Well the Gloucester locals don’t call Kingsholm, Castle Grim for nothing. On Saturday for those of a Saintly persuasion the last twenty minutes were indeed grim after such a promising start. The Saints were well in touch, and leading 17-10 at half time.
For three quarters of the game it could have gone either way but when Gloucester brought on their returning front row World Cup heroes in Trevor Woodman and Phil Vickery the screw was tightened and for the last twenty minutes the lads were simply outplayed.
It could have been so much different after two first half tries had silenced a rather muted Shed but it was not to be. After the battle of Piggy’s Patch at the Gardens in early November the game went off without incident and all credit to Sharky Robinson, returning from a two week ban for his part in the earlier dust up, who played the consummate scrumhalf’s game stealing two tries into the bargain.
However my man of the match, no I’ve not been drinking, was Tony Spreadbury who, given the history of the clash, refereed the game with aplomb. My only criticism being he was a touch quick on the whistle for the penalty that ‘robbed’ us of a late bonus point something I think we just about deserved for effort alone.
LOOKING AHEAD
So now we put the Zurich Premiership to bed till Christmas and all eyes turn to Europe once more, the true premier competition. Saints open their campaign this year down in the cauldron, or should that be saucepan, of Stradey Park home of the new Welsh district the Scarlets (yes it’s just Llanelli under a new name).
We travel down with a fine record on Welsh soil in European Competition but Llanelli is undoubtedly the hardest ground in the principality to try and grind out a result.
Added to this the Scarlets will be looking to avenge the semi final defeat at the Madstad in 2000, our European winning season, when a rush of blood to the head of Ian Boobyer in the dying moments of the game allowed Larry to step up and kick us into the final against Munster at Twickenham.
A return of some of the English contingent and a slight step up in gear could see the lads steal a win that even so early in the competition could set down the marker for our group. Here’s hoping.
A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Here’s a date for you all scribble down in your brand new 2004 diaries. After talking about Edgar Mobbs in the column a few weeks back I was contacted by the East Midlands Rugby Union with details of this seasons Mobbs Memorial game between the East Mids and the Barbarians. The game will take place on Wednesday 17th March 2004 at 6:00pm at the Gardens.
As a curtain raiser the finals of the Mobbs U10 and U12 finals will take place at 5:15 on the main pitch.
With the game being in the middle of the Six Nations, and the Saints out of the Powergen Cup, it could be an oasis of live rugby in a sea of armchair games and with all proceeds going to youth rugby in the area its an ideal chance to get some fresh air in your lungs and help along those Wally and Bens of tomorrow. So be there!
MEDIA DARLINGS
So it seems that the game in this country is in for a boom time, according to some pundits, after England’s World Cup win. Last weekend saw Zurich Premiership attendances almost reach an average of ten thousand as interest in the game is at an all time high.
It seems a long way from the days when you could see daylight from one end of the Gordon Terrace to the other and if you were unlucky to be the first out the bar you might find yourself playing on the wing.
However this renaissance in the game at the top of the English club level has been building for several years and while underlying growth looks good long term, especially at clubs like the Saints, I am not so sure the interest produced by the heroics of Daws, Larry, Ben and Wally will be that lasting in your average Joe Publics eyes.
We have had a few enquiries through comeonyousaints.com and we hear the clubs phones have been red hot with new (pardon the pun) converts to the game and I’m sure a few will remain members of the rugby family but I am not so sure the national medias new love affair with our game will last.
Their obsession with the roundball game and especially 1966, (when in all truth it was only the Ben and his Uncle George angle that really warranted, and quite rightly so, column inches on the matter) was starting to get a bit absurd in the run up to the final as any tie up with their beloved game was picked over with even the most tenuous link. It almost got the point where I was half expecting the Sun or the Star to suggest England must win because Matt Dawson and Nobby Stiles both wear shorts. Uncanny!
Fair enough footie is our national game but on Saturday I read three nationals, reading from the back page forward as I’m sure we all do, but even after ten pages of soccer it was hard to find anything of note about that’s weekends games apart from the fact that their new darling Jonny Wilko WASN’T playing for Newcastle.
By Christmas I’m sure we will just be another sport, especially for the tabloids, as it is going to be quite hard to find muck to rake over your average rugby player and it will be a cold day in hell before the likes of Jonny even does so much as drop litter. Then no doubt we will be back to wall to wall soccer and the media obsession with certain individuals rather than the game itself.
But perhaps I’m being a bit hard on the hacks of Fleet Street, after all in Japan they simply ignore the main story and cut straight to the chase. After England’s World Cup triumph in Sydney a leading Tokyo newspaper lead with the headline ‘Beckhams Friend Wins World Cup’.
Now we are not quite that bad.............yet!
It could have been so much different after two first half tries had silenced a rather muted Shed but it was not to be. After the battle of Piggy’s Patch at the Gardens in early November the game went off without incident and all credit to Sharky Robinson, returning from a two week ban for his part in the earlier dust up, who played the consummate scrumhalf’s game stealing two tries into the bargain.
However my man of the match, no I’ve not been drinking, was Tony Spreadbury who, given the history of the clash, refereed the game with aplomb. My only criticism being he was a touch quick on the whistle for the penalty that ‘robbed’ us of a late bonus point something I think we just about deserved for effort alone.
LOOKING AHEAD
So now we put the Zurich Premiership to bed till Christmas and all eyes turn to Europe once more, the true premier competition. Saints open their campaign this year down in the cauldron, or should that be saucepan, of Stradey Park home of the new Welsh district the Scarlets (yes it’s just Llanelli under a new name).
We travel down with a fine record on Welsh soil in European Competition but Llanelli is undoubtedly the hardest ground in the principality to try and grind out a result.
Added to this the Scarlets will be looking to avenge the semi final defeat at the Madstad in 2000, our European winning season, when a rush of blood to the head of Ian Boobyer in the dying moments of the game allowed Larry to step up and kick us into the final against Munster at Twickenham.
A return of some of the English contingent and a slight step up in gear could see the lads steal a win that even so early in the competition could set down the marker for our group. Here’s hoping.
A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Here’s a date for you all scribble down in your brand new 2004 diaries. After talking about Edgar Mobbs in the column a few weeks back I was contacted by the East Midlands Rugby Union with details of this seasons Mobbs Memorial game between the East Mids and the Barbarians. The game will take place on Wednesday 17th March 2004 at 6:00pm at the Gardens.
As a curtain raiser the finals of the Mobbs U10 and U12 finals will take place at 5:15 on the main pitch.
With the game being in the middle of the Six Nations, and the Saints out of the Powergen Cup, it could be an oasis of live rugby in a sea of armchair games and with all proceeds going to youth rugby in the area its an ideal chance to get some fresh air in your lungs and help along those Wally and Bens of tomorrow. So be there!
MEDIA DARLINGS
So it seems that the game in this country is in for a boom time, according to some pundits, after England’s World Cup win. Last weekend saw Zurich Premiership attendances almost reach an average of ten thousand as interest in the game is at an all time high.
It seems a long way from the days when you could see daylight from one end of the Gordon Terrace to the other and if you were unlucky to be the first out the bar you might find yourself playing on the wing.
However this renaissance in the game at the top of the English club level has been building for several years and while underlying growth looks good long term, especially at clubs like the Saints, I am not so sure the interest produced by the heroics of Daws, Larry, Ben and Wally will be that lasting in your average Joe Publics eyes.
We have had a few enquiries through comeonyousaints.com and we hear the clubs phones have been red hot with new (pardon the pun) converts to the game and I’m sure a few will remain members of the rugby family but I am not so sure the national medias new love affair with our game will last.
Their obsession with the roundball game and especially 1966, (when in all truth it was only the Ben and his Uncle George angle that really warranted, and quite rightly so, column inches on the matter) was starting to get a bit absurd in the run up to the final as any tie up with their beloved game was picked over with even the most tenuous link. It almost got the point where I was half expecting the Sun or the Star to suggest England must win because Matt Dawson and Nobby Stiles both wear shorts. Uncanny!
Fair enough footie is our national game but on Saturday I read three nationals, reading from the back page forward as I’m sure we all do, but even after ten pages of soccer it was hard to find anything of note about that’s weekends games apart from the fact that their new darling Jonny Wilko WASN’T playing for Newcastle.
By Christmas I’m sure we will just be another sport, especially for the tabloids, as it is going to be quite hard to find muck to rake over your average rugby player and it will be a cold day in hell before the likes of Jonny even does so much as drop litter. Then no doubt we will be back to wall to wall soccer and the media obsession with certain individuals rather than the game itself.
But perhaps I’m being a bit hard on the hacks of Fleet Street, after all in Japan they simply ignore the main story and cut straight to the chase. After England’s World Cup triumph in Sydney a leading Tokyo newspaper lead with the headline ‘Beckhams Friend Wins World Cup’.
Now we are not quite that bad.............yet!
No comments:
Post a Comment