A six try bonus point winning display was just what the doctor ordered to blow away the Euro blues and get the Saints season back on track.
In all truth once the lads had upped the tempo after all of three minutes, and just after Tam Smith had done his best Sugar Ray Leonard impression, the Borders were not even at the races as the Saints took the game to them over and over again with attacking play that the Scottish side had little or no answer to.
From what Brendan Ratcliffe was saying in the Chron pre-match the barbed comments of some of the Borders players really did do the trick in firing the lads up. I am not quite sure what the home team expected after bleating to the press that the Saints had not afforded them the correct amount of respect in the first game. I wonder if the likes of skipper Kevin Utterson are of a different opinion now that his side has been totally taken apart by a team that he amongst others had predicted they would beat. Someone mentioned this week that ‘sometimes you earn respect and sometimes you have to impose it’, never a truer word spoken after Friday night
Those at the game commented that it was a real team performance with everyone giving their all for the cause and each other and yet again pivotal to it all was Sharky Robinson who is certainly shaping up as the signing of the season in English rugby. Lets hope the rumblings from New Zealand that new All Blacks coach Graham Henry may want Sharky, Bruce Reihana and Andy Blowers as well as Wayne Smith is just paper talk. At the moment though with other players, notably double try scoring Ben Cohen, returning to top form the Saints are well set to see out a campaign in style where both league and European Cup sit finely balanced. Just keep handing out that respect lads!
LOOKING FORWARD
With Llanelli losing, but gaining a very valuable bonus point, in the monsoon at the Stade Armandie on Saturday our group looks like it is set for a grand finale. It looks as if, unless there is a miracle, that you can count on the Scarlets to secure maximum points against the Borders at Stradey this weekend which makes the game between the Saints and Agen in France all the more interesting. A win for the Saints would of course see them sitting pretty before the Welsh side visit the Gardens a week on Sunday but all is not lost if the French team prevail on Friday night. If the team can get a bonus and prevent Agen from securing one of their own it all points to a final weekend where in all theory the top three teams could be tied on 19 points. It could well be the bonus points in the Saints v Scarlets game that decides who progresses, if it is still all square it could come down to tries scored. Clear as mud isn’t it? Time to get those calculators, abacuses and slide rules out once more.
.HAPPY TRAVELLERS
Around four hundred intrepid souls made the journey north to Galashiels on Friday night including at least one group who literally drove straight there and back just for the game, returning to town at around 2:30 Saturday morning. That’s loyalty for you.
All in all a very good turn out by a bunch labeled ‘illiterate’ by the Scottish press last week (how ever did they read those maps?) and the same kind of numbers, if not more, are expected to make the journey south on ‘Le Trek’ to France this weekend. I know I am not alone in thinking these French excursions are the highlight of the club rugby year. This will be my sixth trip to France in the European Cup with the Saints and from our very first game in the competition, away at Grenoble in 1999 where a couple of hundred made the journey, up to last years quarter final in Toulouse when a couple of thousand traveled, a good time has been usually had by all.
In all truth once the lads had upped the tempo after all of three minutes, and just after Tam Smith had done his best Sugar Ray Leonard impression, the Borders were not even at the races as the Saints took the game to them over and over again with attacking play that the Scottish side had little or no answer to.
From what Brendan Ratcliffe was saying in the Chron pre-match the barbed comments of some of the Borders players really did do the trick in firing the lads up. I am not quite sure what the home team expected after bleating to the press that the Saints had not afforded them the correct amount of respect in the first game. I wonder if the likes of skipper Kevin Utterson are of a different opinion now that his side has been totally taken apart by a team that he amongst others had predicted they would beat. Someone mentioned this week that ‘sometimes you earn respect and sometimes you have to impose it’, never a truer word spoken after Friday night
Those at the game commented that it was a real team performance with everyone giving their all for the cause and each other and yet again pivotal to it all was Sharky Robinson who is certainly shaping up as the signing of the season in English rugby. Lets hope the rumblings from New Zealand that new All Blacks coach Graham Henry may want Sharky, Bruce Reihana and Andy Blowers as well as Wayne Smith is just paper talk. At the moment though with other players, notably double try scoring Ben Cohen, returning to top form the Saints are well set to see out a campaign in style where both league and European Cup sit finely balanced. Just keep handing out that respect lads!
LOOKING FORWARD
With Llanelli losing, but gaining a very valuable bonus point, in the monsoon at the Stade Armandie on Saturday our group looks like it is set for a grand finale. It looks as if, unless there is a miracle, that you can count on the Scarlets to secure maximum points against the Borders at Stradey this weekend which makes the game between the Saints and Agen in France all the more interesting. A win for the Saints would of course see them sitting pretty before the Welsh side visit the Gardens a week on Sunday but all is not lost if the French team prevail on Friday night. If the team can get a bonus and prevent Agen from securing one of their own it all points to a final weekend where in all theory the top three teams could be tied on 19 points. It could well be the bonus points in the Saints v Scarlets game that decides who progresses, if it is still all square it could come down to tries scored. Clear as mud isn’t it? Time to get those calculators, abacuses and slide rules out once more.
.HAPPY TRAVELLERS
Around four hundred intrepid souls made the journey north to Galashiels on Friday night including at least one group who literally drove straight there and back just for the game, returning to town at around 2:30 Saturday morning. That’s loyalty for you.
All in all a very good turn out by a bunch labeled ‘illiterate’ by the Scottish press last week (how ever did they read those maps?) and the same kind of numbers, if not more, are expected to make the journey south on ‘Le Trek’ to France this weekend. I know I am not alone in thinking these French excursions are the highlight of the club rugby year. This will be my sixth trip to France in the European Cup with the Saints and from our very first game in the competition, away at Grenoble in 1999 where a couple of hundred made the journey, up to last years quarter final in Toulouse when a couple of thousand traveled, a good time has been usually had by all.
One thing that always strikes you is the friendliness and hospitality of the local rugby supporters, a far cry from what is perceived to be a strained relationship between our two countries. Stories are many about people being welcomed with open arms in the various bars and eateries where sometimes it is even quite a struggle for you to put your hand in your pocket to return the hospitality as they ply you with the local brew.
Indeed our small group that have traveled together over the last few years have on separate occasions been ‘kidnapped’ by a group of Montferrand supporters and taken to a village out of town where we treated like honoured guests, played the Basque game of pelotta in a Biarritz bar at the invitation of the locals and spent most of the night singing with the locals in a Grenoble bar who then insisted we only paid a small pittance (£15) as our part of our bar bill on leaving at 3:30 in the morning. There is a story about skydiving, but I’ll leave that for another day. I somehow don’t think we greet visitors as well when they come to Northampton.
So as you read this I will be packing my bags and heading off to Gatwick in the early hours of Thursday morning for one more long weekend with like minded folk. If you too are going to Agen, I’ll see you all in the Bar de la Poste and the Colonial Café. If you are not going try and make the extra effort next year you will not regret it. But then hey, a good performance on Friday night might just see us back across the channel in a few short weeks!
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