NORTHUMPED
By DG
May 15 2023
There is a real buzz as we enter StoneX. The sort of atmosphere only really big occasions can generate. Kick off is an hour away but already large numbers of supporters, mostly in red and black but a fair sprinkling in green, converge on the entrance. Inside the ground there is a feeling of vibrancy and anticipation. The promised sunshine is notable by its absence - the floodlights are on for goodness sake - but the crowd are up for this. Let’s hope the team is too.
We are treated to fireworks and black and red smoke pouring out of the tops of the large Sarries flags carried across the pitch. Every Saracens’ name is cheered as the team is announced. Everyone knows this is something special, this is a big one.
There is controversy from the word go. Maitland and Furbank both jump for a high ball. Heads clash. Furbank seems to have come off worse but after a bit of TLC carries on. From where we are sitting (admittedly on the other side of the pitch) it looks like a ‘rugby incident’ - one of those things. Mr Dickson doesn’t seem too worried - the TMO is happy that Maitland’s jump was mistimed and we carry on but there is plenty of fodder here for the Sarries-haters. Saints take the penalty but good Sarries defence results in a length of the field break by Maitland, Goode, Malins & Lozowski almost to the try line. Van Zyl panics with his offload and Saints have the ball.
Sarries are up for this, that at least is clear. They have started at an incredibly high tempo and already Saints are struggling to live with it. The inevitable happens when Goode chips ahead down the wing, the ball bounces nicely for Maitland who scores almost under the posts to give Owen a nice easy conversion and we are leading 7-0. Soon after Fin Smith gets 3 back for an offside penalty. From Owen’s long discussions with Mr Dickson, he doesn’t agree.
The game continues at frenzied pace. It’s all Sarries and Saints are forced into making mistakes. A kick goes dead, a Saints’ penalty misses touch. Saints’ only possession is coming from Sarries’ errors. Earl is everywhere - surely there are at least 2 Earls on the pitch? One of them kicks the ball nicely into space. Faz plonks a penalty into the corner. The catch and drive is stopped but Faz pinpoints Maitland with an exquisite little chip and Maits scores his 2nd. Faz converts again, this time from the touchline. He really does seem to have put his kicking troubles behind him,
Hearts in mouths as Sarries are throwing the ball around deep in their own 22 but it seems they are just toying with Saints and Van Zyl clears. After half an hour of fever pitch stuff Northampton are visibly flagging and looking out of ideas. How to deal with a tornado? A Sarries’ penalty almost in front. Van Zyl is wide awake, gratefully takes the ball from Waller, taps and runs under the posts for number 3. Another easy conversion and Sarries now have a comfortable 21-3 lead.
A fourth try almost follows when Farrell and Maitland combine to put Goode through but he is just short and his pass to Van Zyl is knocked on. Saints are resorting to some underhand stuff especially Ludlum whose antics, right in front of assistant referee Sara Cox (standing in for Craig Maxwell-Keys) go unpunished. Saints cannot breach the Sarries’ wall. The first half ends. It has been all Saracens. But we’ve been here before haven’t we. This game lasts 80 minutes and we’re only at half way.
Saints change their loose head as we start the 2nd half and both sides revert to a kicking game. Sarries waste a golden opportunity when a lineout from a penalty on the Saints 5m line goes horribly wrong. Saints can’t do anything with their possession and concede again in front of the posts. Owen kicks the 3. Saints make more changes bringing off the rest of their front row, meanwhile Isiekwe hobbles off for an HIA (from which he doesn’t return) and Hunter Hill comes on instead. Saints finally have some attacking ball but just when it looks like a score, the pass is dropped by Cruise. Faz almost makes a spiral audacious 50:22 but the ball bounces just the wrong side of the corner flag. He is smiling. As little DG says - not a good sign, we want him angry.
Inevitably the intensity has dropped a bit. We are in that 3rd quarter where traditionally Sarries have a little siesta. And so it proves. Saints put a penalty kick in the corner. There is a good period of attack and Mitchell skips through 2 half hearted tackles to score Saints’ first try. Smith converts to narrow the gap to 14. More changes for Saints with Moon and Augustus replaced by Salakaia-Loto and Graham. They are pinged for early engagement at a couple of scrums and Mr Dickson converts the last free kick to a penalty. We really should score from this catch and drive - Malins goes over but the ball agonisingly slips out of his grasp. Rather worryingly the entire Sarries team watch the tryline dropout bounce. That wouldn’t have happened in the first half. Saints are aware of this too and up their intensity. With 15 minutes left Saints score again when Lawes puts Ramm through on the right wing. Smith misses the conversion - important because Saints still need 2 scores to win. But you can see the change in their demeanour- heads have come up, they are more animated, they are starting to believe in miracles.
Daly and Taylor replace Goode and Tompkins. Sarries are back on the attack. Mako lumbers wearily off for Mawi. A Faz grubber almost puts Malins in but he is in touch. Malins and Collins collide mid air. Collins, who has only been on the pitch for Dingwall for a couple of minutes, departs to the blood bin. Daly almost instantly makes his mark with that trusty left foot plonking a penalty from barely 5m in from the touchline, down to the Northampton 5m line. Sarries execute a catch and drive. The backs all join in. The ball is over the line. Sarries are celebrating but Mr Dickson isn’t impressed. Reluctantly it seems he goes to the TMO – the 3rd replay shows not only a clear grounding, but James has come in from the side. Penalty try and yellow for scrum half James. We breathe a sigh of relief. 9 minutes to go and surely now that gap is too big to bridge.
Finally Jamie George and Marco Riccioni, both of whom have been immense, make way for Theo Dan and Christian Judge. Courtney Lawes also departs. Saints mess up a scrum, (probably because Fin Smith isn’t a 9). Van Zyl (who is a 9, and a good one) leaves us for De Haas and Tizard is replaced by the future, Toby Knight. Sarries make a lovely break off the scrum and with penalty advantage, Daly puts Malins in for another score in the corner. Owen nails the conversion and it is done. With a minute to go Saints look like scoring a consolation try. No one in black cares. Maro is carded for a deliberate knock on but even so Saints can’t get the ball down and it is held up over the line.
A good win then. Never in doubt. Never? I wouldn’t go that far, we all breathed a huge sigh of relief when Smith missed that conversion. The team were unstoppable in the first half, dropped off in the 3rd quarter then got it back at the end. In 2 weeks against Sale they will need to play for the full 80.
Van Zyl is the official Man of the Match. Personally I think he’s had better games but that would be churlish. In truth they are all men of the Match but for me Earl and Farrell are the first among equals.
But meantime let’s celebrate. We have watched a really good performance from a really good team. The support is immense today as well – we barely hear the “Saints go Marching in” all afternoon. Whenever Sarries are deep in defence the wall of sound behind them seems like an invisible barrier that Saints can not cross. We the supporters will also need to be up for it at Twickenham.
SARACENS
Goode (Daly), Malins, Lozowski, Tompkins (Taylor), Maitland, Farrell, Van Zyl, M Vunipola (Mawi), George (Dan), Riccioni (Judge), Itoje, Tizard (Knight), Isiekwe (Hunter Hill), Earl, Wray
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
Furbank, Ramm, Dingwall (Collins)(Dingwall), Hutchinson, Freeman, F Smith, Mitchell (James), A Waller (E Waller), Cruise (R Smith), Davison (Hill), Ribbans, Moon (Salakaia-Loto), Lawes (Scott-Young), Ludlum, Augustus (Graham)
Saracens (38): Tries: Maitland (2) Van Zyl, Penalty, Malins; Conv: Farrell (5), Pen: Farrell
Northampton Saints (15) Tries: Mitchell, Ramm; Conv: F Smith; Pen: F Smith
Attendance: 10,260
Referee: Karl Dickson
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2023:06:15:14:42:14 by Darraghgirl.
Nice observation about Farrell. I too feel a bit discombobulated by smiling, laughing Farrell. Do what you want on your own time Faz but when you're playing for Sarries I want grumpy focused Farrell!!
It was an incredible performance in so many ways and there are a huge amount of positives to take from the game. Sale will be a completely different game though and any one of the two or three trys left out there could easily make the difference between a win an loss.
A friend at the game summed it up nicely when he talked about the difference between what he described as attacking rugby and "hot-potato" rugby. Attacking rugby is considered with the primary aim being to advance field position/score a try, it's about trying to make the best decisions for those ends (which is ofc very hard at speed and under pressure) hot-potato rugby is just about not being caught with the ball so as soon as you get it you're looking to off-load it, not necessarily to the best option, just not to have possession yourself.
Sales defence once again looked incredible v Tigers so again I hope we have alternatives (drop-goals?) planned if they are repeatedly successful in holding Sarries out.
Feeling excited but nervous. Hopefully the team have had a cracking weekend and can now focus on the game (and we can put smiling Faz away for a fortnight!)
Just thinking back to the week in the life of prem referee article and still not sure what Tempo does when the others are enduring those killer fitness sessions! Do you think he has a note from his mum?
Quote:JimG
I hope to god we've got something better planned than drop goals! Personally I am hugely excited. Sale will be a challenge but we are playing the best attacking rugby in the league by far and we look full of confidence. We will have learnt a lot from last year I think so expect a much more entertaining game.
One positive I took from the Sharks-Tigers match was the ruck speed - soooooo slow from both sides mostly. Both us and Saints were creating fast ball on Saturday so maybe that's the alternative to drop goals that might unlock Sale's very solid defence.
Quote:tpr's headmistress
Love that picture - looks as though Tempest is jumping about with excitement.
Looks to me like Farrells missed the tackle! You see, the perils of tackling low
Quote:JimG
I hope to god we've got something better planned than drop goals!
Ofc we will have JimG but we also must be ready to use them when an option. Think back to the defeats v LI and Tigers where we had loads of possession and got sucked into a macho BS game of trying to pick and drive through them on the line. In both instances the referee basically decided not to enforce offside or killing the ball. Despite our frustrations we carried on doing it until we turned ball over. There are moments like that where you have to bank something.
Ofc even better is if we use some width having concentrated the defence initially (also options in both of those games) but some times it's a better option to take the points especially as the number of kickers we have who could do that means it's a hard option to close down.
A lot of these players had boyhood aspirations to play fly half. Remember Hugh Vyvyan's one, and Alistair Hargreaves' one that didn't count because the referee blew for advantage too soon ("Sorry, Alistair, I didn't expect you to do that!").
Billy to win us the final with a three pointer in the 80th minute, anyone?
Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade
🌻🌻🌻
Quote:AP
Billy to win us the final with a three pointer in the 80th minute, anyone?
Trailing by 2 points in the 79th minute. Goode runs it from behind our line, some sumptuous passing sees it get to George just outside the 22 who puts a kick through which is chased and regathered by Malins who beats a defender then gets the pass to Earl just outside their 22. A collaborated late hit by their team of wrong 'uns takes out Earl, Farrell, Lozo, Malins and Daly in the same phase and Sarries are awarded a penalty just outside the 22. Mako steps up and channelling Billys finest kicking slots the 3 for his brother and the Club.
I mean it might not go exactly like that but it would be fun
Quote:OldMarovianQuote:AP
Billy to win us the final with a three pointer in the 80th minute, anyone?
Trailing by 2 points in the 79th minute. Goode runs it from behind our line, some sumptuous passing sees it get to George just outside the 22 who puts a kick through which is chased and regathered by Malins who beats a defender then gets the pass to Earl just outside their 22. A collaborated late hit by their team of wrong 'uns takes out Earl, Farrell, Lozo, Malins and Daly in the same phase and Sarries are awarded a penalty just outside the 22. Mako steps up and channelling Billys finest kicking slots the 3 for his brother and the Club.
I mean it might not go exactly like that but it would be fun
Surely Jackson in his final match!
Quote:Darraghgirl
No citing for Maitland as far as I can see so Mr Dickson got it right
There's still time DG - they aren't known for speedy comms or train of thought! Everything crossed though.
Quote:siNBin
Hugh Vyvyan's was a thing of beauty - straight from the Johnny Playbook apart from it being HV in the pocket.
I had it as the background on m phone for years, When I lost my phone was able to replace most other things, but not that