Northampton Saints v Bristol Shoguns Match report

By David Hibell
April 19 2003

You've heard of a game of two halves, well here the expression was taken to its logical extent, and you will excuse me if most of this report centres on the first half.

A small band of loyal supporters were being vocal in the Gordon terrace and the teams conspired to play most of the rugby in that area with all but one of the tries being scored at that end of the ground.

Saints started strongly but were kept out by a combination of Bristol’s defence and their inability to finish off an overlap against us. A notable early example was when Spanish winger Ripol made a break through on our ten yard line with players to his right and when the scoring pass seemed on he conspired to throw it forward wasting the opportunity. 

This led to a scrum in front of the posts and Richard Skuse and the young front rows first examination, we passed with flying colours as we were awarded a penalty, our first of the evening. The line out was stolen and another overlap was spurned Daniel wrapped the player up and the ball was turned over, we cleared to half way but from the line out Saints drilled the ball into the corner where Phil Christophers carried the ball into touch. More Saints pressure followed but Bristol’s defence again held firm.

On the 13th minute Bristol broke from deep and a kick upfield went into touch very close to the Saints line, they took a quick line out and flung the ball along the try line where it missed its intended recipient and bounced tantalisingly loosely but a Northampton player was on hand to clear.

This was the start of an intense period of Bristol pressure and the rest of the half, with one small exception, belonged to Bristol. We were awarded a succession of penalties in the twenty two and each time went for the line out spurning the kick for goal. 

A measure of how much pressure was being exerted was that Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson both came on as temporary substitutes for Saints in this period. Bristol were continually thwarted and the ball was held up on one of the earlier attempts to score the first try.

From the third or fourth line out the ball was shipped right but we were forced back towards the Saints twenty two only for Saints to concede a scrum. The ball was worked from the base of the scrum and Garath Archer went over the line for the first score of the evening, which Shane Drahm converted. It was nice to note that Franklins Gardens was respectfully quiet for the kicks, (with the exception of one or two children in the stand behind the posts, and it was only one or two).

Bristol have conceded a lot of points this season after scoring and today was no exception, almost from the restart Ripol scored a try in the left corner as we seemed to have won the ball back from the initial attack only to knock it on again, in the absence of Paul Grayson Reihana, playing at full back, had the kicking duties and he made no mistake converting the try from the left touchline. 

Steve Williams and John Sleightholme were both replaced at this point and Bristol continued to press. Awarded a scrum in the Northampton twenty two the referee signalled that he was playing advantage for a while, from where I was stood we didn’t seem to cross the gain line, but we till had possession, the advantage was deemed over and Bristol promptly lost the ball, Northampton cleared it but it was ran straight back at them. 

Rob Hunter on for Steve Williams was sin binned, Drahm slotted the penalty and this time we didn’t concede from the restart, play stayed around half way and we were awarded another penalty 45 yards out, Drahm again had no problems and Bristol were 13-7 up.

Saints had the last attack of the half with a well worked move down the right but the ball was turned over and Bristol cleared.

The players went into the changing rooms to cheers from the Bristol supporters and a few boos from elsewhere. 

I am not sure what drinks the Northampton players are given at half time, but I know I want some of them! They came out a changed side one change was Matt Stewart coming into the front row, another was that they were soon in front in terms of men on the pitch when Archer was sin binned, although I did not see what it was for. A Saints supporter behind me had commented beforehand that if Stewart came on we should expect a fight, well it took thirty seconds of his arrival to and I was watching that.

Saints made the extra man count and launched an attack up the middle, Pountney knocked on after a last ditch tackle with the line begging, but from the scrum we were forced backwards and forced to concede a five yard scrum which was reset a couple of times before the ball was moved left for Matt Tucker to score a try on his birthday. Reihana converted to give Saints the lead for the first time in the match, unfortunately it was the last time we were in the game.

From the restart Reihana was worked left and there was a rare missed tackle from Matt Salter allowing the full back to score under the posts.

Bristol kept fighting but never managed to capture the passion or composure they showed in the first half and saints were to run in six tries in total, Reihana missing the last conversion attempt as he was forced to take a drop conversion as he was in danger of being timed out on the conversion attempt as the tee had not been brought on.

Bristol showed in patches but each time they broke, with runs from Christophers and Daniel breaking down, the best chance coming when Shane Drahm had spirited through the saints cover to offload to Christophers who passed to Brendan Daniel, running wide to avoid the full back he ran towards the retreating Saints cover and was easily snaffled up by them.

Matt Salter earned himself another spell in the sin bin after his one against Quins and has to be careful now to avoid a ban.

Saints made a huge number of replacements, including bringing Ben Cohen into the pack for the last ten minutes; Craig Short came on for Michael Lipman, Matt Carrington for Brenda Daniel and Scott Morgan for Matt Salter.

We showed what we were made of in the first half but once Saints got ahead they never looked back and grew in confidence. If Bristol can carry the first half form forward to Sunday then we should be in for a treat.