March 31 2006

Northampton Saints - Thoughts from the Chron
By Chris Gleadell
March 31 2006

So just about the perfect weekend for Northampton. The five try, five point victory over the Falcons up at Newcastle on Sunday, and with other results going our way, saw the Saints shot from tenth to sixth in the Guinness Premiership table in a matter of a couple of hours.

The aim now will be to consolidate that position and with a bit of luck climb higher given the erratic form of Gloucester and London Irish immediately above us. It’s a tall order with just four games left and some matters are pretty much out of our hands but even a top four finish and a championship semi final spot is not outside the realms of possibility given the run in of the two aforementioned clubs. It may be counting chickens a little early but in the topsy turvey world of the GP you just never know. One thing is for sure, now this team has gelled and has built its confidence over the last few months, (still just one defeat in 2006) come next season we will be hitting the ground running and will be a match for anyone.

It’s a break away from the GP this week. Before we take on Bath at the Gardens in two weeks time we have the European Challenge Cup quarter final against Worcester at the same venue this Saturday. The EEC still has high importance. Even given Saints rise to sixth place the winner of this competition rates higher in the criteria for Heineken Cup qualification than ending fifth or sixth in the GP so progress is essential. Worcester have been having an erratic time of it themselves lately. Two weeks ago they hammered champions Wasps at Sixways yet last week lost by a similar margin at lowly Saracens. They are no mugs though and having already sneaked a win at the Gardens this season they will be looking to repeat the feat.
I think on current form though that we will have the edge on them and progress to the semi finals.

Just who our semi opponents will be should we overcome Worcester is open to question. We are due to play the winners of the Gloucester v Brive quarter final away. Given the form of Brive, and the history of French teams not travelling well in Europe I am sure like most of you I had this down as a trip to Kingsholm. However at time of writing it is not clear if Gloucester can fulfil the fixture on Saturday due to an injury crisis that leaves them short of registered players for Europe. Should this be the case, or should the fixture take place and Brive prevail, instead of a journey to darkest Gloucestershire on the weekend of 22nd/23rd of April it could be a trip to the Limousin region of France. Should this be the case I’ll have more details on Brive and how to get there (and hopefully back) for you next week.

After Saturdays game the Saints Supporters Club, with the help of matchday sponsors Mira, have arranged for some post match entertainment in the shape of band The Big City All-Stars in the Rodber Suite from 6:00 till 8:00. All welcome.

EUROPE OR WORLD?

And so to this weeks political rumblings in the game. Further to last weeks report that there are suggestions that both English and French clubs will be boycotting the Heineken Cup after the final in 2007 when the current agreement runs out, French league president Serge Blanco has added further fuel to the fire by suggesting a World Club championship is the way forward. Apart from his own countries clubs Blanco, the chairman of Biarritz, claims he already has the backing of the English and some Super14 sides including the Crusaders. Of course this may just be pie in the sky and may only be a bargaining tool for the French and English clubs to get their own way on a revamped European Cup but it certainly whets the appetite. If it did happen and Saints secured themselves a place in this new competition I am sure no one would turn down the chance to see the the team play a competitive game in the likes of Auckland, Sydney or Cape Town every other year. Now will the supporters club be running a bus?

FRIDAY NIGHT

What a good evening it was on Friday at the Gardens. Although I guess there were a few aching limbs from some of the Old Boys and Legends on Saturday morning the guys put on a great display that was enjoyable to watch. Well done.
Hats off to the Saints Academy and their Leicester counterparts too. In a hard fought game Northampton lads overcame our rivals from down the road. As this was a fund raiser for young player who will never play rugby again I thought the game was a fitting spectacle and in a week where the hierarchy at the RFU were questioning the quality of players at this level a sign that at least at both Saints and Tigers we are heading in the right direction as far as youth is concerned.
And a third and final well done for those that organised the evening and especially the SSC who organised a bucket shake that added a further £2795 to the appeal funds.

AND THANK YOU PETER WALTON

And a huge thank you to Peter Walton. I am sure the Newcastle forwards coach’s comments about certain Saints players living outside the laws of the game were well noted at the club and may well have been pinned on the dressing room wall pre-match. It did make me smile though when ex-Saint Pete said he would be having a word with the referee before the game pointing out our perceived n’er do wells and how he should handle them. Given that the referee was Tony Spreadbury, probably the most experienced of all English referees, I thought it was a bit like me trying to tell Michaelangelo how to paint his kitchen.
On a serious point though, do we really need this in the game. Other sports have only dragged themselves through the mud once the whinger and bleater becomes the norm.
I thought rugby’s answer to Jose Mourinho and Alex Ferguson had been sacked by Sarries a few weeks ago, we don’t really need anyone in the game to follow his lead

March 20 2006

Northampton Saints - Thoughts from the Chron
By Chris Gleadell
March 20 2006

A close run thing on Saturday at the Gardens but the lads held out to secure the four points that keeps us in a handy place in the league. The win sees us just three points off that elusive sixth place in the Guinness Premiership.

A close run thing on Saturday at the Gardens but the lads held out to secure the four points that keeps us in a handy place in the league. The win sees us just three points off that elusive sixth place in the Guinness Premiership and whilst Paul Grayson insists we must still be looking over our shoulder in the remaining five games bottom placed Leeds would have to secure 11 more of the 25 points available to topple the Saints, not impossible maybe but a very tall order for any club.

As for the game itself well I think Saints did just enough to deserve the victory, even looking round the Gloucester websites on Sunday there were no supporters claiming “we woz robbed”, (which after a one point loss it has to be said was a refreshing change, yes even from the two Saints sites). Overall the pack had them under the cosh for long periods, with both veteran Tom Smith and the new boy on the block, Pat Barnard outstanding and whilst we never quite fired in the backs this week Gloucester only really dominated the game in the closing moments when they came back within an inch of stealing it.

Again there was talk afterwards amongst supporters about refereeing decisions but to give Mr Pearson his due he treated both sides in exactly the same manner when their scrum began to creek though some might question how many penalties on the line result in a penalty try being awarded. To be fair though from a Saints perspective, in reflection it was a timely way to see the countdown clock run down in those last few minutes.

Having been shown on Sky’s Rugby Club as being one of the worst form teams over the last few months on international weekends we can now look forward to welcoming back Ben, Wally, Dylan and Monty for the trip to Newcastle in two weeks time and for the run in to season end.

SIX NATIONS

Saturday sees the culmination of the Six Nations with three back to back games which will decide if France or Ireland win this years championship. As an Englishman this years 6N has been nothing to shout about. After the false dawn in the dismantling of Wales there has been little of cheer and after the heavy defeat by France talk of axes being wielded and further changes to the structure of the game in this country are being suggested.

I wrote last week about the rumour of a ringfenced premiership and suggested at the time that maybe it was just that, a rumour, however a quote from Martyn Thomas, the chairman of the Rugby Football Union's management board on Monday seemed to confirm something is on the table. Thomas stated that “What should also be taken into account is that our players are playing too much. Added to that is the attritional style of play in the Premiership which makes it harder for Andy (Robinson) to realise his vision of a bolder game.
"We have to sort out the structure of our season. The clubs say that the fear of relegation inhibits them, but if there is to be a change in that the RFU would want a greater say in the management of elite players as a quid pro quo."

If you are a regular reader of this column you will know my views on this, the structure we have at present is the same structure that won a World Cup and ringfencing would in my book soften the competition somewhat with a whole raft of meaningless games but it looks like we may well see that closed shop in the near future. Of course it would be all too simple to point to the obvious and say sorry but Andy Robinsons not up to the job.
The question is if England continue to fail what excuse or solution will they come up with post RWC 07. I’d almost put money on the word ‘draft’ coming into rugby vocabulary before the decades out with the centrally contracted elite farmed out to clubs as England see fit.

Then would we see the likes of England’s first choice and the England U21 hooker playing at the same club? I guess not...

There are rumblings from Europe this week too with a threatened boycott by French and English clubs of the Heineken Cup over the inequality of qualifiers between the three main leagues, The Celtic League, The Guinness Premiership and Frances’s Top14. At present virtually every Celtic team qualifies while only half the GP and T14 have this season. Given how the French and English clubs dominate the competition I think they have a point.
There is of course one simple solution. The two best runners up spots for the quarter final places (although we have qualified ourselves through this route) could be axed and a further two groups of four created. To placate the CL you could use two of the places for Connact and Borders, who always seem to miss out, and award three extra places each to England and France. As for the runners up in each group, why not a knockout Heineken Shield as compensation? The Challenge Cup could continue as before with the inclusion of more teams from ‘smaller’ nations which would in turn expand the game.
But then again this whole exercise might just be about people flexing their collective muscles.

ON THE BOX

A new sports channel appeared on the airwaves on Monday. ESPN Classic, which those of you with Digital can find on channel 442, has a fair smattering of rugby on offer. There are games from the last few world cups in the first couple of weeks schedules featuring all the top nations whilst further ahead they will be featuring classic British Lions tours. 

March 3 2006

Northampton Saints - Thoughts from the Chron
By Chris Gleadell
March 3 2006

Well back to earth with a bump somewhat. After the eight try landslide victory over Saracens at the Gardens last week it was more of an uphill battle in the defeat at Reading on Sunday at the hands of London Irish.

It was said, even by some Exiles supporters, that the 30-3 scoreline was not really a true reflection of the game but Saints had one of those days, where despite almost a parity in possession things just did not fall right for them on the day. Sadly, just to rub salt into the wound just about everything Irish tried bore fruit.

Making no excuses, losing the back three of Ben, Bruce and Monty was bound to effect our strike rate though other aspects of the game I am sure will be focused on in training in the two weeks running up to the Gloucester game at the Gardens a week on Saturday when we will again be losing players to international calls.

With six games to go now in the Guinness Premiership the weekend’s results leave a lot of final placings finely in the balance. From a Saints point of view despite Sundays loss we still sit just three points off that all important sixth place in the GP table that could, (although it is not definite) secure a place in next years Heineken Cup. With a tightening up in the middle of the table after last weeks round, and with five teams sitting below that sixth position all within four points, the scramble could well go down to the wire. In Saints favour four of those six games are at home albeit with three of them against top five sides while the two away games at Newcastle and Bristol might be the kind of games we might get something out of and every point come that last game of the season may prove crucial.

Elsewhere at the top of the table Sale and Wasps now look almost certs for the championship semis while Gloucester, Tigers and this years dark horses Irish fight it out for the last two spots. At the basement Leeds look like they are timing their Houdini act to perfection once more while Saracens look to be in freefall and in real trouble. One thing is for sure, with all twelve GP teams fighting for various objectives there is a lot of mileage left in this season yet and plenty more twists and turns no doubt on the way. Come the 6th of May and our last game of the season again Sale at the Gardens things might look a lot different but here’s hoping we are aiming for something a bit higher than we were at lasts years finale at Worcester.

With interest for all teams in the table still strong it has come as somewhat of a surprise that the subject of ringfencing has been mentioned once more. The latest ‘leaked’ plan is for a 14 team Guinness Premiership with the existing participants joined by Harlequins and the Cornish Pirates in a 14 team closed shop competition.
Now of course this plan might just have been dreamed up on a rugby journalists typewriter but when you hear rumblings yet again from within the RFU and the England set up about how relegation is affecting the national side, and marry that to Premier Rugby Chief Executive Mark McCafferty waving a piece of paper this week saying we have peace in our time between the RFU and the PRL with not a sabre rattled in court, the conspiracy theorists amongst us start to suspect that someone somewhere is discussing this behind closed doors.

I hope not. Whilst I am sure, like most followers of the game, I would welcome a visit to the hotbed of rugby in Cornwall I’m not sure that’s a fair trade for potentially watching half a season of meaningless games where the only object would be securing a bigger slice of the prize money cake. With clubs investing in ground improvement and increased capacities, only this week Keith Barwell suggested the Gardens would be expanded to 17,000 places, some might find themselves playing in front of an awful lot of empty seats come season end.