Champions Cup Pool 3: Northampton Saints v Racing 92, 18 December

First topic message reminder :

                 
Northampton Saints v Racing 92
Friday 18 December 2015
KO: 19:45
Franklin's Gardens, Northampton

Live on BT Sport / beIN Sports

Referee Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch Judge 1 Gwyn Morris (Wales)
Touch Judge 2 Wayne Davies (Wales)
Fourth Official Gareth Copsey (England)
TMO Derek Bevan (Wales)
Assessor Patrick Thomas (France)
Citing Commissioner Douglas Hunter (Scotland)

A. Head to Head

3 Played 3
0 Wins 3
3 Losses 0
0 Draws 0
22 Points 85

B. Recent Form

12 December 2015
Racing 92 33 - 3 Saints

C. Teams

Northampton Saints

Foden; Tuala, G Pisi, Burrell, North; Myler, Dickson (c); A Waller, Haywood, Brookes, Lawes, Matfield, Gibson, Harrison, Dickinson.

Replacements: Williams, E Waller, Hill, Day, Paterson, Fotuali'i, Hanrahan, Elliott

Racing 92

Dulin; Rokocoko, Laulala, Chavancy, Imhoff; Carter, Phillips; Ben Arous, Szarzewski (c), Tameifuna, Van Der Merwe, Lauret, Nyanga, Masoe.

Replacements: Chat, Brugnaut, Gomes Sa, Carizza, Claassen, Machenaud, Goosen, Andreu.

Cyril wrote:Saints' forwards and general pressure play has been pretty good and forced mistakes from Racing.

Attacking-wise they've been very mediocre.

latter being a very generous comment

nathan wrote:

Cyril wrote:Saints' forwards and general pressure play has been pretty good and forced mistakes from Racing.

Attacking-wise they've been very mediocre.

latter being a very generous comment

I'm on the booze, so I'm feeling generous!

Jeez, that's a shocking 'pass' by Foden!

I'm on hot cineman whiskey, hmmmmmm

Awful call. Saints player clearly took Andreu's arm in the air. Nigel even said to TMO "I'm not coming to you officially derek, just a quick look"

Nigel HATES the French. It's becoming absurd.

Naughty going ons with the subs at the scrum

Chunky Norwich wrote:Awful call. Saints player clearly took Andreu's arm in the air. Nigel even said to TMO "I'm not coming to you officially derek, just a quick look"

Nigel HATES the French. It's becoming absurd.

is it possible for you to be positive about anything?

nathan wrote:

Chunky Norwich wrote:Awful call. Saints player clearly took Andreu's arm in the air. Nigel even said to TMO "I'm not coming to you officially derek, just a quick look"

Nigel HATES the French. It's becoming absurd.

is it possible for you to be positive about anything?

The reason I'm not, escapes many.

Chunky Norwich wrote:Awful call. Saints player clearly took Andreu's arm in the air. Nigel even said to TMO "I'm not coming to you officially derek, just a quick look"

Nigel HATES the French. It's becoming absurd.

I can't believe you e taken so long to jump in here with that comment, you're slipping CN

One day the Saints attack is going to click, God help the side they are playing when in does because they will get annihilated. So many chances that they didn't take against one of the best sides in Europe.

Fair result as neither side actually looked like scoring a try from open play.

Another game I couldn't see - at least this time I was working. Rat turds.
We should have pumped that team until they were dry as the Sahara.

This game highlighted my belief that Brookes should be England starting tighthead, outstanding performance against a quality player he is really becoming the cornerstone of that pack. There front 5 were good especially in the tight but nowhere near as dynamic going forward as Racing were when they attacked. Super fast offloads but would then make stupid mistakes which Carter alluded to after the game. A draw a pretty fair result.

My major concern is watching the attack play from Northampton again I don't understand this English trend of throwing miss passes when not needed. The constant drift sideways and nobody seems to hold a man in that backline. The basic passing is woeful, I have seen Burrell getting some praise but the ball never goes out from him, if he is the best 12 now that Slade is out then I do worry for England. The person running the best lines was Matfield who I thought had a great game but again highlights problems in the attack.

Had never seen him play before but that Harisson was superb and was one of the best breakdown performances I have seen from an English guy for some time (I assume he is English but admit I don't know), those of you that have seen him play before is this a regualr level of performance?? If it is I am surprised he hasn't been mentioned by the press/pundits.

Student-A1 wrote:This game highlighted my belief that Brookes should be England starting tighthead, outstanding performance against a quality player he is really becoming the cornerstone of that pack.

Brookes went off with a knee injury early on.

Cyril the ks but I know. But he dominated for the 20 mins he was on. That was what I was referring to,but also basing the statement on his performances this season.

Hmmm, I have doubts about this Student chap. Seems familiar.

Not sure what that means Cyril I said how I saw the game. Decent forward effort in tight but pretty substandard attack play. A fair comment I think. If it sounds familiar then I would argue that is an indication of performance. I always say how I see things and am pretty impartial way more than a fair few on here. But can't please everyone so you are welcome to your opinion. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

You too ghostie!

Obviously some inside joke but cool small victories.

With last year's results in mind as well, I think Racing are a bogey team for Saints.

Cyril wrote:You too ghostie!

Cyril - enough.

If you have concerns then raise them privately - we can't have you (and others) accusing any new person that comes on this site.

Do you not think we do our checks?

RDW_Scotland wrote:

Cyril wrote:You too ghostie!

Cyril - enough.

If you have concerns then raise them privately - we can't have you (and others) accusing any new person that comes on this site.

Do you not think we do our checks?

I'm sure you do. They don't seem to work though!

mikey_dragon wrote:With last year's results in mind as well, I think Racing are a bogey team for Saints.

I think they are just good.

They sure are, but you can argue that Northampton should have done better. I think Racing will make the final 4 of this competition btw.