Northampton Saints v Tigers AP Match Preview
By ChrisC
December 15 2014
The Colour Purple. It happened every August. To celebrate a clutch of birthdays we held a barbecue in the garden of our house on the banks of the Worcester and Birmingham canal.
For what was to be the last such jamboree guests had started arriving on Friday and set to helping me erect awnings, unravel the sound system and lay the dance floor so by the time the local contingent arrived the garden was en fete, with the barbecue ready to go and the hired refrigerators well stocked with Champagne.
As evening fell and the lights in the old apple tree that shaded the patio twinkled into life a perfect day slipped into the luscious, enveloping warmth of a summer night. The assembled company was wrapped in that contented afterglow of the well fed and watered and while some still moved slowly around the dance floor to music that had taken on a distinctly romantic tone, most of us were chatting quietly under the ink, star studded sky.
I found myself sitting next to a friend several years my senior and asked him if he and his family had enjoyed the day and he said that, as was the case every year, it had been a wonderful occasion. He then put his hand on my arm and said: “you are enjoying this time aren’t you?” Puzzled, I smiled and nodded but he pressed on: “I mean really enjoying it and appreciating it? Not just today but this purple patch in your life”
He went on: “you see this is your time, the stars have aligned, you have fair winds in whatever you do, your health is good, you have a happy marriage, your career is on an upward trajectory, you are prosperous. It’s a purple time the like of which you may never experience again”
I thought I understood as I looked at our friends, our lovely house in its idyllic location, my gleaming Jaguar alongside my wife’s Range Rover on the drive – yes life was good. I promised the gods of good fortune that I’d take time to appreciate it.
Before eighteen months had elapsed the purple patch had passed and in truth was never to return with such richness or depth of colour as in that precious and all too short time.
It is then important to first recognise your purple patch and to then embrace it and really, really appreciate it just as my old friend counselled me all those years ago.
This advice should be heeded by Northampton and their supporters.
The Saints have been playing well for a couple of seasons, snaffled the end of season knock out cup from Saracens in controversial circumstances, have escaped punitive sanction for their flouting of PRL’s rules surrounding the signing of George North and myriad other issues, including the absence of injuries to many of their key players, have gone their way but underpinning it all is a good side.
They come into this fixture on their own turf having had a few weeks of cantering around to their heart’s content with fixtures against London Welsh and Treviso in which they hardly broke sweat.
Tigers in contrast have had a plethora of injuries, have not been playing well and arrive after a scrap with Wasps and two bruising encounters with the European Champions; Toulon.
So where Northampton sport bedizened raiment Tigers have, of late, had to make do with drugget, that is until the match with Toulon at Welford Road when it was like entering a time warp, being transported back to the closing year of the last millennium when the team that topped the league were the champions of England by right rather than artificial mercantile construct and legends of the game strode the hallowed turf.
In the return match against Toulon there were some issues of note I’ll return to later but suffice it to say that while Tigers’ defence; designed by Phil Blake and marvellously implemented by Allen and his colleagues, so as to deny the rampant home side a bonus point win, was redoubtable there appeared to be no coherent attacking strategy save for blasting the 90kgs of the same Allen at non-existent interstices in Toulon’s defensive wall. This is not his metier. Allen is an artful, subtle player and Geordan Murphy’s strategy was bound to fail against the leviathans of Toulon, especially as the Tigers’ #12 was, for the most part, without support and receiving snail like ball.
Richard Cockerill should now lift his eyes from the immediate and look to the future. Pragmatism and consideration of the advice to pick your battles are worthy tenets to employ in this week’s team selection.
The Premiership campaign is not yet half spent and with Northampton rested after three weeks of opposed training and judicious squad rotation the urbane Mallinder’s charges will be ready – very ready.
Yes the Tigers’ players will want to win this local derby. Yes the club and coaches will have the same desire. Yes so will its supporters, hungry for the re-establishment of their bragging rights, rights polished and exacted over so many years.
But better to look instead to the end of the season when Northampton visit Welford Road and are, in all likelihood, engaged in a battle for the top spot. Make no mistake that Northampton and its supporters, save for those who have eschewed the ethos of a league competition or were mewling infants with the taste of their mother’s suckling milk fresh on their lips when the league was uncorrupted, will want to see their team finish top of the league. It is a feat they’ve never managed, unlike Tigers who’ve scaled this height of achievement on eight occasions since the inception of the professional era.
In May Tigers will be on home ground, injuries may have abated and they will be better placed to spoil Northampton’s party while serving their own ends.
Were you to suffer the grievous misfortune to have me, your humble correspondent, as Tigers’ Director of Rugby I would be taking the view that points will be more likely accrued against Bath at Welford Road , Quins at the Stoop and Sale the AJB Stadium than with a battered and bruised contingent of Tigers at Franklins Gardens. And with Tigers closest rivals also facing tricky fixtures the adverse consequences of a loss could be limited.
I think there’s little doubt that Jim Mallinder will deploy his full panoply of senior players as this is a match which means far more to Northampton than it does to Tigers and by following my strategy it would deny Northampton the satisfaction of beating a full strength Tigers whose psyche would remain unimpaired. The cliché of “playing what’s in front of you” a hoary and unsatisfactory cliché.
There are of course constraints under which selection will have to be made and I doubt any degree of hortatory on my part will have any effect.
Nevertheless I would start the battle with a Tigers’ front row of Michele Rizzo and Fraser Balmain with Tom Youngs, who’s in need of game time. This trio will give a good account of themselves with Cole, Ayerza and Ghiraldini on the bench only if needed through injury to the starting triumvirate.
Mike Haywood has revelled in his deserved status as first choice hooker seeing Dylan Hartley consigned to the bench on a couple of occasions. This weekend though I expect to see Hartley in the starting line up, who’s otherwise successful Autumn Internationals was marred by a silly stamping incident which only served to unnecessarily bring his total of Yellow Cards to thirteen and indeed could well have been an unwelcome partner to the solitary Red Card he collected in the final of the end of season knock out cup on 25th May 2013.
Wallaby Ma'afu, capped eighteen times, has also had plenty of game time this term to add to the twenty-seven appearances he made for his new club last season after he joined from Western Force, having previously spent half a dozen seasons with the Brumbies and looks sure to start on the tight-head having the splendid Alex Waller aiding and abetting from the loose-head.
Waller should be an exemplar for young players. When I started work my mother gave me sage advice: “keep your head down, work hard, always do your best and the rewards will come”. Somebody somewhere has seemingly given young Waller similar advice. He’s bided his time, played well in a supporting role and now has the kudos of deservedly being first choice.
Although my preference for the starting Tigers’ line up denies it a triptych of international props hinging around Youngs I believe they would give an excellent account of themselves giving hosts’ front row something new to think about as they’ll be planning for the full tar line up.
Brad Thorn’s early departure from the fray in Toulon removed a towering presence from Tigers and it showed. Tigers’ vow of omerta being what it is I don’t know the status of the iconic All Black but I would nevertheless give him a fortnight to recuperate after a run of starts, instead pairing the returning Kitchener with Geoff Parling who is another in need of game time.
I was impressed by Courtney Lawes in the Autumn Internationals. The twenty-five year old is another with a patchy disciplinary record having accrued ten Yellow Cards from his club appearances as well as one on the international stage. My viewing of him this term has been limited but I sense a new and welcome maturity to his play. He’s a fine player whether in attack or defence and has no need of thuggery.
I’d be surprised were Christian Day not to partner the athletic Londoner. The ex Sale and Stade Francais lock going brain to brain with Parling in a sort of rugby themed Mastermind.
The line out could be a fecund area for Tigers if, as I hope, Jamie Gibson gets a well earned break on the bench to cover the back row with the returning Tom Croft getting a start on Tigers’ blind side.
The Lion’s pace around the pitch and alacrity in stealing opposition ball is a rare commodity and he needs to have game time now ready for the crucial matches ahead.
I rather feel the same about Julian Salvi who was taken out of the match down in Toulon. Not by any of the opposition players but by referee George Clancy who alternated between telling the Aussie not to touch the ball and penalising him when, sans the caution, he did. It was an error strewn exposition by the Irish official who permitted the Toulon players to launch themselves into the breakdown like Exocet missiles without sanction for most of the time and to lie over the ball like stranded whales.
Clancy’s administration of his “offence de jour”; holding onto the ball in the tackle was pretty consistent but he and his team did make some pretty questionable decisions, not least when Halfpenny carried the ball into touch close to his own goal line and it was missed/ignored.
Salvi could be safely rested from the match day squad in the knowledge that Robert Barbieri, who has copious international experience on the open side, is more than up to the task and with Crane at #8 they’d be a pairing able to truck the ball up to some effect.
On Northampton’s blind side is likely to be Clark and, heeding more of my mother’s advice; “if you’ve nothing good to say then say nothing” I’ll move on.
Tom Wood, back from England duty, is the most likely candidate for the Northampton open side but he never really strikes me as a truffle hound in the Salvi mould, although he is otherwise absolutely splendid around the tackle area and a potent force at the lineout.
Phil Dowson has been in a job share with the magnificent Samu Manoa who’s rumoured to be off to France at the end of the season. Manoa is wonderfully physical but rarely in an inappropriate manner. His discipline is good with just a brace of ten minute visits to the naughty step since arriving at Franklins Gardens where he’s in his fourth season. A great presence at the line out, the breakdown and open play the big Yank is at the top of my list of forwards I’d love to see in Tigers’ colours.
Ben Youngs is playing well but I’m still not convinced he should be captain. I think it’s an unwelcome and unnecessary distraction from such a pivotal and technical task. David Mele appears in the bad books just now but I’d give him a start with Sam Harrison in support. Actually I wouldn’t object to the Tigers’ stalwart Harrison getting the starting berth this time out. He’s looked solid, his service is excellent and for Youngs, with European duty coming hard on the heels of the Autumn Internationals, a breather wouldn’t come amiss.
Lee Dickson has fallen from favour with Stuart Lancaster although I’ve no idea why as he’s playing as well now as when he was sporadically on the “England radar” a technology as reliable as that at NATS!
As ever the respective scrum halves will be a reflection of the performance of their packs, the referee’s interpretation of the breakdown and its even handed application.
Poor Owen Williams learned in Toulon how easy it is to go from hero to zero in the blink of an eye.
The talented young Welshman had a largely horrid afternoon. The credit side being pretty limited and although his break did lead to Tiger’s solitary try his kicking from hand and the tee was, well, undistinguished!
It seems to me that Freddie Burns should get the start next Saturday as if Mele can be dropped altogether after an isolated poor showing then surely what’s la sauce pour l'oie should be saws gyfer y gander?
In any event Burns, after two weeks where Williams engineered an interception try for the opposition and saw his kicking slip, surely deserves an attempt at redemption.
Mallinder for his part must be grateful that George Ford exists as otherwise, without the media anointment of the Bath fly half as the Messiah, Lancaster could (and in my estimation should) have brought Stephen Myler into the national squad. Maybe that radar is out of kilter again as Myler, under the tutelage of Alex King has, for me, become the most reliable #10 in the Premiership with a knack of bringing his big ball carriers into the right places at exactly the right time and he has an unerring boot.
More problematic for Cockerill to rotate the squad is the inside centre berth where Ant Allen must be having nightmares of Bastereaud, Mermoz et al roaring toward him. The Tigers’ #12 took a fearful battering but bounced back for more and at times I could swear he was the only player with a number on his shirt greater than ten. Probably the bravest performance I can remember from a Tigers’ centre.
But with the whereabouts of: Hepetema, Pohe, Loamanu, Bai and Roberts shrouded in mystery there may be no respite for the plucky Allen who may, perforce, have to cope with the rampaging, bullocking presence of Luther Burrell which, after the depredations of Toulon, will not phase him. If Allen’s body is in good enough shape then he may find space around the sometimes agricultural talents of the erstwhile England centre.
With Tuilagi still hors de combat and the missing legion of Tigers’ centres, in the squad precisely for this eventuality, Matt Smith may have to drag his own battered body to the fray and he’ll likely be facing the buzzing aggression of Samoan international George Pisi who I expect will be preferred to the twenty year old Tom Stephenson.
In the back three Goneva is looking uncomfortable in attack but, in a volte face from earlier seasons, resolute in defence while Scully is another Tiger who, with Niall Morris injured, has had lots of game time and looked battered and bruised at the close of proceedings last Saturday.
Thompstone and Benjamin are both fit and lightly used thus far so I’d rotate them into the wing positions while bringing Tommy Bell into full back as a backup kicker should Burns get the yips with the boot from the kicking tee and thus far Tait has had little reward from his particular brand of play so perhaps Bell will have better luck.
Northampton meanwhile will be able to deploy the Englishman turned Welsh international behemoth George North, already crossing the whitewash on nine occasions for his club this term, equalling his tally for the whole of last season. He’ll also be bursting through the 10/12/13 channels as well as rampaging down his wing, with another Samoan international; Ken Pisi, who’s already notched up five tries for his club, being preferred to the estimable Jamie Elliott and giving no respite to the Tigers’ defence.
With Ben Foden bang in form at full back and likely to be drawing defenders as moths to a flame, aNorth and the Pisi brothers could profit from the space created,so it looks a tricky prospect for Tigers.
I’ve never been a braggart so I’ll not miss the rights from what I see as a Northampton victory.
I just hope Tigers’ management also see the bigger picture.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:12:22:22:23:35 by Tiggs.
- rant over, or maybe not !
I don't agree with the level of rotation you recommend. Saracens away last year was an absolutely miserable experience and hurt us over the following weeks given the level of pain caused. Changing that many players is surely risking the same?
Agree that Saints fans should appreciate their moment. Do we always appreciate ours? Champions only the season before last.
The rotation I disagree most with is that of Ben Youngs. He got a rest in the first two autumn internationals and is head, shoulders and torso ahead of our other scrum halves.
I would go with:
Ayerza
Youngs
Balmain
Kitchener
Parling
Gibson
Salvi
Pearce
Youngs
Williams
Goneva
Allen
Smith
Scully
Tait
Rizzo
Ghiraldini
Cole
De Chaves (or new kiwi lock)
Croft
Barbieri
Harrison
Burns
The folllwing week we beat Sale (30-23)
Then we drew with Bath (27-27)
The we beat Treviso (34-19)
The there was loss to Ulster (19-22)
Then though we won the next seven Premiership matches until 18th April when we lost at the Stoop.
So I don't see any evidence that the team's confidence was badly damaged.
I'd argue that Rizzo/Youngs/Balmain are a stronger combination than Stankovitch/Briggs/Balmain (who's a much better player than he was then).
The other changes from the team that beat Montpellier the week before were: Slater for Deacon. Matera for Salvi. Crane for Waldrom. Lamb for Flood. Smith for Bowden and Tait for Hamilton.
The team that went to Allianz Park was, on paper, good enough they just didn't play well enough and iirc that stemmed from being under the cosh in the front row.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:12:16:10:50:54 by ChrisC.
Chris, your previews are outstanding journalism and a great and informative read. Thank you.
Given my Cole thread, no-one will be shocked to hear that I agree by and large with your rotation suggestions, although the reports from the A team match that Thompstone looked anonymous makes me question that one - and Goneva still looks rusty to me despite tie on the field and would benefit from more game time. So unless I'm putting wingers on the wrong side, I'd start with Benjamin and Goneva and rest Scully.
Personally I also wouldn't rest Williams for this one. Rest him after a great performance not a poorish one: better psychologically I think.
And as a paid up member of the pendants society, I don't think you can have a triptych of international props, but you can form a triptych using them.
Quality prose as always.
But hope springs eternal. We shall see.
Edit:
And having now read some of the graceless comments about this preview on the Saints board (I'm not sure why that should come as such a surprise really, but there you go), it would be even more gratifying than usual if we stuff em.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:12:16:18:06:44 by S4llyC.
Quote:Sadly no. The name means threefold, and is three pieces hinged together, not two.ChrisC
a triptych is a hinged pair - that's why I said hinged by Tom Youngs (he being the hinge you see?)
Quote:,ChrisC
a triptych is a hinged pair - that's why I said hinged by Tom Youngs (he being the hinge you see?)
But surely Tom Youngs is unhinged ......didn't Dylan say so ?
You may, however, get your more illustrious way by default following the breaking of bodies upon the ramparts of the bastide of vanity that was our French fancy, but whether it will be volunteered I somehow doubt
Nonetheless, another fine, thoughtful piece, and thank you for it
p.s. I never could fathom what cars on the drive, or possessions in general, bring to an idyllic life .. quite the reverse in fact
The referee is the final arbitrary ------------------ {The persons and events mentioned in this post are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely co-incidental}
Quote:Tiggs
Oh dear...
Don't despair Tiggs. All part of the fun in pedant's corner
Chris, your rotation proposals are enthirely pragmatic, but since when have derbies against Saints been pragmatic ?
I doubt I shall be able to watch this one. I may well repaint the gloss in the upstairs loo instead
( not a euphemism btw, actual gloss paint !)Much as it pains me I also agree regarding the team we should send
Ahaa 'S4clly'... 'graceless' as in...
start with a modest compliment, introduce an unwarranted note of 'controversy', then ignore Tiger's far worse salary cap flouting (the North deal was never concealed and wasn't cheating and was punished) and end in jolly innuendo. Ho! Ho!
Shame on you Chris C, among the expected traces of high-flown hyperbole and stretched syntax there were some half-decent passages of purpleless(sic) prose.
As for playing the underdogs, a little too predictable methinks ... nice try though OTS
And as for the preview itself, this is a Tigers board, with a predictable Tigers bias. What exactly did you expect?
just kidding about, you obviously have enjoyed having it lots before
Hoping your injury crisis improves and that we have an entertaining game at the weekend without cynical cheating by any team or twittish manager
Totally get that you see Dylan & Calum as bad guys, but would like to think you'd support them as they are quite likely to play a big (and deserved) part in RWC 2015 due to their improved discipline and obvious talent & commitment to Rugby and the community, especially in Dylans case.
It just seems a bit hypocritical as, in all honesty, Leicester's ethos is essentially based on
COYS, but if Tigers are play well, and fair, will be happy either way
Are you saying that Leicester never exceeded the salary cap? How do you explain the numbers game then?
Quote:DesboroughSaint
Totally get that you see Dylan & Calum as bad guys, but would like to think you'd support them as they are quite likely to play a big (and deserved) part in RWC 2015 due to their improved discipline and obvious talent & commitment to Rugby and the community, especially in Dylans case.
It just seems a bit hypocritical as, in all honesty, Leicester's ethos is essentially based oncheatingsorry, should rephrase as impressive 'playing of the referee' and we all agree post RWC 2003.
There is cheating and then there is being a ...... Never mind.
[www.rugbynetwork.net]
Quote:oldtoastersaint
S4clly Of course Chris C's 'bias' is admissable, my extrapolation I'd have thought was plain enough, any 'graceless' Saint's responses were prompted by some of Chris C's own 'graceless' wording. You ask for chapter and verse on the alleged Tigers salary cap 'cheating' knowing full well the details were officially hushed up, supposedly 'for the good of the game'.
Are you saying that Leicester never exceeded the salary cap? How do you explain the numbers game then?
Hmmmm, well that's fascinating stuff. I have absolutely no idea whether Leicester, Saints, or any other AP club cheats on the cap. And neither do you, I assume, since this is all you have come up with. It's not my job to explain it. I'm not even sure why the subject came up.
ChrisC's previews are held in high esteem on here, and I would have thought a little gentle fun-poking in them would hardly come as a surprise to a board where jibes about 'The Cock' abound ad nauseam.. If we've offended your sensibilities, then maybe you need to man up a bit..
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:12:19:08:01:17 by Grim Reaper.
Anyway, enjoy the visit if you're coming down.... I can't in good faith hope that you enjoy the game.
Here to a Saints win and a merry Christmas and a happy new year to all my bouncy chums.
for all of you coming to the Gardens have a safe trip.
Quote:Grim Reaper
That's your privilege, of course. For myself, I find it amusing that you complain when a preview that's clearly designed to elicit a reaction gets exactly what was hoped for.
The problem is I don't think the article is written to elicit a reaction. Chris has an established record of writing previews that are fair and balanced, and that are frequently acknowledged by opposition supporters as such. I don't read this preview any differently.
Opinions that you don't share aren't necessarily expressed to elicit a reaction. Any more than recovering from paranoia necessarily meaning that they aren't out to get you any longer.
Apologies S4clly I thought my response to your above request was adequately advanced by 'the numbers game' reference, viz. the huge discrepancy in player numbers of roughly a third. Confirmation of the figures should be in one of Tigers'employment record books for that season.
Mind you if Castro was on a zero hours contract...
Seasons greetings, genuinely admire your loyalty
Regards OTS
The fact is that Tigers are generally the only team that spend the full cap, and the fully available injury dispensation allowance, and the full Academy allowance too.
If other clubs can not utilise these extra allowances, and they don't, then that is hardly Tigers fault.
Also, it is well known that players at Tigers have accepted lower salaries at Tigers than other clubs, in order to take the other benefits that being at Tigers brings.
Ask the players, they will tell you that there is more to playing than money. And more to a contract than the short term money as well.
Odd, that despite these childish accusations over the many years, that no one has ever found any evidence of Tigers having broken the Salary Cap, even when audited ?
42 Players. Saints used 35. So twenty percent more, not a third.
I think the extra numbers are easily explained looking at the number of players in single figure appearances (14, Saints have 8). I'm sure if anyone could be bothered to do the research they would find many of these as dual-contract players or injury reserves.
We also had a very young squad that year with some high profile players still young enough to get some academy credit against them.
But just for a second imagine what it will feel like if you lose. Just for a second.
Quote:Purebob
Well Saints fans of course your team should win. You're the better team. You're at home. You're on form. Tigers have been poor. Backs misfiring. No experienced backs coach.
But just for a second imagine what it will feel like if you lose. Just for a second.
Any way you could forward that to each of the Saints squad?
Interesting you mention dual-registered players I've tried and failed to get that debate off the ground. Whom, according to the salary cap audit, do they count against? On the general level of Tiger's pay, Castro claimed it cost him £100,000 to go to Toulon, the implication being that he took a pay cut.
If Chris C is willing to withdraw his inflammatory accusation and agree that Saints were nothing but honourable and above board in the North affair (I believe most neutrals think the fine demonstrated outrageous hypocrisy in PRL legislation) then I am willing to accept that the proofof whether or not Tigers and/or Sarries cheated on the salary cap will never be openly demonstrated.
May the better team win this p.m. Good luck! OTS
Quote:oldtoastersaint
(I believe most neutrals think the fine demonstrated outrageous hypocrisy in PRL legislation)
Is this the same PRL legislation that Saints agreed with and signed up to? And aren't PRL the organisation that Saints and the other clubs used to introduce the payoffs as Tigers kept winning the championship too often?
Thanks Stopsy, the substantive point Duncan is that he could afford the £100,000 to buy himself out.
Switched on BT online to watch the match and what do we have on a pop up S4clly? Unconfirmed reports that Saracens and Bath are both being investigated for exceeding the salary cap! How do you feel about that investigation being covered up in the future? Name and shame should be the policy to ensure future compliance. Sweeping under the carpet doesn't work, who knew?
Yorkie good point but that openly admitted technical breach only disadvantaged Saints themselves in terms of North's availability.Not the case with breaching the salary cap is it?
Chris C should never, as a writer of some class, have referred to the North case as 'flouting' which carries with it the suggestion of an attempt to get away with something, usually associated with two fingers.I would have accepted wording such as a technical breaching of the rules, which was the whole point of my original post. What does Chris C have to say for himself?
"A meeting took place on Wednesday morning of the Designated Panel appointed by the Premiership Rugby Board under its Code of Conduct to consider the charge against Northampton Saints that the club had breached the Board policy with regard to international player release.
"Northampton Saints admitted the breach with respect to the Board policy through the release of George North beyond the requirements set out in IRB Regulation 9.
"The Designated Panel, comprising three Board members appointed under the terms of the Code, decided that Northampton Saints will be fined £60,000.
"Northampton Saints have decided not to appeal against the sanction
Here’s some more help for you with definitions of the word flout and common usage;
Flouted, Flouting, flouts
To ignore or disregard (a rule or convention, for example) in an open or defiant way:
flout a law; behaviour that flouted convention.
Verb 1. flout - treat with contemptuous disregard; "flout the rules"
Presumably OTS is busy emailing someone to register disapproval at something else to do with Tigers...
utstandingly bad; shocking) that I felt a response was warranted this time.
But while here thanks for the appreciation.
I've looked at TitB post about Triptych - I should of course have said Diptych. Sorry I get a bit muddled at my age!!
A couple of other responses:
Classless to mention Hartley's disciplinary record? Hmm well we know now how appropriate it was to be mentioned - lucky I didn't add in his suspensions.
I said that Lawes didn't need thuggery as part of my complimentary remarks about him. I didn't say he used it just that he didn't need to. Of course some Saint's supporters seem to engage typing fingers before actually taking the time to read what's been written and then connecting their brains to interpret it. Hey ho!!
Which rather brings us back to OTS.
So you patronisingly (tut-tut, unnecessary) march me to pedant's corner clutching your dictionary in one hand but fail to correctly interpret what you discover there. Did Saints really treat the PRL with "contemptuous disregard", did they exhibit 'open defiance' in the aforementioned two finger manner? I think not regardless of your un-nuanced usage claim.
I suggest that is an intentional and unworthy distortion of the true atmosphere of the hearing, a straightforward admission of a technical breach in regulations.There is no mention of any argument or discord in the proceedings and your "no punitive action" by the way amounted to a massive £60,000 fine.
We'll enjoy our purple patch thanksthough the future looks distinctly green gold and black, did you clock the under 18 result? Cockerill should!
"
I would say that they certainly did show " contemptuous disregard" for the rules of an organisation of which they are a voting member in that the breach wasn't accidental it was planned (if it's true as reported that North had the agreement that he could play for Wales outside of the agreed international window written into his contract). I would say further that they were "openly defiant" of said rule for the same reason.
The "two fingered" bit is your interpretation and appears nowhere in the definition Chris posted, or indeed any dictionary definition I've seen of the word.
_____________________________________________
The lowest depth to which people can sink before God is defined by the word 'journalist'.
Soren Kierkegaard
I'm sorry if you think any of my comment was at all egregious Chris C, you invent your own standards naturally, who am I to disagree?
Your continued usage of patronising 'dictionary' definitions of quite commonplace words I regard as a telling sign of insecurity, a nervous self-endowed form of satisfying superiority.
Language is a living, breathing Hydra for 'Notionally Eternal All-Powerful Symbol Of Certitude's' sake! You wrestle with it in common parlance at your peril, but at least you evolve and are still understood by those who are willing to grapple too!
No doubt they'll throw the book at Dylan for his red card, but when they do please compare it to the punishment meted out after this double, aaahem, 'yellow' card 'grapple'!
people in glasshouses
_____________________________________________
The lowest depth to which people can sink before God is defined by the word 'journalist'.
Soren Kierkegaard
And what about that terrible Murphy block on Foden - someone on the Saints board dragged that one up a couple of days ago.
Have they never seen "Frozen"?
And I'm still not sure where we've been proved to have broken the celery cap...
Oh dear, so many questions....
Well that's a relief, I'd hate to think you were a figment of my imagination; I'd have to go back on the meds.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:12:22:06:32:08 by ra.
You presume correctly S4clly.
You, Chris C and all Tigers supporters have a decent Christmas and Tigergeezer... that includes you!
"Edited for act of stupidity"
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:12:22:11:44:53 by Tiggs.
Quote:oldtoastersaint
Your continued usage of patronising 'dictionary' definitions of quite commonplace words I regard as a telling sign of insecurity, a nervous self-endowed form of satisfying superiority.
Language is a living, breathing Hydra for 'Notionally Eternal All-Powerful Symbol Of Certitude's' sake! You wrestle with it in common parlance at your peril, but at least you evolve and are still understood by those who are willing to grapple too!
And there's me thinking it was just a game Chris plays with the rest of us
You have turned a completely friendly parting act of bonhomie into a stain on my character. What exactly do you mean by an "act of stupidity", what are you playing at?
And if you really think that such action would be of any interest to a lawyer, then I believe you to be more of a fool than I first thought.
For your interest, a post can not be re-instated once deleted or edited in any case.
Quote:oldtoastersaint
I presume this won't get past you editor, so I would like you to read and imbibe the thread 'Paxo Romana' on the Saint's site and consider whether or not you have grossly libelled my good name for no reason.I will instruct my lawyer if I do not receive an explanation on the Saint's site within 24 hours.Further I require you to reinstate my last post in full.
You have turned a completely friendly parting act of bonhomie into a stain on my character. What exactly do you mean by an "act of stupidity", what are you playing at?
This is beyond parody. Quite extraordinary.
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The lowest depth to which people can sink before God is defined by the word 'journalist'.
Soren Kierkegaard
I can only hope they learn some grace if their new found success continues and they become accustomed to it.
Seasons Greetings OTS