Saints game thread

[RBB]

Defence: Slow line speed.
Defence: Mainly one man on to tackle, so the offload is always on.
Attack and Defence: Lineout very poor.
Attack: Rolling maul not good.
Defence: No support for the tackled player.
Defence: Box kick is appallingly long.
Attack: No kick chase.

Other than that, everything is tickety boo.

Umaga and Watson the best of what we have, I think.

I think people are being a bit over critical here. Given that was a strong Saints team that was cynical and allowed to be from the first minute from a ref that was out of his depth, i think it was a decent performance. Remove the intercept and the Biyi try that always was, we were well ahead away at the gardens.

Special mention to the 9 and 10.

I for one am pleased, much improved.

+1   
I thought the ref was allowing himself to be persuaded far too often by the Saints 9, a weak performance in front of a vocal home crowd, the game deserved better but a win is a win.

[Rossm]

I think the 9 deserves a lot of credit today. He has stepped into a field of play with a number of Internationals on both sides and played well.

I quite agree young (20) Sam Wolstenholme looked sharp and wasn't overwhelmed at all.

[Chilham]

What a good and gutsy win.

Things to work on, for sure, but really pleased for the squad.

[Brandnewtorugby]

Well training will be easier and they will recover much quicker having won! Well done to the team.

[Raggs]

Poor box kicks from 9, don't think any were the right length/height, however the rest of his game was nice. Thought Umaga was excellent, even with his knock on. Thought Shields went very well. Vailanu looks like he can be handy, but needs to stick to the script.

[mike909]

Thought Umaga was excellent. Good shift from the pack but Vailanu needs to stick to the systems.  Scrum half good but box kicking needs work.

Agree with all of that, I thought Jacob was good and showed confidence. Has all the right tools to be really good. Good game for our 13 too and Brad looked the part and enjoyed himself, which is great.

Reffing was like bingo, you never knew what was coming up next....shame as proper breakdown reffing would have been to the game's advantage, and probably to our's too

[Raggs]

Thought Umaga was excellent. Good shift from the pack but Vailanu needs to stick to the systems.  Scrum half good but box kicking needs work.

Agree with all of that, I thought Jacob was good and showed confidence. Has all the right tools to be really good. Good game for our 13 too and Brad looked the part and enjoyed himself, which is great.

Reffing was like bingo, you never knew what was coming up next....shame as proper breakdown reffing would have been to the game's advantage, and probably to our's too

Sam Spink! Yes, he looked very handy too.

Reffing was pretty poor, but I felt that it probably evened out in the end, and he at least got the yellow cards all right.

[mike909]

It was an odd reffing performance as he got the cards spot on, but failed to enforce the ruck laws, especially no hands if not first and with immediate hands on and on feet.

It a bug bear of mine, as watching a lot of Mitre 10 where its enforced strictly, it emphasises fast play...the Wasps way and it was a mess. It evened out, but a game where Law 15 was enforced such that the ball was quick would suit us lots.

Major prob for me with Prem (England) refs. Shame as proper Law 15 means less risk to players, as "clearing out" isn't a thing as either the team defending is first and on the ball and on their feet, or its a ruck and it binding and pushing. And as others have said, give me a shoeing old style any day over being "cleared out" - for the sake of my joints!

[Hymenoptera]

Forgot to mention Spink, the fact that he kept the latest great thing quiet in hutchinson showed he put in a decent shift. Nice little cameo from James and Ogre too, the latter having a hell of a carry.

As mentioned by others, Umaga was much improved on last week and the fact he had the confidence to take the tap penalty for the try tells me he's a thinker, that's something dare I say fiver would do.

I'd like to ban Ayo from playing, every time he scores it gets disallowed. Todays was so far over the line his torso was barely in field, he must be frustrated.

Odugwu will have to do a lot more to change me assessment of him.

Whilst there was much to improve on all over the park actually, I do see shoots, I doubt they'll blossom this season but later perhaps. I'm prepared for this season to be a mixed bag, I accept we wont be top 4, might struggle for top 6 but I hope to see decent improving performances and some synergy in the team..

[Shugs]

Bit surprised at some of the negativity around this. It may have been a bit scrappy but I'd sum up in a different way. Firstly it's a win away in Northampton - never easy. No-one has really mentioned Carr but I thought he was superb. Shields went well and Willis is back. Vailanu carried well. We then had good performances from Umaga, Spink and James. I also thought Cardall looked OK. Yes, a bit rough around the edges but I take more positives than negatives from it. And we're only two games in!

[SilverShire]

good to see that Marcus and Brad coming off were more precautionary than a full blown injury. Have a feeling that they may not play next week

[SilverShire]

I also though that Vailanu had a good game but he does need to stop going on his own as much as there were a few turnovers from him being isolated 

[wasps]

I also though that Vailanu had a good game but he does need to stop going on his own as much as there were a few turnovers from him being isolated

Billy used to do that when he played for us too. He regularly got isolated it knocked on in contact.
If Valianu can learn the lessons that Billy did, then we'll be well set.


As for the game, I only saw the first 40.
It had all the downsides of a preseason game.
We totally dominated possession and has constant pressure on saints, but something always went wrong in our build up.
In preseason, that's to be expected. This isn't preseason, but if we can use the cup to work those issues out, then we may be well set for the league when it comes around

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Billy used to do that when he played for us too. He regularly got isolated it knocked on in contact.
If Valianu can learn the lessons that Billy did, then we'll be well set.

Piutau and Beale got isolated a lot making individual runs when they first started with us. They need to learn us, and we needed to learn them.

[matelot22]

As others have already mentioned, great to see Willis back, and I too, was impressed with Umaga. By no means the finished article, but tons of potential there.