News: Saints struggle, slip and succumb to Castres
By St.Rich Joe, Niamh and Sam's Dad
December 12 2011
My apologies to Rich for the delay in posting this, I was unable to get consistent access from Toulouse on an iPad, and was quite poorly last night, so I had to give up trying. So here is Rich's view at last, from behind the sofa
Heineken Cup Round 3
Saturday December 10th Stade J-P Antoine, Castres
KO 2:30
CASTRES OLYMPIQUE 41 V 22 NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
I love a good book me, I especially love fantasy: Tolkein, Pratchett, Jordan, Martin etc. However I’m sick to death of referees with imagination. Sir’s performance in the first half was a work of pure fiction. The first penalty, the first try and Myler’s yellow card for two ‘high-tackles’ all made up in sir’s head. Give me strength. Then as if to trump his first half performance sir imagines he’s warned Saints about the penalty count and sends Tom Wood to the bin for what may have been his first indiscretion of the match and…IT’S ALL OVER!
That’s not the whole story though. Northampton are on the cusp of brilliance, unfortunately that particular knife edge has a down side. At our best few can live with us, at our worst we are easy game for any side. We will cut you to shreds but that last pass will get you off the hook. The truth is though we missed a proper back row. Big Sam did well at 8 but he’s no Wilson. Nutley looked as if the occasion got to him and Wood played like a man carrying two colleagues.
It all started so well with Saints blasting into the Castres 22. Then sir decided rolling away was optional and pinged Wood for holding on with a White player spooning him from his own side. The result was that Castres got field position and ploughed through some ineffectual tackling. Their score in the corner was however from an obvious forward pass, oh for Wayne Barnes…he’d have noticed(!)
Saints reacted well. A penalty from a scrum was kicked to the corner. This was backed up by a good catch and drive, good phases of pick and drive and a satisfying forwards try for Sorenson.
Castres hit back. They kicked two penalties, one off the first imagined high tackle by Myler before Saints scored their second try. Good phase play released my Saint of the match Pisi, more recycling and quick hands saw Elliott in for his first try. Missed conversion and it’s 13 – 11 to the home side.
Clearly sir and his touch judges have heard that it’s unfashionable to favour Saints and as the shortest player in world rugby decided to burrow forward due to the onrushing Lawes, Myler caught him knee high to a grasshopper and was promptly sent to the bin. For once the bewildered shake of the head was not play acting. Play rumbled on towards half time and Castres giant wing pounced on a clever chip from Masoe. The kicker with the swing like Trevino carried on with his near perfect day and at half time it’s 23-12 at half time.
Into the 2nd half and error strewn attacks from both sides ended with Elliott sprinting down his wing for a breakaway try. With Myler still in the bin, May chose to miss the kick instead. 23-17. All we needed to do was concentrate and keep playing…oh dear.
All good play was negated by the two kickable penalties nailed by crazy legs crane, still it’s not over until the fat lady sings…
Boom! More great play involving pretty much the whole team but heavily featuring Foden and Pisi sees a good try for a man destined for Saintly legend status, Sam the man Manoa and it’s bonus point try time. Another missed kick sees Saints winning 4-2 in tries but losing 29-22 on the scoreboard. Still, just keep playing…
That’s where it all goes horribly wrong. Castres bigger pack got on top going into the last quarter and were rumbling with ease into our red zone. Of course we came in from the side, how else would we stop them? Then sir announces too many penalties yellow card 6! Tom Wood trudges off with an equally bemused face. Like those annoying drivers who don’t bother with their indicators, it really would have been nice to get some sort of warning.
For Saints it was running through treacle from there on in. They gave it a crack, chucked the ball around, tried everything but the game was done. Castres got another for their giant wing, a man it turns out hasn’t scored for two years…some winger! Then to add insult to injury they scored their own bonus point try and that was that. Final score 41-22.
Now some of you may have wanted more detailed analysis than that but frankly my heart’s just not in it. The positives I can take are: I heard oh wendy very clearly as the chain smoking home support was comprehensively outsung and Saints with Heart Santa hats were also prominently on display. We are better than this, so much better than this, eventually the sir collective will realise this too. For now we’re free to concentrate on the LV cup
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Saint til I die
the thing is, the players need to be given a dose of Ruthless Pills before each game.
This would lead to the supporters really being of use to the team.
because they were being all ruthless loike, they would of course have their SAS heads on and would be totally undaunted by the vicissitudes caused by whichever Idiot With a Whistle Dressed As Cinderella had been elected to spoil the game that day .
We in turn could perform their traditional function of whining and gurning and complaining to the point of being yellow carded by aforementioned [usually celtic] fule.
after all, we have been whining and gurning and complaining about these fules for so long it has become an art form, so the message to the team would be why buy a dog and bark yourselves ?
Many, many thanks!
