News: AP: Northampton Saints vs Sale Sharks - Match Preview
By St Dormouse
September 25 2013
After last-minute heartbreak away to Gloucester last weekend, Northampton Saints are back on home turf this Friday evening and welcome Sale Sharks to Franklin's Gardens in Round Four of the Aviva Premiership season. COYSDC contributor, St Dormouse, takes a look ahead to the game...
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs. SALE SHARKS
AP: Friday, 27th September 2013 - 7.45pm (BT Sport)
FRANKLIN'S GARDENS, NORTHAMPTON
MATCH PREVIEW
After 3 matches, one thumping win, one ground out slog and one ever so slightly disappointing defeat, Saints welcome Sale Sharks to The Gardens for yet another Friday night under the lights.
It would be impossible for me to start without first mentioning the somewhat baffling match at Castle Grim on Saturday but everybody has read the damning reports and threads so I won’t dwell. My foot is in the moan like hell until we get it off our chests camp however I am certain that the players and staff will have put it firmly behind them and will be eager to get back onto the hallowed turf to prove a point or two, not least to themselves. Despite the close result and some cracking tries I couldn’t help thinking they ’could do better’. Most neutrals wouldn’t dispute the fact that Gloucester appeared to want it more, to use a tried and tested cliché.
So onto Sale, a club we can batter into submission and score against at will. No problems; preview over.... Or can we? Sale are a club I have always admired. Despite coming from an area hardly regarded as a heartland of Rugby Union you only have to look at the quality of players that they and other once great(but now sadly relegated to little more than feeder) North West clubs have produced. Clubs like Fylde, Orrell and Preston Grasshoppers have produced some of England’s finest that will have older readers weeping fondly into their beer.
Long ago, when the Tetley’s stand was little more than a tin shack I stood next to a lady from Sale who could only marvel at our wonderful facilities and outstanding crowds. Sale were in trouble and attracted small crowds and little interest. Within a few years, however, they had won the premiership title with a lot of help from a certain D.J. Mallinder, and then under the coaching of Phillipe St Andre. They played explosive fast rugby and were a joy to watch compared to those old stick in the mud teams like Gloucester and Leicester, and dare I say it, Northampton. Soon after though they settled down to, mid table mediocre, followed by relegation dog fight. I fell out with them when gnarled, opinionated, arrogant ex hooker Steve Diamond took over. 3rd only behind that angry Sontaran up the road and Toby Booth in my ‘Don’t like him very much’ league. The incidents surrounding his unsightly behaviour against our coaching staff two years ago cemented him and Sale at the bottom end of my Christmas card list. But is it arrogance or is it an unconstrained passion? Would some of us like to see our own Mr Mallinder show some emotion now and again? So far the most animated I have ever seen him was last Saturday when he was seen attempting to convert an object, presumably Martin Fox’s spectacle case, over the advertising boards.
Actually I have forgiven Sale now, not least due to their overwhelming support on our sister site for the injustice dished out to us on Saturday by the afore mentioned ‘differently sighted’ official. Awfully nice chaps those Sale folk, I’ve always said so.
So what can Sale offer on the field of play. Well for a start they can beat Gloucester at Kingsholm, least said on that front the better, and they beat Wasps at home last week but lost at home to Newcastle the week before, they have scored 5 tries as opposed to our 9 and they lie one point behind us in 5th, so really I don’t know how good they are this season. But I know how good they could be. Despite losing players of the quality of Richie Vernon, Richie Gray and ‘last man I’d pick as my getaway driver’ Andy Powell, they have players of real class, if a little lower in profile than our own super signings. 4 times capped All Black Dan Braid has been skippering from the back row alongside James Gaskell and Dave Seymour. They can also call on the highly impressive Jon Mills, a signing from London Welsh who we know all about, and Mike Patterson, another New Zealander voted Cardiff’s player of the season last year. Both can play lock or back row, as can Gaskell and a rather large Russian gentleman called Kirill Kulemin. Quite an interchangeable and powerful bunch. A young lock hoping to make an impression will be a Josh Beaumont, son of the shaggy haired, furry lipped ex question of sport legend William Blackledge Beaumont. I think he may have played rugby once or twice but coming from the red corner as I do 1980 seems to have slipped from my memory banks.
In the front row they have been playing Welsh duo Eiffion Lewis Roberts and Marc Jones alongside twice capped England international Henry Thomas. Somewhere in the background is the lump called Tony Buckley but he seems to have gone off the radar somewhat, whether through injury of loss of form I am unable to expand.
The reliable halfbacks of the once ‘best scrum half in the world’ Dwayne Peel and fellow Welshman Nick Macleod will presumably start but they do have the unpredictable and occasionally brilliant (but usually not) Danny Cipriani to call on. It’s a good job he has split from Miss Brook because a combination of Kelly, Una and Mrs Dormouse in the same stadium would be too much for any man and have every magazine from Vogue to Viz swarming all over the place.
Luckily for Saints the powerful centre combination of Jonny Leota and All Black Sam Tuitupou is crocked (well that is my impression at the time of writing) but they have old pro Mark Cueto and another London Welsh signing Tom Arscott in the back line alongside Canada international Phill McKenzie, ex Leicester Centre Andy Forsyth and club favourite Tom Brady.
Not a bad looking set of players, especially the back 5 forwards. How do we compare? Favourably I still think. The combinations we are able to put out from 4 to 8 are mouth watering and I am sure after last week’s scrum debacle we will start with Corbs. In my opinion the front row last week did little wrong and most of the 6 scrum penalties given away can be disputed, again it was down to the ever changing interpretation of the officials rather than our players, but Jim will want to ensure it doesn’t happen again, and leave nothing to the muppetry of others. We didn’t see Courtney last week so I would expect him to be champing at the bit and if Jim’s new found rotation policy is in force then perhaps Van Velze floating around the bench somewhere. The forwards at the lineout have been particularly impressive with Dylan accurate and ex Sale man Christian Day securing ball at will. Imagine what the Lions could have done with a Hooker that could throw straight!
Whoever is chosen there are 3 things that we have to start getting right, and quickly. Breakdown, restarts and discipline. The breakdown has always been a lottery and we are not competing cleanly in defence and losing the ball in attack, resulting in penalties. The restarts are being kicked too far for us to compete and not far enough to ensure the opposition have to run from deep. The chasers are often left flapping at shadows. This is especially noticeable at 22 drop outs. I think Smyler is having a great season but I think this issue needs to be sorted. We are losing a lot of ball kicked to us at the restart either through knocks on or poor clearance decisions and immediately putting ourselves under pressure. Discipline this year speaks for itself, 4 yellows in the first 3 matches is not good enough and will only ensure that the officials look more closely at us than other teams. The penalty count is too high, especially in defensive situations.
In the backline, I have to say that I have yet to see much from Kahn Fotuali’i. I’m sure he will come good but I think Lee Dickson will start alongside Myler. The center partnership of Luther and Wilson seems to be working well but I wish Wilson would look around sometimes and pass to the right chap, instead of taking the ball back inside and butchering a scoring chance. Both Jamie and George have been left pulling their hair out, and I’m afraid our Ben has been guilty of the same thing. Ok it’s easy to say that from an armchair so I won’t be too harsh, I have actually been very impressed with the backs this year…..when they get the ball!!!
Back three of Foden, Elliott and George North will scare the pants off anybody. I read somewhere that there is an agreement with the WRFU about resting George but I just want to see him charging through the defence like a dancing wildebeest again so I hope he plays.
I think we have a squad more than capable of matching Sale and I am hoping….nay expecting, a try bonus point win. David Rose has been announced as the man in the middle and I think he is a wonderful chap who officiates fairly and evenly, unless you’re Worcester. In fact I will buy him a pint if he ever pops into the Oliver Twist. (He may read fans’ websites)
Meanwhile Mr Martin Fix has been rewarded for his efforts with the show piece match of the weekend, Quins v Sarries. The mind boggles.
See you all on Friday.
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Appetite duly whetted!
Saint til I die
Anyway, I look forward to regularly logging on here and maybe even contributing.
Once a scrum half .... always a scrum half
big, big test of our credentials this year for me - we have to deliver what tiggs or sarries would do at home against capable opposition, which is a clear win.
Sale will win a hard fought contest!
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
and this bit made me LOL;
Quote:St Dormouse
‘last man I’d pick as my getaway driver’ Andy Powell
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