October 27 2004

Northampton Saints - Thoughts from the Chron
By Chris Gleadell
October 27 2004

Well as the old saying goes a win is a win is a win! It might not have been pretty but Saints are back on the winning trail after edging Glasgow in the monsoon conditions at Hughenden on Sunday.

Given the weather conditions which saw more brooms on the pitch pre match than you would see at a Harry Potter convention and the ball being a the proverbial bar of soap the game was never going to be spectacle of the highest order but the lads stuck at it to grind out the much needed win. A Ben Cohen try after two minutes settled things in the end but the Saints line was never really under threat and the defence held firm and despite what certain some sections of the media would have you believe – Planet Rugby described us as ‘shaky’ - they deserved the win having gone into the game in some peoples eyes as underdogs.

One heartening aspect was that towards the end the boys even started to play like that lost belief had returned as they kept the Glasgow side pinned back in their half to run down the clock, a bit of that early season swagger had come back. It may not be the single game that turns the season round but it sure is a step in the right direction.

There is still obviously a bit of work to do though as we had problems at the set piece that I’m sure will be the focal point for our forwards this week and again we gave away more than our fair share of penalties but we go into Saturdays game at the Gardens in better shape than we were this time last week for that we should be well and truly thankful.

LOOKING FORWARD

So with Saints heading Pool Three in the Heineken Cup it is surely just a case of staying there. If only life were that simple.

On Saturday we can keep that ball European ball rolling with a victory over Llanelli. The Scarlets went down narrowly to Toulouse on Friday night but with the monsoon conditions again being a great leveller it is not easy to read anything formwise from this game. The Welsh side are however not having it all their own way in the Celtic League this season. Champions a matter of months back, they only won two games out of the first block of matches this time round (sounds familiar does it not?).

In the big game stakes we are one apiece in the Heineken Cup. With Scarlets winning the corresponding game last year they sneaked past us in the group and went on to the quarter finals with a victory on a wet dismal Sunday at the Gardens. This win, a week after the heroics of Agen, avenged that semi-final defeat of 2000 at the Madstad, Reading the year we went on to win the whole caboodle and I’m taking the lads to improve on last weeks performance, take another step back on that road to recovery and perform that feat again.

The long term weather forecast does not look good and showers are forecast for the day but I’ll take a 3-0 win in six inches of mud if it takes us into the double header against Toulouse in December still in with a large shout.

Again we supporters can play our part. The last time Llanelli visited we started well but just like the team faded as the afternoon went on and I’m sure anyone listening to the game at home would have thought the second half came from Stradey Park rather than the East Midlands as ‘Sospan Fach’ rang out around the stands. We cannot allow that to happen again so sing your hearts out from start to finish, you get an extra hour in bed this weekend to recover. Talking of hours, remember Saturday is an early, one o’clock, kick off. Turn up at your usual time and we will all be gone, hopefully celebrating somewhere. See you then!

MINES A TREBLE

Hats off to the club for finally acting over drinks prices in the bars. Despite early protestations that everything was tickety boo when compared with other local drinking dens in the area Alan Robson has held his hands up and declared they got it wrong. The introduction of ‘happy hours’ and the permanent reduction in the price of a pint of bitter will go some way to quelling the complaints but I guess the proof of pudding will be in the eating, or should that be drinking.

Of course the main Rodbar is a great facility but I always feel that the club is missing out by not having more seating facilities in there. Yes you can pack them in post match, but it seems most people just have a quick drink then wander off to drink elsewhere. Having nowhere to park your backside, especially those terrace dwellers that have spent the last few hours on their feet, or even having nowhere to just put your pint down for a minute does not altogether add to the welcoming aspect of the bar. You can see by the number of people sitting on the steps in there that there is a demand but who wants to sit on a cold step all night? A few more tables and chairs might encourage more to stay and of course spend more money over that bar especially if the Supporters Club have stumped up their hard earned cash to put entertainment on. You only have to look at the cash going into the tills of places like the Bus Club, The Foundary and the Thomas A Becket on match days to see what the club might be missing out on. Keep that party going in the Rodber and you might just start to get a few converts back from these other hostelries and with them their money. Make a night of it you might get them back for good.

WOULDN'T PASS THE DOORSTEP CHALLENGE

I have said before in the column that I’m quite a fan of the new home shirt design, (and would be even more so if they bought out a supporters version in ‘proper’ material), but like most people the new away shirt leaves me totally cold. I’m still not quite sure what colour it is supposed to be but on the television on Sunday it looked all the world like someone had put a pair of black socks in with them on a hot wash. They looked grey and washed out and not a good advert for the club. I am sure I was not the only who cheered when the team came out in the Gold, Black n Green in the second half. Why we cannot have a Gold version of the home shirt is not for me to guess but I know it would be a better seller.

October 21 2004

Northampton Saints - Thoughts from the Chron
By Chris Gleadell
October 21 2004

Well its seven weeks into the season and as yet I’ve managed to avoid mentioning the emotional rollercoaster of being a Saints supporter. You just knew it wouldn’t last didn’t you?

So far this term its not so much that rollercoaster more a perennial ride on a ghost train. Just when you think there’s surely daylight coming through the next set of doors you’re twisted round and hurled back into the darkness.

On Saturday yet again the lads fronted up went at it full throttle, the raft of injuries were a testament to that, but yet again we seem bereft of a cohesive game plan and Sale took home the spoils. We batter away for 80 minutes, or almost 100 minutes on referee Chris Whites watch, but yet again we come away with nothing. Saints just don’t lose five games in a row, nor lose three games at home so early in the season, nor do we not score tries. Something is clearly wrong at the club and something that surely cannot be allowed to continue.

We are told this isn’t a crisis and we are on the verge of getting it right but for the life of me I, like many Saints supporters, don’t yet see any light at the end of the tunnel. To hear someone just put their hands up and admit, “sorry, yes we’ve got things wrong, we’re trying something else” would allay some fears but to hear each week we are getting things right when we are clearly not doesn’t give much hope at the moment going into Europe. Now however is the ideal time to start putting things right. The Heineken Cup gives us a fresh start and one that should be grabbed with both hands.

The last five games have to be written off, they are history, the points and the early season advantage have now gone, there’s nothing that can be done about that now. What there is now is a chance to go up to Scotland with a clean slate, a fresh mind and the nightmare of the last month consigned to the bin and a new beginning with a return to form at Glasgow. More importantly collective confidence and belief as a team in their own and in their team mates abilities needs to be restored. Team morale is low and what better boost than a victory away in the Heineken Cup.

The Saints have a fine record north of the border in European competition and given the firepower we now have we should win should the boys play to their strengths. Now is the time to get that monkey off their back and look forward to the rest of the season starting Sunday afternoon at Hughenden.

However I suspect to do this and put the demons of the last few weeks to bed there has to be an acknowledgement that some things have not gone to plan rather than us just not having luck on our side. It’s time for people to stand up and be counted. Touch wood, fingers crossed, let’s hope the real season starts here.

SAINTS WITH HEART

One good aspect of Saturday was the success of the comeonyousaints.com organised Saints with Heart III walk for the British Heart Foundation. I think just about everybody who took part in the walk from Wolverton and Stoke Bruerne to the Gardens enjoyed the day, although their feet and joints might not have agreed with that sentiment on Sunday morning. I know as I sit here typing this my ankles are still mumbling ‘never again, never again’.

The fund raising for this year has not finished though. A week on Friday (29th Oct) we will be having a social night at Paul Shaddick’s pub ‘The End’ at Southbridge. Some of you will know Paul from his work at the club and he has kindly agreed to host an evening where we will draw the winners of the various signed shirts you may have seen on us wear on Saturday (yes I was that fool in the London Irish bright green wig) and hold a separate raffle for other prizes including a signed Saints shirt and a pair of England tickets. Most of all though it’s a chance to have a chinwag with fellow Saints and rugby followers while making an extra couple of quid for a worthwhile cause and if a success something we might hold again in the future. Proceeedings start 8:00pm(ish).

THE ART OF SEEING RED

Much as its seen in certain quarters as stepping over the line to criticise referees and their assistants, again we seem to have suffered over a handing out of a yellow card when red should be mandatory. On Saturday Robbie Kempson was felled off the ball, with a punch cleanly seen by half the Tetleys Stand and the touchjudge. The result after consultation between TJ and referee Chris White, was yes a yellow card. Robbie is out of the game for the duration, and potentially longer, the perpetrator got 10 minutes. Two seasons ago we saw this happen to Matt Dawson, Daws a month on the sidelines, Bill Davison who laid him out, ten minutes.

Now clearly this is an imbalance that needs putting right. An act of foul play, and it clearly is considered one if a card is issued, which results in a fellow player losing game time should be treated as an automatic ban lasting as long, if not longer, than the injured player. This might make the serial offenders of the game think twice about such assaults that are plainly premeditated and used to take opposition players out the game and/or intimidate. Yes it’s a rough tough game but as things are with these type of attack it is almost a licence to kill, lets just hope it doesn’t come to that before the powers that be act.

HEINEKEN CUP

Yes it’s the start of the big one again, the biggest club competition in the world, the Heineken Cup and yet again Sky have come up trumps for you armchair supporters.

There are seven games to be watched on the box this weekend including Saints game in Glasgow for those not travelling to Scotland, so sit back and enjoy the following.

Friday Llanelli v Toulouse 19.30, Perpignan v Edinburgh 21.30

Saturday Newport Gwent Dragons v Newcastle 13.00, Stade Francais v Gloucester 15.00, Munster v Harlequins 17.15

Sunday Glasgow v Saints 13.00, Wasps v Biarritz 15.00

Add to this both the NPC and Currie Cup finals live from New Zealand and South Africa respectively and you have a bumper weekend of rugger TV. Just don’t mention this column in any divorce proceedings.

October 13 2004

Northampton Saints - Thoughts from the Chron
By Chris Gleadell
October 13 2004

This is getting to be a bad habit. Another game, another loss, another game we should have won at a canter. It’s not a good time to be a Saints supporter, the feeling is low at the moment. Despondent is not quite the word for it, maybe frustration is nearer the mark.

Of course we’ll all return week in week out to support the team, that’s our part of the deal, but the current run of form is trying the patience of quite a few Saints. You would have to go back a few years to find a sequence of four consecutive losses so assurances that we are gradually getting it right when its plain that yet again we have not learnt from our mistakes, makes that frustration all the more acute. We don’t want to keep hearing how rough those seas are we just want you to bring home that ship.

I am sure in time we can turn it around but time is not something of a commodity at the moment. The Heineken Cup starts in two weeks and by tea time on Saturday virtually a third of the Zurich Premiership will be over. Problems have to be solved and quick but putting your finger on the exact problem doesn’t seem an easy task in itself.

Discussions on the various Saints websites this week point to all manner of things being at the root of our inability to score, most of them contradictory and in some cases downright daft. I don’t profess to be any expert on the game but I just can’t believe this is the same club that ran in 60 tries in the ZP last season and given the possession we are getting we should be running them in by the hatful, but for whatever reason it’s just not working.

You cannot fault the lads for effort, we again, dominated the game with possession and territory but as was said on the television commentary it was all perspiration not inspiration. Where was the incisive running? Where was the mix and match game, the variation. At times we looked like we wanted to walk the ball in rather than take the odd chance at something different that might have unlocked the Sarries defence. There almost seems to be a fear of failure so we keep ball in hand and continue to batter away and run up blind allies. We’re starting to look a pale shadow of the team that ripped Quins apart a month ago but what better way to put things right than to down high flying Sale at the Gardens on Saturday. The teams well capable, we know that, what they need is belief in themselves and our continuing support.

LOOKING FORWARD

So it’s the visit of the Sharks to FG on Saturday. People may talk of the Cueto’s Hanleys and Robinsons but the player I’m most looking forward to seeing is Frenchman Sebastien Chabal. In the nicest possible way, the guy is an absolute monster. He’s like Martin Johnson without the finesse, Dean Ryan without the charm and Garath Archer without the toys and pram all, rolled into one. We’ve got the pack to control him but please lads no one on one heroics, he’ll rip off your head and spit down the hole. I watched him on the television for Bourgoin playing against Stade Francais last season. He was a one man wrecking crew till a quite appropriate card (yes a French ref issued a card) saw him leave the field, then quite simply his team fell apart and Stade walked away with it.

From what I’ve seen and heard he is being that same type of talisman for Sale too this year and is in such fine form he has been recalled to the French squad. He’s at the centre of everything usually right on the limit and it should make interesting viewing should we dominate the set piece as we have in the last couple of weeks.

And it being midweek I am gradually becoming that glass half full optimist again so I’m taking the boys to finally pull things round and get something out of this game, a fifth defeat would be unthinkable, a win would go down quite nicely thank you very much before we break for Europe. Have faith.

SAINTS WITH HEART III

This Saturday also sees the third annual ‘Saints with Heart’ sponsored walk for the British Heart Foundation.

A band of walkers will be setting off at first light along river and canal from Wolverton heading to the Gardens meeting up with a second group of walkers, including Keith and Maggie Barwell and Bernie along the way at Stoke Bruerne.
For the young, and a few not so young, there’s a barge trip through Blisworth tunnel in the middle of the walk while the more hardy of us march, as Saints do, over the hill. We should all be arriving at the Gardens around two. Give us a wave.

There will be a bucket shake at the ground in aid of the fund so please fill your pockets with all that unwanted lose change before you head to the ground and if you’re feeling more generous, stop one of us in the walk shirts and we will happily take your hard earned cash off you on a sponsor form so we can claim the tax back too.

Having raised over £13,000 in the first two walks we are looking to make this a record year and every little bit helps. Dig deep.

DEDICATOR FOLLOWER OF FASHION?

That Stuart Barnes a cheeky so and so. I’m sure a few of you heard his ‘witticism’ on Sunday about Saints supporters, “they may be one of the most numerous and vociferous but certainly not the most sartorial bunch of fans”.
Who is he comparing us too? Leicester, Gloucester or Inter Milan and Paris St Germain? I mean he’s hardly the dedicated follower of fashion himself is he? Always struck me as the kind of chap who penny pinched on his clothing allowance, going for the large boys rather than the adult sizes. And that goatee beard he tried? Well if that was his idea of sartorial elegance then the Three Musketeers look must be coming back.
Lets face it to criticise other peoples dress sense you have to be more Savile Row than Jimmy Saville. Stick to the rugby Stuart, stick to the rugby.

October 8 2004

Northampton Saints - Thoughts from the Chron
By Chris Gleadell
October 8 2004

Well we still cannot get it right on the pitch can we? Five games in and yet another home defeat in a game, given the dominance and possession we had, we should have won by a country mile.

Make no mistake Wasps should have been well and truly swatted. The forwards outshone their opposite numbers in the set piece but when it came down to it we just didn’t have the nous to break Wasps down or it seems to vary our game to overcome or unlock their defence.

Despite running in ten tries in our first two outings we seem to have lost the touch and in all honesty on Saturday it did not look like we were going to cross the whitewash in a month of Sundays. So again its back to the drawing board as it’s clear the lessons of the Gloucester defeat have not been learned. These guys make or break our week and yet again there’s a lot of broken weeks out there. A most frustrating time to be a Saints fan.

LOOKING AHEAD

So on Sunday afternoon it’s off down to the Vicarage, (Road that is) as Saints again try and get their season back on the straight and narrow at Saracens. Yet again we have seen wholesale changes in Sarries personnel over the summer and reading between the lines and the noises coming from Nigel Wray about the expense of club rugby I get the feeling this is there last big throw of the dice before he walks. Despite an early win over Wasps they certainly do not appear to have mastered that double six yet.

If Saints can knit the forward dominance they showed on Saturday with some of their early attacking form they are in with a shout of coming away with the spoils but some mental demons will have to be overcome first after suffering a rare three defeats in a row. After losing their last home games to Leeds and being the first team to lose to Irish at Reading for ten months the Fezheads will be down in the doldrums too and also looking to relight their season. However I’m taking the lads to do some hard thinking this week in their few days off, return refreshed and show us doubting Thomas’s what they can really do and to restore some of that lost faith. Then its just a matter of doing it week in week out. This seasons already shaping into one long sprint!

The Saints Supporters Club will be running coaches to Saracens. They will be leaving Franklin’s Gardens VIP car park at 11.30am. Adults: £11 Children/Students/OAPs: £7
The game is also live on Sky Sports 2.

EMPTY VESSELS AND ALL THAT

That Warren Gatland's got some front hasn't he? The man from Waikato, New Zealand has the cheek to say the Saints are losing their English
identity because some of our squad hail from overseas. This wouldn't be the same Warren Gatland that was telling tales out of school undermining Englands efforts down under on the recent summer tour would it?

No of course not, different chap completely. It just couldn’t be
Warren because it seems the Wasps coach is now trying to promote himself as a
saviour to England's cause.

After Saturdays defeat he pointed out that we have players from here,
there and everywhere while trying to convince us that Wasps have only
Englands best interests at heart.

Well if this we're true I'd say well done Warren old mate, you worry about England,
we'll worry about Saints, but dig a little deeper and you will find Mr
Gatland's arguments don't hold much water.

Amongst others he mentions that we have two Australians in our side,
indeed we do Mark Stcherbina and Shane Drahm. However Shane is now England
qualified and if we are being picky about birthplace where exactly do
Dowd, Leota, Waters, Howley, Abbott, Van Gisbergen and O'Connor
hail from? Not an English born man amongst them whether they may or may
not qualify for England.

Then there is the question of quality. Again Gatland hinted that we are
importing sub standard product into this country to bolster our squad.
Correct me if I'm wrong but haven't the likes of Blowers, Krige,
Robinson, Reihana, Boome and Kempson all played at the very pinnacle of
the game for their respective countries? Could we say the same of Van
Gisbergen for New Zealand, Waters and Abbott for South Africa or
O'Connor for Ireland, all imported players to Wasps? Yes these guys now
have great talent and potential but surely a step down from what you
would call top notch when they first signed on the dotted line for
Wasps.

And as for true quality perhaps Warren should be reminded that at the
moment on the Wasps unofficial supporters website there's a discussion
about a Wasps player who a fair few supporters grade as the worst ever
to wear there clubs shirt. I cannot comment, I haven't seen him play but
one thing I do know is that he joined Wasps a matter of months ago from
Waikato, New Zealand. Is that not the pot not calling the kettle black
if these supporters are anywhere near the mark?

But finally if Mr Gatland really wants to help England perhaps he
should talk his skipper out of early international retirement while he's still in his
prime and maybe stop his scrumhalf from making media appearances on England
training days. Maybe too he shouldn’t let a player of the likes of Paul Volley,
the outstanding flanker in the ZP last year, be driven abroad because
his place was taken by an Irishman. If he did, some might start to
listen until then I'll just note it down as one of Gatlands many
soundbites which may return to haunt him come Six Nations and
international weekends. I'll look forward to it.

AND FINALLY……..

At last, some good news. The Wanderers (Saints 2nd XV) are again blazing all before them in the Zurich A League and really set their stall out on Monday night winning at Welford Road. They beat Tigers second string 20-14 in front of an amazing crowd of 9,209 a record for the A League. Well done lads, lets hope in some way it inspires the 1st XV to go about their business on Sunday.