Northampton Saints
News: Munster Munch Mallinder's Men 33-19
By lilyg
April 12 2010
Northampton Saints' run in the 2009/10 Heineken Cup came to an end at Thomond Park on Saturday evening as an experienced Munster side were just too much for Jim Mallinder's young tyros. LilyG looks back at was, the result aside, still a great weekend for supporters of the Green, Black and Gold...
Munster march past Mallinder’s Magnificent Men
Munster 33 – Northampton Saints 19
Heineken Cup Quarter Final – Thomond Park
Saturday 10th April 2010
The Munster Rugby logo consists of three crowns and a stag (which has similarities to Paul O’Connell if you look closely) - The team motto "To the brave and faithful, nothing is impossible".
The dream of the treble may be over for the Saints this year, but next year – to the brave and the faithful, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. Even the one-eyed Irish Independent conceded that, this time, experience had won over talent........ but only just.
Emotionally drained, dehydrated, hoarse and a little bit fatter was it worth it? Yes it blooming well was!! As ever the descending hoards of Saints fans laid siege to a town that was as warm and welcoming as on that cold and foggy January day. The blue sky, the warm weather, the convivial company lifted spirits and only helped to raise the confidence level – we beat them in October, nearly had them in January and maybe, just maybe, we could beat them again to set-up a semi final with Biarritz.
This was the boys first European away trip for sometime – university getting the way of his undying support. Aged four, he visited the gardens for the first time and was hooked from that day on – he thought Harvey Thorneycroft was the best thing since sliced bread, and would have followed him round the pitch if he could. In fact he was so obsessed with Harvey, Harvey that when asked if mum should marry dad or Harvey, he only gave the ‘right’ answer through gritted teeth.
He is now 22, but (as with all blokes) remains 12 in mind and even more so when he discovered we’d be travelling with the squad to land of rolling green hills, Guinness and Paddy Mcgintys goat. His passion for the saints has never faltered, and throughout the weekend, I felt that extraordinary vibe from every single fan we met. Passion and confidence were high and building.
Saturday brought an amazing sight - all round the town, Saints flags were standing proud competing with Limerick’s obsession with everything Munster. The Saints crest looking proud in the breeze, stuck in lamp posts, benches, in every pub every saints fan carried two or three (we came home with five!) – the atmosphere was thick with anticipation and walking to the ground, the roads were a sea of red, dotted with green islands.
The wall of deafening sound that greets a visiting supporter leaves nothing to the imagination; this is a partisan crowd who will carry their team on waves of chant and national pride. The unrelenting cacophony, however, was vanquished into submission on many occasions as the gold, black and green, retaliated in volume with our own support - bubbling over, with East Midlands pride and passion.
From the kick-off, and even without their spiritual leader POC, it was plain to see that Muster were not going to let Saints get into their stride and attacked like a side wanting to quash the young pretenders.
Wave after wave of attack tested the Saints defence, the red barrage moving ever closer to the Saints line, which eventually capitulated to an O’Gara penalty and a well taken Paul Warwick try, leaving the Saints eight nil down after seven minutes. The missed conversion was a sign of things to come – O’Gara’s place kicking was woeful, but annoyingly his tactical kicking out of hand was excellent, pinning the Saints back on more than one occasion.
Constant Garryowen’s caused the Saints to scramble in defence or rethink an attack. It wasn’t until Smyler had chipped away at the lead with two well taken penalties, that the sinking feeling started to lift – the Munster crowd were quiet and ‘Wendy’ was ringing out loud and proud.
The Saints’ confidence clearly lifted and took the game to Munster – NO FEAR!
However, some clever play from O’Leary opened up space for Dougie Howlett to foot race with his old compatriot, Brooocccee, and score another try in the corner, but another penalty from Myler brought the butterflies back to both sets of supporters. O’Gara’s failed conversion only gave Saints further impetus to attack and attack they did, forcing the red army back towards their own try line. Pounding the Munster defence, blow after blow and after dragging the defence too far over to recover, Saints made a sweeping move that gave Jon Clarke an opening to score the Saints first and only try, duly converted by Myler.
It’s half time – could it really be right Munster 13 – Saints 16? ‘Course it is, the Munster fans were twitchy, belief was growing in the green corner………in 40 minutes, we could have caused a massive upset and be looking forward to a visit to San Sebastian…….
The second half continued where the first half finished, with the Saints attacking the nine time quarter finalists – but shortly after a turnover and a red tidal wave descended. Wave after wave of attack, the elder statesman of this magnificent competition using their years of experience to bully and bash through a stubborn Saints defence.
Another try by De Villiers was making the task look more difficult for our magnificent men, but when Kruger went thundering down the pitch, the crescendo from both stands rose so that they could probably hear it in Dublin, only a fortunate last ditch tackle from two Munster men rescued, what would have been a nerve jangling final 20 minutes.
But jangle they did, penalties were traded, Munster earning more from their favourite referee, but it was the final try from Howlett that closed out the game and quashed the Saints dream for glory.
I’m not the only one who was gutted and massively disappointed, the look on Dylan’s face said more than any words could ever do, but on a positive note, we won the first half and we didn’t actually lose the second half, we just ran out of time.
I am very proud of the squad, I am very proud of the support. I thank Mother Nature for letting the sun come out to play, I thank the Munster supporters for making it another great weekend and most importantly, I thank Guinness for allowing me to put blackcurrant in that little glass of loveliness.
If anything, this game has convinced me further that the next two seasons will be the greatest we have ever seen for the Saints. I have no doubt that we will lift that coveted trophy in the next year of two, I have seen the future and it’s looking very bright indeed.
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Stumbleupon12/04/2010 11:44
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I've not put the pictures in as yet as they need uploading onto SN. Will sort that out later unless David gets there first...
Thanks again!
Saint til I die
Quote:on a positive note, we won the first half and we didn’t actually lose the second half, we just ran out of time.
Great line!
Good stuff,thanks.
Bridesmaids no more.
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TV just showed endless red flags, like a sea of ketchup, with hardly a glimpse of those Saintly colours - but we heard you!
My unbiased Italian friend says the ref should have binned TWO Monsters, which is one more than I would have... but hey-ho, on we go to next year and better things in Europe.
*I could agree with you - but then we'd both be wrong...*
12/04/2010 23:09
Quote:William Boland
I have to say that your report is a little blinkered...
William, thank you for your comments and welcome to COYSDC.
The match previews and reports on this site are all written by Saints supporters. As the target audience for these articles is the follower of the Green, Black and Gold, aren't we allowed to be a little one-eyed?
"It's not the despair, Saints, I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand."
Quote:William Boland
We were totally outplayed for the majority of the game, and were very lucky to be up at half time.
Then I, the Munster supporters around me together with the press corps were all watching a different game.
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:04:13:07:16:27 by Wee Jim.
Quote:Eif
excellent Saints try
I'm going for lie down!
Well done Lily
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
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