Big Game? I Should Coco!
By Flashman
April 8 2010
Flashman, from his abode in sunnier climes, casts a rheumy eye over Saturday's match...
And not the sort our colonial forebears used to go shooting for in Africa (No, no, no Saracens,.....calm down! We're not having a go at you this time!)
As I sit here on the Cote d'Azur, sipping my first dry Martini of the day, delightfully agitated (the Martini!) by the splendidly pneumatic house maid, Angelique, one is sorely tempted to forego the hedonistic pleasures of Southern France and get the Jet Ranger cranked up to fly straight to Shannon for the Heineken Cup Quarter Final.
This IS Big Game time for the Saints. The other lot are the perennial Euro Cup specialists, Munster. So regular are they in featuring in such Euro events that there is even a rumour doing the rounds of Knockaderry and Coolmeen that POC, ROG and DOC are to be the Irish entrants for The Eurovision La La La Contest! That would get Terry Wogan out of retirement!
But what chance do Saints have against the Mighty Munster Men on their own Almond Park patch ?
Well, The Saints got there first in Euroland (beating the current Munster team....just how old are those fella's?), on 27 May 2000, the day upon which I reckon a previous house maid's child she claims is mine was conceived! I can't recall such events but they're living in Rio now so "c'est la vie!"
Munster have won the Cup a couple of hundred times since according to Sky Sports Euro stats and vie with that lot just up the road from me, Toulouse, for the title of Mr Euro.
Saints have been to Toulouse as well, more than once and even played in the Big Stadium in front of 38,500 people, losing the game but winning the respect of the home crowd who sang a special song as a mark of their esteem! That was a quarter final.
And we've also been to that poor imitation of Monaco over in the Basque country, Biarritz, where they were so afraid of us that they tried to hide over the border in Spain. They bussed in thousands of locals to the footie stadium to try to out-noise us. We beat them! That was a quarter final too!
Saints have been to Limerick earlier this season for the Pool game. (I always thought that "Pool" was the short form of name used by those oikball followers from Scouserland - the red ones that is. The blue ones probably say something less fragrant!)
Saints' previous visit was a "could've, should've won" opportunity missed. But in front of a full house at Almond Park the boys never took a backward step...except in one vital scrum when POC was having a pedicure and the try line gleamed as enticingly as a Berlusconi personal assistant's bikini.
Hey ho, ho hum. None too shabby to come away from Munster's pad with a 3 point deficit.
Anyway, The Saints are back. They know what to expect. The Saints travelling hordes know what to expect. They've been there before. It isn't strange or foreign anymore.
The team say they have "No Fear" The fans know how loud they will have to be, how relentless they need to be in making noise, singing "Oh Wendy," cheering the team when their backs are against the wall, supporting, praising, getting behind The Saints, leaving Almond Park with no voice left.
Saints are going for the treble this season. They've won one trophy already. Don't let anything get in the way of the march on the next one.
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What have we to lose? Some reports say we carry the extra burden of being the only English team left.
Utter tosh.
Not our fault everyone else has fouled up.If that is what's on the lads' minds when they run out we've got a problem.
This is what the boys get out of bed for.They've done their stint in the lower league and they should now be revelling in the big match atmosphere.
Good luck Saints, I daresay I and many others are proud of what you are achieving.
COME ON YOU SAINTS!!!
Saint til I die