Northampton Saints v Exeter Chiefs

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Match Officials

Referee: Adam Leal (39th game)
ARs: Mike Hudson & Peter Allan
TMO: Matthew Carley

Weather forecast as at midday Friday 1200

Sunny intervals and a gentle breeze from the west

Temperature 11 degrees

Precipitation not expected

Northampton Saints

15 George Furbank (c)
14 James Ramm
13 Fraser Dingwall
12 Rory Hutchinson
11 Tommy Freeman
10 Fin Smith
9 Tom James

1 Emmanuel Iyogun
2 Curtis Langdon
3 Trevor Davison
4 Chunya Munga – 50th Premiership appearance
5 Alex Coles
6 Josh Kemeny
7 Tom Pearson
8 Juarno Augustus

Replacements:
16 Robbie Smith
17 Tom West
18 Luke Green
19 Angus Scott-Young
20 Sam Graham – 50th Saints appearance
21 Archie McParland
22 Toby Thame
23 Ollie Sleightholme

Exeter Chiefs:

15 Josh Hodge

14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso

13 Olly Woodburn

12 Joe Hawkins

11 Paul Brown-Bampoe

10 Harvey Skinner

9 Sam Maunder


1 Scott Sio (c)

2 Dan Frost

3 Ehren Painter

4 Rusi Tuima

5 Christ Tshiunza

6 Ethan Roots

7 Richard Capstick

8 Ross Vintcent


Replacements:

16 Jack Yeandle

17 Will Goodrick-Clarke

18 Marcus Street

19 Jack Dunne

20 Martin Moloney

21 Tom Cairns

22 Will Haydon-Wood

23 Will Rigg

I thought Leal was good last weekend. He seems to be one of the few to have come through and continued to improve. I still expect us to get smashed but don't expect to be able to blame the ref for once!

Its pretty hard to predict a win after last week

But here goes.

Saints 22 Chiefs 31

If we take our chances and points when on offer, use overlaps when they are on and find touch when we should then this could be close. Home advantage will I think win the day though, Saints 24 - 21 Chiefs.

Hard to see us getting something from this one. Woodburn at 13 is an interesting experiment, but perhaps not one for what is likely to be the toughest away trip of the season? Personally I'd like to have seen Haydon-Wood play at 10 and move Skinner to 13 for this one. He loves a tackle and would have plenty of opportunities!

Good to see Will Rigg on the bench.

Saints 39 Chiefs 24

If someone has taught Hodge to pass the ball, we might have a chance.

Will be interesting to see how this iteration of the team works out.
Got to favour the home team though.
Saints 32 - 20 Chiefs

Saints 36-14 Chiefs Maunder to start, very exciting

Quote:

Chief Boldeagle
Saints 36-14 Chiefs Maunder to start, very exciting

Only to be expected when he started in the friendly against Ospreys, where we practiced our 'away' strategy....
At least Mitchell isn't available for Saints. He's been a PITA for us.
Hopefully, Rigg will get some decent game time.

Saints 30 Chiefs 20

TV Coverage

Channel 408 TNT Sports 1SD 1715 - 1945
Channel 430 TNT Sports 1HD 1715 – 1945

Maunder has played 2 halves of rugby in 18 months, one in awful conditions, after what was a potentially career ending injury.
He needs competitive game time to re-build both his form and confidence, an away game in a match that we are perhaps not expecting to win, is the best time to do this.
Thus far, I think our half backs have been below average.

Can't see us getting much out of Franlins Gardens given what happened last week

Northampton 30 Chiefs 15 looks reasonable.

The Champions were humbled at The Rec but they are still favourites for the top-four in my eyes. I can only see this going one way; a losing bonus point would flatter us. Saints 32 - 18 Chiefs.

Saints will be looking for a big win in front of a home crowd after last weeks performance plus I can't see anything changing in the Chiefs squad. Saints 35 Chiefs 12

Think this will be a high scoring game. Going to go with heart over head. Chiefs 34 Saints 31.

Assume Greg F injured as not in 23. I can see us scoring points if we play with total freedom as we did at home last year but on the flip side you can see Saints scoring at will. With this in mind our best chance of a point is 4 tries. If we kick away possession it will be a long evening as Saints back line are brilliant on the counter attack. Maunder will be a slower option than Cairns let’s see how it goes but a tough match for a comeback from a long injury. Discipline will be key at the breakdown we were poor again last week in this department as the stats showed. Let’s use our wingers as much as we can, please !!
Saints 38 Chiefs 24

Worried about 9 if his passing is as pedestrian as in previous games we will suffer, but as mentioned he is playing back to fitness.
We made the chances against Tigers just did our best to fluff them, so if it clicks we could pull it off, but I doubt it at this time of the season.
Just need a leader to appear amongst the group, we are well set on the wings if we can engineer space and get the ball to them.

Saints 45 Chiefs 19

IMO they have too much in the backs for us

Can’t see us getting much out of this game so :
Northampton 36 - 20 Exeter

Don't think I've ever been so pessimistic, but I really don't think our white line fever will go away this quickly, even if we dominate field and possession.
Saints 34 Chiefs 10

In Rob we trust.
By the way - cream on first. There's nothing to debate.

I'll go along with a bit of a thumping, Saints 33 Chiefs 16.

Like most above I find it hard seeing past a 5 point to 0 win for St's. Saints 36 Chiefs 22.
It's not often you can say the other teams backs look more dangerous than s St's but I don't see our half backs releasing them

Saints also have, at best, a 3rd choice at 9 and their fans apparently don't rate him so it could be interesting if he can't get their back line going.

Saints 36 Chiefs 21

Not good enough for saints chiefs 12 saints 38

Quote:

Chief Bert
Saints also have, at best, a 3rd choice at 9 and their fans apparently don't rate him so it could be interesting if he can't get their back line going.

Our 2nd choice 9 is starting tho .

Quote:

Saint dolph

Quote:

Chief Bert
Saints also have, at best, a 3rd choice at 9 and their fans apparently don't rate him so it could be interesting if he can't get their back line going.

Our 2nd choice 9 is starting tho .

Why 2nd choice?

Saints 36 - 28 Chiefs

I think we could surprise a few people today.
I respect Saints greatly and expect they will be too strong at home BUT two of the key elements of their side from last season are missing.
Mitchell is the heartbeat of their team and is Northampton imo.
Tom James is not Alex Mitchell.
The other key player missing is Courtney. He has been such a thorn in our backside at the front of the line out over the years as well as his breakdown work.
Saints are still a good side but without their 2 most important players from last season they are nowhere near as frightening pre match.
Home advantage could be the ultimate deciding factor but I expect us to give it a good go 🤞

Quote:

Saint dolph

Quote:

Chief Bert
Saints also have, at best, a 3rd choice at 9 and their fans apparently don't rate him so it could be interesting if he can't get their back line going.

Our 2nd choice 9 is starting tho .

Sorry I didn't fully read you team sheet and assumed McParland was starting, apologies.

Never forecast a loss before but after last weeks showing really can’t see us beating Saints on their home patch.

Saints 33 Chiefs 18

Saints 36- 21 Exeter

Like most people I think we'll struggle up there. I agree with zyder head , up to a point, saints aren't as strong as last year, and will obviously miss Mitchell. However we have three of our most influential people out injured in Henry, Daf and Jacques. Stick them back in and I'd fancy us. No way would we have lost last week if they were playing. As it is we have a makeshift centre pairing against Hutchinson and Dingwell, who lets face it are rather good.
That's where I feel the game will be lost.
Saints 42 Chiefs 19

nothing to lose from this game, but we need to make ourselves hard to beat, make them work for their tries. last week we lost to a team not playing well and one man down.

i dont get Will Rigg not starting, he is not going to get game time when Slade and Wimbush are back

i dont get Will Rigg not starting, he is not going to get game time when Slade and Wimbush are back[/quote]
+1
We are short of centre to the extent that we have moved a winger in that position. Will played well in the preseason game. There must be something we are not aware of.

We’ve made Sio captain again which is fine, but it means Yeandle will come on and take over the captaincy in the second half which is definitely not fine. We won’t have to wait long to see him blow a couple 5 metre penalty opportunities…
Saints 36; Chiefs 27

Quote:

SixNineOne
We’ve made Sio captain again which is fine, but it means Yeandle will come on and take over the captaincy in the second half which is definitely not fine. We won’t have to wait long to see him blow a couple 5 metre penalty opportunities…
Saints 36; Chiefs 27

didnt we lose the first half without Yeandle with nil points, and draw the second half with him?

Quote:

Currychef

Quote:

Saint dolph

Quote:

Chief Bert
Saints also have, at best, a 3rd choice at 9 and their fans apparently don't rate him so it could be interesting if he can't get their back line going.

Our 2nd choice 9 is starting tho .

Why 2nd choice?

Tom james is second choice behind mitchell. He's a more physical 9 with a huge boot. Can also play wing .

Quote:

mommentum

Quote:

SixNineOne
We’ve made Sio captain again which is fine, but it means Yeandle will come on and take over the captaincy in the second half which is definitely not fine. We won’t have to wait long to see him blow a couple 5 metre penalty opportunities…
Saints 36; Chiefs 27

didnt we lose the first half without Yeandle with nil points, and draw the second half with him?

That may be true, but we fluffed two 5 metre opportunities in the second half under his leadership, either one being enough to win the game!

Unfortunately, as with almost everyone else, I can't see a win for Chiefs today but I'm hoping for not quite the thrashing most are predicting

Saints 24 Chiefs 19

I don't often agree with Ben Kay, but his passing comments referred to Chiefs coming alive in the last 15 ... I'm not sure when Sam was substituted ...

In Rob we trust.
By the way - cream on first. There's nothing to debate.

A couple of points from me.

1. Haydon-Wood needs more minutes, he looked good when he came on.
2. Why wasn’t Rigg starting, he made a big impact when he came on.
3. I’m not a Skinner fan but I thought he had a good game.
4. I appreciate Sam Maunder has come back from a long injury, but that performance was very poor.

Overall I’m happy with a point from today. But the worry is with Saracens and Bristol coming up we could be on 2 points after 4 games

Made it real tense for us at the end there. Cairns made huge impact for you guys. I'm glad he didn't start as he looked real sharp

Quote:

Chief Fire Water
A couple of points from me.
1. Haydon-Wood needs more minutes, he looked good when he came on.
2. Why wasn’t Rigg starting, he made a big impact when he came on.
3. I’m not a Skinner fan but I thought he had a good game.
4. I appreciate Sam Maunder has come back from a long injury, but that performance was very poor.

Overall I’m happy with a point from today. But the worry is with Saracens and Bristol coming up we could be on 2 points after 4 games

Currently working on a WHW tribute as we speak. It might inspire the coaches to use him more! 😂

I expected to lose but:

I have never seen the players look as disinterested as they did for most of the first half.

Nor have I seen the coaches look so devoid of interaction or ideas. There were no messsages going on (when they were on TV at least), Baxter looked tense, Hunter looked fed up and Hepher looked at his wits' end. These people are paid lots and lots of money to put a winning team out there.

They are failing; and the players know it and are reacting to the leadership failure. TR has had the club as his plaything for 30+ years. He needs to deliver or depart and the same applies to the coaches.

This time last year we had beaten both the previous season's finalists and had 10 league points and 100+ points difference. Tonight we are beholden to Steve Diamond and Newcastle to keep us out of the relegation game.

If things go on like this the casual supporters will depart. TNT will choose to ignore us and the advertisers will consequently go elsewhere. An already tenuous financial situation will become untenable.

I am not suggesting that we should win the Prem or Europe every year but we should be competitive and if we lose we should do so with integrity. Nothing that has happened in this pre-Season or season so far has suggested that we will do so this year.

How you can draw all those conclusions when we are still in September is ridiculous.

So far it's not been great.
Change a few factors and it's a win and a bonus point.
If my count is correct over recent seasons there's been, player changeover, move to blitz defense. A less possession based game. Reboot of a poor scrum.
Seems a lot has changed and in many areas been improved.

I've read quite a few posts about the modern game and style of play. But is that the structured possession like Ireland, kick long like France. Low phase count like England. Kick to complete with forwards on the wing like South Africa?
Sale Vs Harlequins couldn't be more different but both modern?
I don't really get what this modern rugby attribute Exeter are missing actually is. Maybe it's the (W) at the end of the game.

Quote:

Exeforever
I expected to lose but:
I have never seen the players look as disinterested as they did for most of the first half.

Nor have I seen the coaches look so devoid of interaction or ideas. There were no messsages going on (when they were on TV at least), Baxter looked tense, Hunter looked fed up and Hepher looked at his wits' end. These people are paid lots and lots of money to put a winning team out there.

They are failing; and the players know it and are reacting to the leadership failure. TR has had the club as his plaything for 30+ years. He needs to deliver or depart and the same applies to the coaches.

This time last year we had beaten both the previous season's finalists and had 10 league points and 100+ points difference. Tonight we are beholden to Steve Diamond and Newcastle to keep us out of the relegation game.

If things go on like this the casual supporters will depart. TNT will choose to ignore us and the advertisers will consequently go elsewhere. An already tenuous financial situation will become untenable.

I am not suggesting that we should win the Prem or Europe every year but we should be competitive and if we lose we should do so with integrity. Nothing that has happened in this pre-Season or season so far has suggested that we will do so this year.

+1

Congratulations to Andy 15.1, ExeterFan, Currychef and ExTeddChief for their 4 pointers this week





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024:09:29:14:03:44 by ouch!_that_hurts.

Second game in, still trying different combo's and letting the team find for themselves out what's needed to win games playing the Chiefs way. Waiting until after Christmas when we have our full team to select from before deciding whether we have problems.
No drama's, can't believe some of these comments.