From the Archives - Saints v Gloucester 1992

By From the Archives
October 30 2002

In the buildup to the Saints versus Gloucester game on Saturday we, as usual, look back on the encounters between to the two clubs in the past. Our first offering takes you back to March 1992 at Kingsholm.

13th March 1992
Gloucester 10 - Saints 17

I've delved back into the archives again and dusted down my 1991-92-season video to revisit one of my favourite games against Gloucester. Watching the video also showed me how far we have all come. Remember this was only 1992, eight years before Saints would win the European Cup but at that time clubs like Saracens were still playing on public parks with fences around the pitch only on match days.

The Gardens was still only a 6,000 capacity ground and the players were supposedly all amateurs still, although Wayne Shelford had an interesting contract. There was no Sky televised matches and no Internet to spend our time following the team on all this and only ten years ago! How did we manage?

Saints visited Kingsholm for their only league match against Gloucester that season (home and away league matches had not yet begun,) in the knowledge that they hadn't won down there in front of the shed for 30 years. This was the season that Saints all but won the league on a Tuesday night at Wellford Road only to travel to lowly Nottingham and give it away again! However on the way there were some glorious moments and this match was one of them.

Players that day for Saints included some of the recent legends and in his debut match playing at outside centre was a future England captain! The Saints that day were Ian Hunter, Frank Packman, Matt Dawson, Rob MacNaughton, Harvey Thorneycroft, John Steele, David Elkington, Wayne Shelford, Tim Rodber, Rob Tebbut, Martin Bayfield, John Etheridge, Gary Pearce, John Olver and Gavin Baldwin.

Saints were still looking to avenge the 1990-cup semi final where they lost narrowly to the West Country outfit and made a good start. After making all the running in the first half they had only an Ian Hunter try and John Steele penalty to show for it all but led 4-7 at half time.

In the second half Gloucester took more of a grip of proceedings and penalties saw them take the lead 10-7. This sparked saints into life and 'Bucks' no nonsense approach dragged his fellow forwards onwards as Saints swept from one flank to the other in a multi-phase attack. The result was that Gloucester ran out of tacklers and Harvey enjoyed a rare 'run in' as opposed to a 'run over'!

Steele missed the conversion but that scarcely mattered. Gloucester, who also had title aspirations, chased the game and a knock on landed at the industrious Rob Tebbut's feet. He hacked on and Packman won the race to touch the ball down under the Gloucester posts. Tinman was too reliable with the boot to miss this one. Final score Gloucester 10, Northampton 17.

This was a great win for Saints and significant in their recent history. They were still seen by many as the new kids on the block and this laid down another marker for the other big clubs to respect. Since then there has always been something special about a Saints v Gloucester game, it's not the same as the East Midlands derby but there's always a spark or two!

Rich