News: Saint See Off Strong 'sprey’s
By Bonso
October 23 2011
On paper this looked a possible 5 pointer for Saints against a very youthful Ospreys side coached in this competition by Bridgend’s own Steve Tandy. Notable exceptions to the youth of the Ospreys side of course were the evergreen Sonny Parker and Methin Davies on the bench. The Saints side looked strong especially when you consider we had Clarke, Dowson and Myler on the bench. However matches are not played on paper and the Ospreys certainly had not been read the script.
LV= Cup Round 2
Ospreys vs. Northampton Saints
Saturday 22nd October, K.O. 6pm
Brewery Field, Bridgend
Ospreys started very brightly playing at pace with the lively little Morgan pulling the strings and were rewarded with 3 points after 4 minutes when Saints came up offside. Meanwhile in the pack something was starting to niggle and to be fair Mr Hennessy was very clear to both skippers with what he wanted. The lineout that followed was lost by Saints and subsequently Lawes was pinged for not rolling away. The clever Morgan, who’s touch finder had set up the field position for Ospreys, dutifully kicked the 3.
There were some signs of hope though for Saints as Ashton and Armstrong started to find some space. However errors were made and the ball was coughed up, only for Ospreys to make an error with side entry at a midfield. Lamb made no mistake and Saints were off the mark.
The continuing aggravation between the forwards erupted in the 19th minute with Ospreys giving the officials a veritable selection box of punches to be punished as they tried in vain to stop an ominously successful saints maul. The end result saw a yellow card and lock Tom Smith sent to the cooler. From the penalty Saints pushed up the field and again found space out wide this time for Foden to put Artemyev in at the corner. It was 6-10 to the Gold black and Green with Lamb missing the tricky extras.
With Ospreys a man down you would have thought Northampton would turn the screw and they certainly tried. Ospreys refused to buckle and even got 3 points back with a monster penalty from Morgan. Now back to 15 Ospreys came at Saints and eventually caught Northampton offside just outside their 22. Morgan stroked it over and it was 12-10 to the home side. At this point in the game Ospreys were more than holding their own against a Saints side that were showing glimpses of their true selves but were executing poorly.
Good work from Northampton’s pack saw a penalty just outside of Ospreys 22. Dickson tapped it quickly but was cynically held back illegally by Habberfield with referee Hennessy showing no patience and giving him a yellow.
Saints were ascendant again against Spreys 14 but nothing seemed to click and it got worse with the old warhorse Sonny Parker intercepting Artemyev’s pass to sprint home, half-time 19-10. Can we get back to playing this on paper please?
So time to sort this out Saints and they did at the start of the second half. An attacking lineout saw a good driving maul established giving Hartley as simple a dot down as any hooker could ask for. Lamb missed the conversion, but Saints were back within a score at 19-15. Exciting running from Artemyev and Ashton nearly created a further score; however the forwards managed to infringe literally on the Ospreys line. On the 54th minute Hartley atoned for this doting down after the Ospreys had been well processed by the Saints Mauling Machine. Lamb provided the extras and Saints were back in front 19-22 with 25 minutes left.
The wheels were starting to fall off the Ospreys wagon at this point with Osprey’s coughing up the ball off their own lineout in their own 22. Foden and Artemyev attacked down Saints left nearly scoring and when the ball came out from the ensuing ruck good vision from Ryan Lamb saw a sumptuous cross field kick to the unattended Callum Clark. Lamb added the extras saints now 10 points clear and a bonus point in the bag.
Ospreys to be fair did not lie down in the last 20 minutes and gained 3 points back with another Morgan penalty. I did get the feeling that again the raft of changes Saints made did seem to take away momentum from the Saints effort. Sadly for the Ospreys this was to be the end of their scoring. It was pretty much the end of the game as it descended into a midfield arm wrestle. Saints eventually made it back up the park and nearly scored with Armstrong wasting an overlap and boy did he get a Paddington stare from Ashton. Saints kept up the pressure with and without the ball in the Osprey’s 22 and eventually Ospreys conceded a penalty which Myler slotted to deny Ospreys a losing bonus point. Game over and it must be said well played to both sides, that was a proper hard match.
TIMELINE
4mins OSPR Pen Morgan 3-0
8mins SAINTS Miss pen Lamb
13mins OSPR Pen Morgan 6-0
16mins SAINTS Pen Lamb 6-3
20mins OSPR Yellow card Smith
21mins SAINTS Try Artemyev Con Lamb 6-10
27mins OSPR Pen Morgan 9-10
32mins OSPR Pen Morgan 12-10
35mins OSPR Yellow card Habberfield
40mins OSPR Try Parker Con Morgan 19-10
HALF-TIME OSPREYS 19 SAINTS 10
42mins SAINTS Try Hartley 19-15
55mins SAINTS Try Hartley Con Lamb 19-22
57mins SAINTS Try Clark Con Lamb 19-29
62mins OSPR Pen Morgan 22-29
80mins SAINTS Pen Myler 22-32
FULL-TIME OSPREYS 22 SAINTS 32
Jim Mallinder's Thoughts
Two-Try Dylan Hartley says....
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Many thanks.
Law 21.4 (c) A clear kick. The kicker must kick the ball a visible distance. If the kicker is holding it, it must clearly leave the hands. If it is on the ground, it must clearly leave the mark.
while you are correct in stating the law, the ref is equally correct in his judgement of that law during the game.
Good review Bonso btw.
"sup·port·er"
Noun:
1.A person who approves of and encourages someone or something (typically a public figure, a movement or party, or a policy).
2.A person who is actively interested in and wishes success for a particular sports team.
Eif, materiality? What advantage is gained by a ball staying in hand or leaving it for a nano second? So many other laws are liberally interpreted, why concentrate on this one? Good law knowledge, but then I got 100% on my refereeing level 1 and 2 tests, doesn't mean I'm a good ref.
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
Quote:The multi faceted father
and having watched the highlights with my breakfast
And people think I need to get out more....
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
(I seem to have lost all my smileys.... so imagine the one with the Sarcasm sign being held aloft)
Good report by the way.
So regardless to weather Dicko had touched the ball with his feet or not he was impeded before he had the chance to right under the ref's feet too.
Sky's coverage was shocking. I'm all for praising players from either sides but Evans has clearly got a World Cup Hangover since Wales recent partial success and Warburton's departure. He was not fit to commentate a match of such divide under that lack of professionalism.
Perhaps one for you Saint Kenneth? Why oh why did ITV insist on switching the scores round at halftime in the RWC?
Most irritating.
I don't think they switched the scores around, they merely switched the teams around to which way they were playing.
Afterall the world cup is generally a neutral ground so no one really has home advantage (except the host nation!)