News: A nice day out - but no cigar! Quins 22 Saints 19
By Saint_aitch
May 5 2013
A very pleasant afternoon welcomed Saints to The Stoop for this, the last match in the regular Premiership season. A good contingent of Saintly horde all visited Twickenham with a weird kind of deflated sense of victory knowing that, whatever the outcome of today’s game, we have another game to play the week after as Saints have, once again, achieved the heady heights of fourth place and premiership play offs.
By SAINT_aitch May 4th 2013
Harlequins vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
Aviva Premiership Round 22
Saturday, 4th May 2013. 14:30 k.o.
TWICKENHAM STOOP
MATCH REPORT
We have had a good run of wins recently and we needed to keep that momentum going into the play offs if we were to improve on being the proverbial bridesmaid again. So it was, in modest anticipation and with what many of my Saints friends considered to be the strongest team we have fielded for many years, that we supped on our real ale and sat back to watch this ‘dead rubber’.
To be fair, Quins also fielded a very strong team and as Daisy marked his 100th appearance for the Saints and ran the team out through the long welcoming tunnel of LV= girls and local schoolchildren it was Saints who kicked off and, in what could be seen as a bad omen, Smyler’s kick went straight into touch. I must admit to being a little worried that this match wouldn’t go our way at that point but, a look around the ground at the various flags and I decided that, perhaps I shouldn’t be too worried, it was a windy day and let’s just give the boys a chance and low and behold, Saints only went and won the scrum back on the centre spot due to Quins early engagement. Maybe I was being a little over concerned too early……maybe.
Very early play and Saints put a little bit of pressure on the Quins goal line, but it was comfortably dealt with by Monye and within a couple of minutes of this game, it was clear that both teams, despite not needing the win today, were not going to simply lie down and let the opposition walk this match.
As the game settled though it was clear that it was the home side who were the little more confident, had a little more run of the field and who perhaps wanted to have their last match of the season, in front of their faithful, on a win especially after recent loss to Munster in the Heineken Cup Quarter Final and sure enough the first points of the game went to the home side as Nick Evans slotted an easy penalty. Some messy backs play as the game continued with both sides trying perhaps a little too hard saw a number of knock on’s, and some dodgy passing from both teams until Foden cleared with a kick down field and, perhaps it was the wind again, but the kick went dead and from the resultant scrum back just inside Saints half, Quins made a great break down the blind side and then got the first try of the day following a neat chip through from Danny Care which Ben Foden just failed to get hold off allowing Tom Williams through. Care dealt with the conversion and Saints were 10:0 down after 20 minutes.
Saints heads didn’t drop from this score though and soon after the pressure told as a penalty led to a line out near the Quins 22 and some excellent moves using, what looked to be, all fifteen players had the ball whizzing out to Ken Pisi on the opposite wing to cross the Quins try line. Unfortunately Mr Wigglesworth and his colleagues decided that the TMO needed to check on something and the try was disallowed. I guessed it was for obstruction but couldn’t see very clearly.
Again, Saints did not let this setback get to them and, within minutes, this failed try attempt had been corrected with a lovely little Foden chip through for Jamie Elliott to pick up and trot over Quins line on 28 minutes. Saints were starting to look a little more dangerous now. This new found determination led to a penalty attempt for Smyler a few minutes later but again, the wind was against him and the ball drifted past the posts, the touch judges flags stayed down and play resumed with some six minutes left of the half and play was shared fairly evenly between the two sides until the interval.
Half Time: Quins 10:5 Saints
Saints needed a good restart to show their intent but a Jamie Elliott error in catching Nick Evans restart kick instead of letting it go into touch allowed the hosts a line out from which they worked a nice move to score a second try, Nick Evans providing the extras. Not a good start to the second forty.
17:5
Matters were made worse less than ten minutes later when a neat break from Danny Care gained valuable yards and a try was finished off by Tom Casson. The conversion and a penalty attempt a few minutes earlier were both missed by the usually clockwork Evans.
22:5
Something needed to happen for Saints, and thankfully it did. Over the course of the next fifteen or twenty minutes Saints put on some of the best rugby I have seen from them this season. Maybe it was a rollocking they may have got from Captain ‘British Lion’ Hartly, maybe they decided they have nothing to lose, or maybe thoughts turned to the fact that next week they need to buck there ideas up if they don’t want to be the bridesmaids again, but whatever it was we saw a fantastic display of intricate moves and passes that caught Quins on the back foot and not sure where to look.
Five minutes after the Quins latest try, Captain Hartley and his marauding troupe of forwards formed a perfect maul fifteen yards outside the Quins line and nudged forward picking up momentum until it collapsed over the try line. Hartly was the last one up from the bottom of the pile of bodies and brought the ball up with him. Mr Wigglesworth arm was raised and his whistle blown. Myler duly converted.
22:12
Famine or feast – The new found impetus from the Saints had Quins worried, they were desperately trying to keep a re-invigerated Saints back and you could see the ill discipline creeping in. The Saints backs wanted some of the action and Foden, Pisi and Elliott were all making good runs, but it was to be the forward grunt again that got Saints third try as they pounded their way up the field to get Luther Burrell just short of the Quins try line, some quick hands from Lee Dickson and the ball whizzed out to land in the arms of Mr Centenary Christian Day who dotted down for try number three. Myler again made the conversion.
22:19
Things were really looking up for Saints now, we had just under twenty minutes left on the clock and were definitely on the front foot and game management came into play as Jim decided it was time to start making some substitutions. I can see why he done it, we have a big game next week and the result of this game is irrelevant in that respect, but I had to wonder if bringing these subs on now was going to break this momentum we had discovered. Mooj, Tiny, Manoa and Clark were the first to be replaced with Mercy, GJVV, Dowson, and Waller replacing them. Dickson was replaced by Roberts soon after. This seemed to cool the game down and Saints lost the momentum they had gained up front. The replacements bench was emptied over the course of the next few minutes and it seemed that both sides then settled into a stride to just use up the last few minutes of the game and get all of their players home safely ready for the knockout match next week.
The score stayed at 22:19
Bring on Sarries.
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alive and well in Shrubbery Terrace
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