Saints v Glaws

Teams are up, the wait is nearly over!!

Northampton: 15 Greig Tonks, 14 Paul Diggin, 13 Tom May, 12 James Downey, 11 Noah Cato, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Martin Roberts, 1 Paul Doran Jones, 2 Brett Sharman, 3 Brian Mujati, 4 Samu Manoa, 5 Mark Sorenson, 6 Calum Clark, 7 Ben Nutley, 8 Phil Dowson (capt)
Replacements: 16 Mike Haywood, 17 Alex Waller,18 Tom Mersey, 19 Christian Day, 20 James Craig, 21 Stuart Commins, 22 Ryan Lamb, 23 Scott Armstrong

Gloucester: 15 Olly Morgan, 14 Charlie Sharples,13 Jonny May, 12 Lesley Vainikolo, 11 James Simpson-Daniel, 10 Tim Taylor, 9 Dave Lewis, 1 Nick Wood, 2 Darren Dawidiuk, 3 Dario Chistolini, 4 Will James, 5 Alex Brown, 6 Peter Buxton (capt), 7 Andy Hazell, 8 Brett Deacon.
Replacements: 16 Nathan Charles, 17 Dan Murphy, 18 Rupert Harden, 19 Tom Savage, 20 Matt Cox, 21 Nick Runciman, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Tom Voyce


I'm really looking forward to seeing PDJ against Chistolini and I'm sure Lamb will receive a warm welcome as always. It's meant to be decent weather on Sunday, so hopefully we'll see a bit of flowing rugby. My heart says Glaws, but my head thinks it will be a close Saints win. Fortunately, I tend to ignore the voices in my head!

I think that Gloucester look slightly stronger on paper but the home advantage of Franklins Gardens might sway it in favour of Stains. Big Les at 12 will be an interesting one for Glaws but that is a backline with a whole load of pace and the attacking minded Burns who can offer a real injection of attacking intent off of the bench.

No Dickson may effect Stains as they are always more fluent with him organising the pack, Myler is extremely average and can be got to. Day on the bench and no Clarke? Suprising omissions from the starting line up, is Clarke injured?

Home advantage should be the difference in this match. You would expect Saints to win.

Two teams missing plenty of players. Saints frontrow looks good though.

Will be interesting to see what Noah Cato and Ryan Lamb can do for Saints.

Agree with Sam that Vainokolo at 12 is an interesting one.

Neither half back pairings look awe inspiring.

Les has played at IC 2 or 3 times before. With EFS away with Samoa and Molenaar injured for at least another 6 weeks, I'm sure we will see alot more of him at 12. He will add the bulk that the back line needs. If we can get the ball wide we have some serious pace. Everyone knows how quick Sharples is, well May is even quicker! Sinbad and Morgan are no sloaches either - but the tough test is going to be be getting the quality ball from the forward platform.

beshocked I think you'll be surprised by our half backs. Dave Lewis is a live wire scrum half who's progress was halted by not having a pre-season for the last 2 years due to injury. He looks back to his best when he displaced both Lawson and Cooper. Taylor is very underrated. People may remember him from his outstanding display against Wasps early last year. Both have points to prove and will cause problems, especially Lewis.

I certainly wouldn't underestimate that Glaws team, apart from being short of a natural boshing centre and captain Narraway that team is pretty close to being full strength and should be a handful for anybody. Will be interesting to see if Saints fall apart when missing their internationals like they did last season.

Who the @*!# is Tim Taylor??? Why oh why would you not play Burns at 10....

bathmad, Taylor looked better in pre-season and it was always going to be a straight competition between them as to who started. I'm sure come the end of the season Burns will have started more, but Taylor is still a decent player. He's played for Leicester, Sarries, Crusaders and Nottingham (which is where we got him from) - a very under rated player

Come on Glaws! Hoping our classy backs can damage Saints today!

Quins fan here. Dowson has started brilliantly.

Good game so far, Lewis Moody's little brother is playing well! Put in some massive hits and is effective at the break down, it's a good debut performance. Good to see that the Saint's academy is finally grinding into gear, with him and Lawes.

Maybe if we (Glos) stopped kicking it we might get somewhere.

Will James, what a meathead!

Ahhhh, James you plum that was in the bag!

really enjoyed that game, both sides look like they will be competing at the top of the table.

I thought myler was the best player on the pitch today

Agree with that, Myler was class

HKC, have you finished banging your head against the wall yet?

I think we saw the problem with Ryan Lamb. The terrible forced pass which led directly to Glaws try near the end. Very, very foolish to play fast and loose with the ball when it is time to close out the match.

But the final score was probably a fair representation of how close the teams were.

And don't you think it is fun to watch some younger players getting their chance in the senior sides with the Internationals away on their NZ holiday.

EnglishReign wrote:HKC, have you finished banging your head against the wall yet?

I have a very sore head!!

So close, yet so far. In the cold light of day a losing bonus point at Saints is a good result, but we could & should have won that. There were lots of positives today and if we play like that for the rest of the season we'll have a good year.

Will James is a dunce though. Not only did he give away that penalty, he'll now be cited and banned for a few weeks!

What must be most frustrating for the Cherry and Whites is that it was two experienced players that hampered them most, Buxton got himself sin binned when under no real pressure and Will James gave away a crucial penalty and will now be cited when if he had kept his cool might well have won the penalty himself once the Saints player had finished flopping over the ball.

Spot on Sam! But there were other mistakes too where we could have scored i.e. missed overlaps, not fly hacking, etc.

As long as this indiscipline is dealt with we will be better for it in the long run

Agree about Buxton and James. I thought Buxton had been playing well before getting binned. But what on earth was James thinking? It was not a chippy match and there seemed no provocation. Did I miss something?

Otherwise it seemed like a typical openning day match. I thought Vanikolo at 12 was a good idea. Thought the hair thing was a bit over the top.

That was rather tame for Les, we've seen far worse! With EFS at the RWC and Molenaar injured for at least another 6 weeks, we'll be seeing a lot more of him at 12. He'd also struggle to start on the wing ahead of Sharples & Sinbad, so it's a good move all round

I'll take that bet HKC, Glaws looked awful at the weekend

You're on HERSH.

If we play like that & have home advantage we'll thump you!

But HKC that was Saints 3rds!

Vesty boot is going to make mince meat out of your boys.

Better start than last season when we lost to Exeter. I actually think we started better than I expected, given the injuries/RWC and tricky away fixture. Let's take it out on Worcester

Doctor there seemed to be more than a couple of Saints players trying their luck and slowing the ball down by either flopping over the ball then quickly rolling away or slowly moving away after the tackle (with much arm waving). The Saints player (Hayward?) who took the punch was blatantly coming in from the side and then trying to slow the ball down, looked like James lost his temper when really with Brown off the field he needed to lead by example.

I thought Big Les did well at 12, not the most cultured performance but he made his tackles and his gain line carries and offered himself to his fly half as a good support option. That's what most 10s want from a boshing 12.

But there were other mistakes too where we could have scored i.e. missed overlaps, not fly hacking, etc.

It was a strange game in that for once the Gloucester wings didn't seem to be backing themselves with ball in hand, Sharples chip over Cato was very disappointing I really thought he had a decent chance if he'd stepped back to the outside. Young players making mistakes and poor chips through etc is one thing, you want your experienced forwards to maintain a platform and their composure.

HERSH wrote:But HKC that was Saints 3rds!

Vesty boot is going to make mince meat out of your boys.

You must be desperate if you think Vesty is your saviour

Sam,
I thought there was a bit of being lazy and slowing the ball on both sides towards the end of the match, though a bit more with Saints. But still nothing which could lead to a punch.

I do agree about the Glaws wings. They were both better than their opposite numbers and should have tried to take them on directly. But, as we said, first match. I'm sure play will tighten up soon.

Good points re the wings. I did feel Sharples could have done more and the chip ahead would have been better placed behind Cato.

Purely as conjecture, both of the wings have missed a decent chunk of our pre-season due to England, so could this have had an effect?

HongKongCherry wrote:Purely as conjecture, both of the wings have missed a decent chunk of our pre-season due to England, so could this have had an effect?

I think it could. Slotting back into any team does take some time. And I would think England would focus less on taking a defender one-on-one since the caliber of opposing defenders is higher at RWC than at club level.

I thought there was a bit of being lazy and slowing the ball on both sides towards the end of the match, though a bit more with Saints. But still nothing which could lead to a punch.

Both sides were trying it on a bit at the breakdown. The incident where the punch came in was a little blatant but it was a massive over reaction by Will James who has landed himself in trouble. I think it was a moment born of frustration as when they had clean ball Glaws looked lethal but they really struggled to give the 10 the quick ball to unleash the backs.