Northampton Saints - Thoughts from the Chron
Well if they say you make your own luck I think we used up our quota of ingredients in the last minute of the game against Quins on Saturday. Mark Tuckers last gasp try with Shane’s match winning conversion took the roof off the stands and edged the Saints a little bit nearer safety but with Leeds surprisingly beating the Tigers it still isn’t over till the fat lady sings.
We can now however put thoughts of survival on the back burner for a week or so as thoughts once again turn to Europe and the Heineken Cup. On Friday Saints take on Toulouse in the quarter finals of the premier northern hemisphere competition and despite just about everyone writing off our chances it still fifteen against fifteen and as we know from previous experience just about anything can happen in this competition at this stage.
It is of course still a tall order and Toulouse warmed up for the game with a 71-3 Top 16 win over Brive at the weekend and understandably also given home advantage go into the game as favourites but in these high pressure games you just never can discount the Saints chances as out of hand. On the day you just never know, so its crossing everything, finding that lucky rabbits foot (that wasn’t so lucky for the rabbit), avoiding ladders, touching wood and its off to France we go.
Again there are a large contingent of Saints supporters making the journey to La Ville Rose with the club having sold well over a 1000 tickets while many more have made independent arrangements to get there this weekend.
As always the games in France are a great social occasion for many apart from the rugby and I am sure we will be seeing gold black and green around the city all weekend. If you are travelling out and want a change scenery and some fresh air on the Saturday, English rugby league club Wath Brow Hornets, giant killers in this years Challenge Cup take on the Toulouse Olympique RL side in the competition kick off 6.00pm local time at the Stade des Minimes at 107, Avenue Frédéric Estèbe. Why not go along and give them a cheer.
If you want to pick up another union game while you are out there, a train ride on the Saturday to either Montauban or Albi will enable you to pick up a French second division game while more locally our friends in Toulouse tell us the Blagnac v Oloron game on the Sunday at the Stade Ernest Argeles - Chemin des Ramiers out near the airport is the pick of the action. See you there!
POOR OLD TOULOUSE
One Toulouse supporter made me smile last week when in all seriousness he was bemoaning the fact that Benoit Baby got a four week ban for headbutting in the Six Nations and misses Fridays game. The Stade fan was aggreived that their backline might now be Poitrenaud, Clerc, Jauzion, Fritz, Heymans
Michalak, Elissalde. Some international sides would kill for a back seven like that. Poor old Toulouse eh?
STICKY BEAKS
I am sure most of you will have seen or heard about Keith Barwell’s programme notes on Saturday. Quite rightly our chairman is up in arms about comments made by RFU press officer Simon Mills in an email before Budges ‘Landergate’ hearing to HQ stating that, “in my opinion the potential is there for a referee to be assaulted at Franklins Gardens”. Now of course Keith, ever the diplomat, has asked Mills for a right to reply but just exactly what has Mills based this judgement on?
Week after week we are commended by visiting supporters on our sporting attitude and fairness, here are just a couple of online comments from Quins supporters this week who, given the nature of our win, might feel disgruntled towards us, far from it as you can see.
“I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Franklins Gardens, the Saints supporters are amongst the best crowd I have seen this season. The passion they showed when they were behind and the respect showed when Arwel (Quins flyhalf) kicked was second to none.”, from another “As for the Saints. It is always a pleasure to visit a true home of Rugby Football. Franklin Gardens, I applaud you.” And finally “It was my first visit to Franklins Gardens and, result apart, I enjoyed the stadium, the facilities and the friendly Saints fans around me who commiserated at the final whistle”
Now does this really sound like the rabid bunch that Mills would have you believe we are or does he have some other agenda?
Now whilst yes the ref might get stick if a decision goes against a team this happens at every club, the chap claims to go to 50 games a season, I take it Gloucester, Leicester or Bath are never visited then? And as for the ‘booing’ at the start when the referee is announced, as KB said, this is a long running joke and almost a seal of approval in some respects and I have yet to see a ref not take it in the manner it is meant, even Steve Lander himself just shrugged his shoulders and smiled when this happened so what exactly is Mills problem?
But finally if the Gardens were such a un-hospitable place do you think Zurich Premiership referee Ashley Rowden would spend his days off on the Gordon Terrace watching our games, I very much doubt it!
As for Mr Mills, there’s 12,000 people queuing up to sue him for defamation of character. We deserve an apology.
A WORD OF SUPPORT FOR WALLY
The calls for Steve Thompson’s culling from the England team because of his perceived bad throwing became quite ridiculous by the end of the Six Nations.
As Wally sad himself, if the throw goes wayward they say it was down to him but if it hit its target it was a good catch. However at tournament end the stats for the competition told a totally different story. Far from the cows backside and banjo thrower Messrs Butler and Guscott would have you believe England were actually only one percent off being the top lineout side out of the six teams on their own throw. Now as Steve was hooking for the majority of time do these stats not shoot these doubters down in flames once and for all?
Ireland 89%
France 89%
England 88%
Scotland 84%
Italy 83%
Wales 82%
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