Patience is a virtue.....

By Rabble Rouser
September 25 2002

In his latest column, Rabble Rouser argues that Sarries fans are impatient for success and that changes are not needed this early in the season.

Floozies, Boozers, Fezboys and Loozers! Now, I'm not averse to a little verbal outburst when I'm being ignored by the Vicarage Road bar staff, but some folks on the Fools Boredom are already calling for more wholesale changes at Saracens just four games into the new season. Anyone would think that Saracens are a poofball team! Well, let me tell you that all this reactionary claptrap is nonsense and people really should look at the bigger picture before pontificating.

Let's face it, Sarries were dreadful at Pests on Sunday and nobody - me included - can make excuses for such a display. The official site described the match footage as a "video nasty" and the players will KNOW that they failed - miserably - to deliver against a Wasps side that was no better than ordinary in the first half and workmanlike in the second. Champagne rugby it most certainly was not.

And this seems to be lost on fans impatient for nothing short of global domination. Players feel it just as much as we fans. Sure, we're all entitled to vent our spleen, especially after a dire performance like the one at Adams Park, but to suggest that the likes of Bracken, Shelford and others be replaced is premature, to say the least.

"Buy a tighthead!"; "Bring back Horan!"; "Look ahead to 2003/04" are just of the few knee-jerk responses to this latest reverse. Others include bringing back Grewcock and White, recruiting Will Greenwood or Mike Catt for the threequarters and any number of southern hemisphere "quick fixes" which will, in the opinions of some correspondents, turn Sarries around.

Excuse me, but haven't we made enough changes already? More importantly, how on Earth are we going to pay for all these players that Sarries "should" get in? In a week when a third of the league has been rumbled for flagrant disregard of the Salary Cap, who will make room? Tim Horan, for one. It's time we Sarries followers realised that Timmy will be driving off the first tee next year, not driving into the heart of the opposition defence. We'd better make do with our current lot and get them ship-shape as poor Tim is still struggling with injury. He does make a difference in midfield, admittedly, but bringing in someone else (and PLEASE not another southern hemisphere mercenary more interested in the exchange rate than exchanging passes) now would involve more upheaval and - people routinely forget this - a transfer fee.

However, the one thing that infuriates me the most is the "it was much better when we had so-and-so in the team" type of comment, particularly when it's applied to the front row. Perhaps it was. But looking back doesn't make things better now, does it? We have been unfortunate to lose three props in the early part of the season to injury and our scrummage has struggled as a result. They will be back in due course but harping on about Grau, Wallace and White in the interim won't improve our form. And if Sarries DID want them to return, would their clubs (or province in Wally's case) say "sure, Sarries, we don't want them, you're welcome to take them whenever you like for no compensation whatsoever"? Of course not.

It's high time that we realised that two wins and two defeats (even if they were heavy and the performances not acceptable) from the first four games of the season is not the end of the world and that there are still EIGHTEEN games left before the end of the league campaign. If we go into the second half of the season 2-9, then it's time to hit the panic button.

In the meantime, we should adhere to the old cliché and take one game at a time. Wasps is dead and buried. Lessons should have been learned and remedial action taken by Shelford and the players. Northampton are up next. That's where the concentration should be. Not next season, not on seasons past.

Games are lost and won on the day, championships are decided over a season. THIS season. This should be printed in 48-point lettering on the matchday programme so that all the doom merchants have it spelled out. Patience is a virtue, use it if you can, seldom in a woman, NEVER - it seems - in a Sarries fan.