trip down to North London for the much advertised clash with Saracens at Wembley.
There have been big changes at Sarries over the summer, not least the vast turnover of players and the appointment of one of Saints supporters arch panto villains, Doc Brendan Venter as head coach.
You have to take your hat off to them for this venture though. Whilst some might turn their nose up at this kind of thing I don't think you can knock any club in this day and age that wants to put more backsides on seats. As a club that has struggled in the past to build a support base lets face it if it encourages even just a couple of hundred more through the turnstiles at their regular haunt of Vicarage Road then all well and good. Not only is that more money in the bank but also a potential increase on atmosphere and it might just snowball into something good for the club going forward. If they could build it up to the Stade Francais model, who have attracted around 80,000 to chosen club games in Paris, then not only is that good for Saracens but for the wider game too. I know there is a large curiousity value over the whole event but I hope for Sarries it is sustainable long term.
Saints have sold around 5,000 tickets for this game with quite a few more buying direct from Ticketmaster so we should have a fair few at the game, though whether we make ourselves heard over Right Said Fred singing Sarries new anthem remains to be seen.
As for the result, well if we can avoid the jitters of last week and can field a fit front row then surely we are in with a shout. It's a close one to call but for Sarries as a club you get the feeling its all about the occasion rather than the game and if our lads can put their heads down and not get caught up in all that's going on around them they might just sneak it.
BLOODGATE
It may have been off season but rugby was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the summer. Bath may count themselves lucky that the focus from them shifted quite quickly after their ‘drug' scandal to Quins when it was confirmed that they had indeed used a blood capsule to try and engineer a match winning substitution.
To compound Quins problems they also tried a pretty tawdry cover up of events which whilst was claimed to be in the clubs interests clearly not only dragged it further into the mire but was more probably about covering certain individuals backsides.
In the end Dean Richards fell on his sword and was banned for three years into the bargain. There have been claims that it was down to his desires to win at all costs. What utter rubbish, it was downright premeditated cheating pure and simple. Some people are also claiming leniency because of what he had contributed to the game in the past. Well to me given the gravity of what happened that is like saying the Kray twins should have got a reduced sentences because they were good to their Mum.
As supposedly the sole architect of ‘bloodgate' Richards wasn't only trying to cheat Leinster out of a game of rugby in my mind more importantly he was cheating the very people giving him their unquestionable support, the fans of Quins.
We supporters believe in our teams doing their utmost and doing by the book. I am sure the vast majority of us believe in fairness however outmoded some think that might be in this day and age. Potentially had Quins gone on to win the Heineken how would those fans have felt if three months down the line their biggest achievement was stripped from them because one man considered himself above the laws of the game. Gutted, cheated, humiliated?
I know that there is a tendency to circle the wagons and look after your own when this kind of thing happens but, heaven forbid, if anything of this nature happened at Saints, I'd like to think I would not be in the apologists camp, I'd be shouting at the rooftops for someones head.
At the end of the day I know I want to pay my hard earned cash each week to watch a fair contest between two evenly matched sides. I don't want that influenced by outside sources that go against the spirit of the game. There may be a win at all cost mentality but there has to be values behind that too. Sure there are grey areas in the game, always has been, but this was not one of them, this was way, way over that blurred line that shouldn't be crossed.
Hopefully this incident might well be a watershed in the game. No one has come out of it smelling of roses. There are allegations it has happened before but this in no way should detract from the seriousness of it. Added to that the ERC disciplinary procedure has left a lot to be desired whilst the RFU have belatedly announced setting up their own task force to address perceived problems in the game and the disciplinary process as a whole.
There was a quote this week that this task force is akin to the RFU barricading the stable door after the horse has well and truly bolted and running down the Chertsey Road. Given some of the judgements that have come from the very same people who are looking to fix all ills in the game I'd say that the RFU have only been feeding that horse sugar lumps for years anyway (depending of course on who the horse played for).
Wouldn't it be an idea, given how the games been dragged through the mud, for the world body, the IRB, to take the lead and set up something independently because given the RFU's past actions you can see this ending up in another fudge, something else that horse will happily devour.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Another thoughtful article.
Top of the League 2014-2015 Season