Northampton Saints V Saracens GP semi-final: Déjà vu- AGAIN

We’ve already played them 4 times this season without setting foot in Watford! The series started at Wembley in front of 44,000 Diversity fans. Noah Cato’s length of the field interception try midway through the second half gave us what looked like a comfortable 16-3 lead, but in true Sarries fashion we sat back and let Saints close the gap and in a dramatic last minute looked to have snatched the game when Tonga’uiha plunged for the line. The TMO could see that Tonga had got the ball down, but couldn’t decide if he was a Saints player or a Sarries player and rightly disallowed the try.

A much lower key LV group game followed in November when our colts team were unsurprisingly beaten by the Saints first XV 19-3. This didn’t prevent our ‘qualifying’ for a semi-final clash in March, where after a bright start (a taste of things to come?) we eventually went down 31-20. The decisive point in the match happened just before half-time. We had an opportunity to get the ball off the field to secure our lead, but failed to do so and turned over possession.  Richard Skuse made a tackle but failed to release the player and was duly sin-binned for his troubles: he’s hardly been seen since.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, and although Sarries form was improving it was by no means obvious that we stood a realistic chance of storming the fortress. An early try from Ernst Joubert showed our intentions, although this was cancelled out by a penalty try awarded after ‘Beefy’ Botha(m) pulled back Chris Ashton near the try line. It was his second consecutive visit to the FG naughty step, so he could complete a rare hat-trick on Sunday.

In the second half two more great scores from Powell and Penney set up a winning position, only for it to appear to be lost at the bitter end as Shane Geraghty lined up an easy conversion.  In an act of true sportsmanship he put the kick wide as he knew it would have been an injustice if Saints had undeservedly won!

The situation this season is eerily reminiscent of that in 2000/1, when we had to travel to Franklins Gardens for our penultimate league match, with the winners almost assured a home semi-final against the same opposition.

The class of 97/98 was in the final stages of disintegration, and we had a considerable injury list to contend with as well (it didn’t help having signed players such as Jannie de Beer who was crocked when we got him). Although we only lost the first game 25-14, it certainly did not feel that close as our scrum was pummelled into submission for the last 30 minutes.

Expectations for the play-off were not high, but amazingly tries in the first 8 minutes for Darragh O’Mahoney and Kyran Bracken suggested an upset might be on the cards. Sadly the insurgency was soon snuffed out and we ended up on the end of a 45-17 thrashing.

What a year. What a game. Although our position towards the top of the league had us marked down a s favourites, even in those days FG was a hard place to gain a victory with the mighty Springbok Gary Pagel  (fancy that) and Tim Rodber to contend with.

An early try from the majestic Ryan Constable looked to have put us in control, but the Saints came back strongly and just before half-time were camped on the Sarries line with a series of scrums. The men in black held firm for what seemed like an eternity, and eventually Saints were penalised and the storm had blown out. In the second half Matt Singer scored two tries to seal a 25-10 win and we were on our way to Twickenham.

1998 was a football world cup year- and so of course is 2010

The 1997/8 season coincided with the end of Conservative rule after 18 years. This season marks the end of Labour’s period of Government.

In 1998 we were saying goodbye to our star fly-half Michael Lynagh- this time of course Glenda is about to depart. He started his Sarries career with defeats at Northampton (against Bath) and Twickenham (OK, at Quins) so wouldn’t it just be appropriate if he finished his spell with wins at those places? No more than a true hero deserves.

How can we possibly fail with such a weight of history behind us?

Following complaints from Northampton about our singing and lack of humility after our recent victory, Brendon Venter has named the following pack for the semi-final:

1.       Luciano Pavarotti

2.       Jose Carreras

3.       Placido Domingo

4.       Sir Cliff Richard

5.       Aled Jones

6.       Julie Andrews

7.       Dame Vera Lynn

8.       Susan Boyle

Brian Blessed and Ozzy Osborne were not considered. Explaining the selection, Dr V said that he had been intending to field a good singing team all season, but the judges’ interpretations until recent changes had forced him to go for volume rather than tune.

In other team news it is hoped that Alex Goode will recover from his broken thumb (if not his broken heart on missing out on the England team) and of course superman Schalk Brits had to leave the field at Leicester with a neck injury, although at the time he seemed to be indicating that it was his middle finger that was hurting.

From a Saints point of view the most significant absentee is likely to be Euan Murray, who refuses to play on Sundays on religious grounds. So there is a God after all! 

Breaking News

It’s just been announced that seat belts have been installed in the visitors dug-out at Franklins Gardens, just in case Brendon Venter decides to ‘Stand Up For The Saracens’

And did I mention that there’s something special happening at Saracens?

Enjoy the game

Steve Bardell