Living off Scraps - Bath 22 v Saints 17

Saints were essentially 15 blokes, wearing the same shirts, all with completely different ideas. And as usual, When Danny Grewcock is around, if you give him an inch he will take the game away from you.

Now, I know that the changing rooms are small at the Wreck, small enough that only Ronnie Corbett, Prince, Don Estelle, Danny DeVito and Tom Cruise could comfortably change clothes in them, but it would be prudent for Lenny to go and check them as it would appear that is where the players left the game plan, any sort of continuity, as well as the passion and emphatic beef that has been so clearly present in previous weeks.

No, I’m sorry to report that some players let themselves down badly today, many were not out of their depth, and many could not be accused of trying their hearts out, it’s just that surely the game plan could not have been to give Grewcock, Lipman, Mallone and Abendanon free reign to cause Saints so many problems, many of which were of our own making.

It would be easy for me to put a spin on this game, as if a late surge of brilliant team play with tries for Sharky Robinson and Robbie Kydd had almost blossomed into an unlikely win, but the truth of the matter is simply this, the bonus point was stolen. Bath, who were by far and away the better team, simply decided to ‘stick it in neutral’ with 20 minutess to go, made some substitutions that helped Saints cause greatly and gave off a kind of general air that they had done enough.  Indeed had Bath’s front rowers and back three had more cohesion then the game would have been far out of sight at half time.

Whilst there were some bright sparks glimmering in the darkness, Christian Labit may not have much left in his legs, but when he does get to the breakdown he makes an impact. My old mate John Brooks showed that he is a more than capable scrummager at Premiership level. Also we received what we have come to expect from the usual suspects of Tom Smith and Christian Short. Both never gave in as they fought against the tide. Sadly none of this made up for the other elements of the game that basically handed the points over to Bath.

From the outset of the game I saw far too much indecision at the edge of the ruck, far too many forwards who seemed to be pedaling backwards. It was reminiscent of adolescent pre-teens who ward off the demands of their parents to clean their rooms with of ‘yeah, in a minute’. Everything that Saints tried lacked sheen, polish, pace and imagination. Mind you that was only when Bath coughed up the ball in the opening forty minutes.

Seriously, I’d rather snog camels than have to sit through that kind of display. I assure you I don’t say that lightly. The thing that aggravates more is that it was blatantly obvious at half time that a few changes needed to be made.

Mattie Bourrett, who whilst kicking well for the posts, on the three occasions he got the chance, struggled to come to terms with the pace of the game. Mind you that’s hardly a surprise when you consider exactly how much rugby he’s had since his arrival at the club. It was one of those days for him today…

He spurned one fine opportunity to exploit a three on two with acres of space because of a pedestrian and poor pass out wide. He also took it upon himself to take a quick lineout after a booming exocet from the boot of Molly Mallone, only to shank it straight down the throat of the always dangerous Nick Abendandon.

Abendandon, having impressed greatly on his last two appearances at Franklins Gardens showed the kind of form, pace and step that could make you wonder what Mr. Ashton has been putting in the Powerade of Messrs Robinson, Balshaw and Lewsey to make them such frequent ‘nailed on’ starters for the national side…

Bath were able to produce some often thrilling phases of play today, thanks in no small part to their forwards working together as a unit. They were able to keep the ball for long periods whilst actually using the ball and showing more invention than I had previously given them credit for thus far this season. They were certainly a cut above what Saints had to offer.

Barkley, who we all know can either be the finest 12 playing in the premiership or the weakest 10 playing the premiership, was able to chip away at the Saints confidence and on the scoreboard as he opened the score with two chip shots from in front of the posts as the Saints struggled to come to terms with Baths big men at pace and bountiful dummy runners as the hefty boys actually made use of the gaps and confused the Saints frontline defence with a simple use of more numbers and compressing the space. Kyddo, Shay, Foxy and Los found themselves facing 3 or 4 players of the Bath backs and 2 or 3 more of the furniture removers running at them as they tried to track lines of defence and cover across field.

Whilst Bath were able to take their safety in numbers ethos from the Knuckles and Foley era and replace it with confusion by numbers, it was a selection of errors that kept them from opening the Saints up time and time again. White line fever and some truly valiant defence on the line helped to keep things respectable.

But eventually the straw that broke the camels back came along as Ref Roy ’Gis a job’ Maybank lost patience with Christian Labit’s innate ability to not only find himself at the bottom of rucks but his fondness for sitting on the ball like a great big broody clucking chicken, pecking at the eyes of anyone who dares to come and have butchers at his prize…  

Bath chipped into the corner and went for the jugular…

From the resulting lineout Bath attempted a catch and drive. Saints defended stoutly and the ball was spread wide as once more the Saints backline tried to deal with a plethora of dummy runners, anti war protesters wandering through the Rec, Japanese tourists chasing a Twix wrapper across the pitch, some traffic wardens who were looking to clamp Dylan Hartley for being Illegally parked on a wing for twenty minutes and a selection of Dominoes pizza delivery boys desperately looking for Miss Amanda Huggenkiss (L block row d seat 28) who had ordered 14 pizzas for her and a selection of carrot crunchers who were mystified by Bath not only passing the ball more than twice but also found the ability to use their hind legs with giddy excitement whenever they did pass….

Anyway, the ball came back across the 22 and into the hands of Danny Grewcock who ambled up to the line and then strangely bullocked over when there was no one there to stop him. Most peculiar behaviour, like a polar bear suddenly realizing that Soya beef burgers are not quite his thing…

11-nil to Bath and things were already looking decidedly bleak.

Once more Bath pushed forward into the Saints half, aggressively pushing forwards and making good use of the extra man advantage. Bath sprayed the ball from one side of the pitch to the other, punishing the Saints backrow as they tried to stem the tide in the wide spaces, giving David Bory the opportunity to exploit quick ruck ball and drive hard and fast over the gain line.

The Frenchman made a mockery of the Saints wide defence and took time to mock his countryman Mattie Bourrett. Fortunately for Mattie, Bory couldn’t catch the ball as Eli Fuimaono put him through for what would have been the simplest of run-ins but for the Frenchman’s inability to time his run.

Bath continued undeterred as the pushed on for the kill. A hammer blow arrived in the shape of Abendandon who brought a neat end to a fine selection of drives and heavy furrows forwards from Bath as they shifted through the gears to disrupt Saints cover defence and put in Abendandon to make it 16 nil with but a few minutes left till half time and an chance for Northampton to try to regroup in the tiny changing rooms only fit for dwarf extras on Hercules or Xena…

Now as I’ve previously said, it was clear that changes needed to be made to try and savage something from this game. OK, these didn’t happen. In hindsight it may well have made the difference, but ours is not to reason why, there were more pressing matters at hand. Like finding a way to get hold of the ball….

As the second half started it was clear that Northampton had been given a rocket.  Saints were able to find more time with the ball and better field position but were still pretty ponderous at times and often struggled to match Baths ambition with offloads out of the tackle and looking to keep the ball alive.  Both sides exchange penalties and Northampton finally found their way on to the score sheet thanks to the boot of Mattie Bourrett.

Then as the Saints looked to find some inspiration, Robbie Kydd broke through the line and looked to play in Paul Tupai after several phases of broken play led to space being well used wide, but unfortunately with the try line begging, a sympathetic pass turned out to be simply pathetic as Kydd floated a ball off his left 2 feet forward of Toops (who looked to be over running it, maybe, probably, yeah, he was really) and was struck off by referee Mayhem.

Saints were then also recipients of some fortune as Bath looked to finish Saints off and be well on their way to a deserved bonus point but for another unsympathetic pass from Abendandon to Grewcock. A chance that was harder to balls up than to actually score off…

Finally Saints were able to garner some momentum and some decent phases of play. Some creativity from our half back pairing, a bit of go forward. Bath were moving down the gears now, safe in their victory. Saints upped their game, found space out wide, looked for more ambitious offloads, Dylan and Labit came to the fore, Tiny made inroads, then as the ball was driven deep in to the Bath 22 Saints were able to exert more pressure with several scrums on the Bath line.

Eventually after two pickups from the back of the scrum failed to make inroads the Saints spread the ball wide and with a little bit of kiwi magic Sharky found his way under the right hand side of the posts for what seemed at the time simply a bit of respectability.

Then Bath began to get a bit jittery. A selection of substitutes didn’t really help Bath as the subs struggled to adapt to the pace of the game and didn’t seem to enjoy all of this defending they had to do all of a sudden.  Saints now came into their fore, pressing hard in the wide channels, Shay Mallon and Los started to find gaps, but for a few better support lines from their team mate the second score may of come a bit earlier and then the game really, REALLY could have turned on its head.

Robbie Kydd scythed over after some splendid build up play from forwards and backs in motion. Once more I was pleased to see Saints play some positive rugby and get over the white wash. Why they insist in only doing so for 10 minutes at a time is sadly anyone’s guess.

Most Reports you read this weekend will tell you how Saints almost snuck the game in its dying embers. The truth of the matter is sadly not the case. Realistically Bath had most of the ball, all the position, all the ambition and all the positive attacking rugby.

The chances of them doing a ‘Bristol’ were slim but unfortunately unlike that fateful day Saints lack of confidence meant that they spent the final 4 minutes of the game dithering with the ball on the edge of their own 22.

The thought that they could “get out of Dodge” having stolen a bonus point, a point that looked light years away at half time, was too sweet a cake not to taste. But it’s a sad indictment of the way the team is playing; the confidence is still missing from their stride. There’s is still no sign of the swagger or outright arrogance that we saw this time last season.

One thing is for sure, we are truly right in the poop. We’ve let the momentum swing Worcester’s way. We beat the Tigers and then allowed it to swing right back their way. Can we get it swinging back our way one more time?

Dunno, but it honestly can’t get much worse…

Bath Rugby

Abendanon

Maddock

Fuimaono-Sapolu

Barkley

Bory

Malone

Walshe

Barnes

Dixon

Stevens

Short

Grewcock

Beattie

Lipman

Feaunati (Capt.)

Replacements:

R Hawkins

A Jarvis  

H Louw

J Scaysbrook

C Walker

S Berne

A Williams

Northampton Saints

Reihana (Capt.)

Bourret

Mallon

Kydd,

Cohen

Spencer

Robinson

Smith

Hartley

Brooks

Browne

Short

Tupai

Fox

Labit

Replacements:

M Cortese

S Tonga’Uhia

M Lord

M Hopley

J Howard

S Myler  

V Going

Bob Fossil’s man of the match

Danny Grewcock