News: AP: Northampton Saints vs London Welsh - Match Preview

By St Dormouse
November 22 2012

After an encouraging LV= Cup success over Newport Gwent Dragons last time out, Northampton Saints return to Aviva Premiership action this weekend as they welcome London Welsh to Franklin's Gardens for a Saturday lunchtime fixture. COYSDC contributor, St Dormouse, takes a look ahead to the match...

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs. LONDON WELSH

AP: Saturday, 24th November 2012 - 1pm

FRANKLIN'S GARDENS, NORTHAMPTON

MATCH PREVIEW

Hello boys and girls, are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.

Once upon a time there was a little red bear. He liked to sing and eat seaweed and every weekend he liked to play in the small wood with his friends. He could usually hold his own amongst the other little bears, sometimes he was better than them and other times he wasn’t. He dreamt of being a great big bear and play in the big woods with the other big bears. His Daddy was a great big bear in years gone by but the family had fallen on hard times when playtime became more to do with how much honey you had and less fun.

Then one year, the little red bear found himself top bear in the small wood and that meant he could go into the big wood and play with the big bears. Oh what joy, Daddy would be proud of him and he ran about telling all his friends. But wait. The big bears, who are run by a bunch of ‘Old farts in Blazers’ to quote a once popular captain bear, didn’t want to play with the little red bear.

“You can’t come in our wood” said the farts “because your bit of wood isn’t big enough.”

“Well” said the little red bear “I can borrow a bigger piece of wood up the M40, that’s big enough”

“No you can’t “said the farts “you have to own your bit of wood”

“But what about the Black and red south African bear in Watford, or the black and yellow stripy bear, or the green fiddly diddly bear, or the blue and white bear up north?” said the little red bear.

“Tough” said the farts, “Our wood, we’ve changed the rules”

The little red bear was very upset and he went to tell his mummy. Now one thing you should never do is upset a little bear’s Mummy. Mummy red bear went and had a not too friendly word with the farts and after much arguing and not a little embarrassment, the farts relented and the little red bear was allowed to play with the big bears.

Unfortunately all this took time and by the time the season started, the little red bear didn’t have time to get all the new kit he needed. He also had trouble persuading some of his friends to come and watch him play because he was quite a long way from home. All this led to him being a bit lonely and was at first bullied by the big bears, especially the posh pretty coloured bear from just round the corner, who used to be his friend, and the stripey cheating bear from pooh corner (well I had to didn’t I!).

It wasn’t long, however, before he toughened up and started sticking up for himself a bit more and so far he has beaten 3 of the big bears, and might have beaten the black and red nomad bear if the headmaster on the day hadn’t bottled it. All of a sudden the big bears started to take note and realize that the little red bear was no longer for bullying. If he carried on playing like this he might be allowed to stay in the big wood like his old friend cider drinking bear.

One day the little red bear had to go to the middle of the wood to play with the Gold, black and green Saintly bear. Now once upon a time Saintly Bear had been a real big wig. He had even been the best bear in the whole European forest. Since those glory days, times haven’t been quite as good and he had even spent time with the little red bear in the small wood. But most people thought that the Saintly bear was a pretty top bear, and usually finished the winter high in the bear standings. He had loads of honey in his pot, and lots of friends came to watch him play. He had high ambitions and was expected to fulfill them. Normally little red bear would be worried.

Not this time, however, because Gold black and green saintly bear isn’t very well. He has been a little off colour lately and has found himself being pushed around by other bears. He has been a little bit lacklustre when required to play with the big bears and sometimes looks like he just wants to curl up and hibernate. Little red bear is rubbing his paws together thinking that he can perhaps get one over on one of the top 4 bears.

Do you want to know what happened when the little red bear and the Gold black and green Saintly bear met at playtime?

Tune in next week for the rest of the story.

Bye Bye Boys and Girls

PART 2

Silliness over, now for the grownups.

When I was a very young boy growing up in a small Dyfed village, London Welsh really were a Big Bear team. No less than 7 London Welsh players toured with the ’71 Lions, more than some countries manage. Names to thrill such as JPR, John Dawes, Merve the swerve, Gerald Davies and current MD John Taylor just flow off the tongue. I believe they still hold the record for Lions produced. Not a bad pedigree. On the down side anybody who thinks our slide from European champions to the second tier in just a few years was bad should thank their lucky stars that’s as far as we slid. Welsh managed to fall as far as division 5 and nearly went down the plug hole. Only guts, determination and a degree of fortune ensured that they slowly made their way back up the leagues. Up until very recently their future was still in the hands of the bankers, but here they are, at the Gardens, tails up and hoping to put one over on one of the aristocrats of English rugby.

So far this season they have managed an away win at struggling Sale and home wins against Exeter and Bath. They have a squad comprising mostly of relatively unheard of club players, hard working and committed. Club captain Jon Mills has been with them since 2007 and together with a combination of ex Wales 7s captain Lee Beech, Samoan Alfie Tuoala and/or Saints old Boy Dan Browne, (one flash of whose pearly whites has a similar effect on Mrs Dormouse’s knees as ¾ of a bottle of decent Pinot) forms an effective back row. Newly signed Adam Baldwin will relish getting to grips with old enemies while Grizzly old props, Romanian international Paulica Ion and Frenchman Franck Montanella ensure good contest at scrum time. At the back we have Tom Arscott whom most of us know from his Exeter days. He is one player any team would be happy to have in their squad. Tom Voyce is new to the squad, another name most of us will know. I don’t know if we will see Baby Tiny at centre, he didn’t play for Tonga last week so hopefully we will get a chance to see him at the Gardens. Hudson has great strength as you would expect and a tendency to smash holes through the middle of the field. We may also see Wales old boy Sonny Parker who may be well past his best but has a wealth of experience and a partnership going back to the Wales Grand slam years with Gavin Henson. And so we come to the ‘Orange One’. Here’s one man whose career fall from grace hasn’t been matched since Mike Tyson reneged on his vegetarian vows and left his gold plated gnasher print in Evander Holyfield’s lug. Here’s a man who has had more last chances than Abu Qatada, maybe he has finally come round to the fact that he is a rugby player, and a talented one at that. He has the ability along with Parker to organize a defense and a boot on him to punish any infringement in the opposition half.

So what we have in Welsh is, very much like Exeter a few years ago, a rather understated but committed team with a few fading stars doted throughout. They are not to be underestimated especially in our current situation. Saying that, they have conceded 218 league points against 153 for and have conceded the best part of 90 points in their last 2 LV games.

And so to our own merry band of warriors.

It has to be said that this has not been our finest few months. It is customary to have a month or two each year when things go flat, games start slipping and the fans start moaning. It’s all “I’m not renewing my season ticket” and “sack the coaches” (Well you have your wish now, I hope you’re happy). This period usually coincides with international call ups and would have this year if the internationals to be called up weren’t all crocked. I don’t think many teams would cope well with losing the likes of Hartley, Lawes and Foden to injury as well as 2^nd and 3^rd choice full backs Wilson and Myler. Add to this Digger and the significant loss of Christian Day. Woody is doing his best to avoid splinters in his backside at Twickenham and Tiny, GP and Artemiev are on international duty. The cupboard is looking decidedly bare. I think the team that played in the LV cup WIN (yippee) on Sunday will probably be much the same as we will see this weekend. Rumours of a Foden return are in my opinion more hope than expectation although there is a possibility we might see the return of Courtney at some stage.

I still expect our props to win the scrum, and we have good depth in the back row. Manoa can have an impact again if he is at his rampaging best. The great 10 debate is on hold and Lamb has the chance to get a run of games together. What he chooses to do with those games is anybody’s guess but I would imagine it will be more of the same. Flashes of brilliance coupled with head in hands horribleness. How Lamb copes with the next few months will have a huge impact on the Saints season so I feel whatever your view we need to support him. That goes with the rest of the side as well. Jim wants a big crowd this weekend. I would love to see the South East corner with slightly more folk in it than a Saul’s of Spratton stand at the Wailing Wall. I would also love to have a bit more of the old style atmosphere back. It’s a 2 way thing. You play Saints and we’ll shout.

Finally prediction time. I very rarely go to the Gardens expecting to lose and this week is no exception. I think that the Saints will play a blinder and beat a gutsy Welsh team by 10 points. In other circumstances I would expect a bonus point however I am not confident that our try scoring record to date is up to it. Another win will set us up nicely for Sale and then we have a real humdinger of a December. Confidence is all and I for one will be doing my utmost to roar the boys on. If nothing else, as a thank you and goodbye to a true and long-time Saints man, Paul ‘Larry’ Grayson.

News: AP: Northampton Saints vs London Welsh - Match Preview

Posted by: ComeOnYouSaints.com (IP Logged)

Date: 22/11/2012 12:48

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