By Mav with a wireless
October 22 2006

A gutsy second half performance by Northampton Saints could not prevent them from going down 4 tries to one against Heineken Cup favourites, Biarritz in Southern France.

Even before a ball had been kicked Saints suffered a blow as Ben Cohen was ruled out after failing a late fitness test and Pat Barnard was forced to withdraw after succumbing to an ear infection. Johnny Howard replaced Cohen whilst Chris Budgen took Barnard’s place in the front row.

 

Biarritz, unbeaten at home this season, started brightly and for the first ten minutes only good Saints defence kept them at bay, two line-out steals typifying their commitment. However, it was not long before the home side had their first chance to put points on the board. Paul Tupai was penalised for improper use of the boot and BO elected to kick for goal. As it turned out Dimitri Yachvili missed the attempt on what was to be a poor day with the boot for the French play-maker, and the scoreboard remained blank.

 

Saints’ travelling support was sounding loud and proud over the radio waves but this was almost immediately quashed as Biarritz finally broke the Saints’ defensive ranks, winger Sereli Bobo following up his own kick through after a blind-side attack and touching the ball down. With Yachvili again awry with the boot, the score was Biarritz 5 – 0 Saints.

 

From the re-start a BO knock-on resulted in a scrum on their 22. Hands in the scrum by a home forward gave a penalty chance for the visitors and Johnny Howard, on kicking duty for Saints, stepped up and nailed the three points. 5-3.

 

As the game moved into the second quarter, Saints were again under the cosh and Biarritz soon crossed the white-wash for a second time. Yachvili took a quick “tap-and-go” and after a phase of desperate Northampton defence, the ball was thrown wide for back-rower Mohammed Dridi to score. Once again Vachvili couldn’t find his range with the conversion to leave the score 10-3. The score remained unchanged as both kickers exchanged penalty misses.

 

On 35 minutes Biarritz scored again. From a line-out on halfway, the home forwards piled through the Saints defence and the ball once again Bobo who hitch-kicked his way to the line. With Yachvili making his first half kicking record 0 from 5 the scoreboard showed 15-3 and this would be the half-time score although Saints finished the half strongly trying to play on the front foot.

 

At half-time coach Paul Grayson had told his players to hold onto the ball more, to stick together and play for each other. It is to their credit that they did exactly that for much of the second half but not before Biarritz had put the game out of Saints’ reach. BO took an an attacking line-out and mauled their way to the line, hooker Benoit August emerging with the ball. Finally the home side nailed a conversion. 22-3

 

From that point on Saints really took the game to their French opponents. Chris Budgen crashed forward forcing a 5m scrum which resulted in the two Brownes trying to force the ball over in turn but the Biarritz wall held firm. Peyrelongue cleared the ball to the 22 but it was not long before Saints were back on the BO try-line, Steve Thompson somehow not able to ground the ball. Phase after phase of Saints pressure followed but still they could find a way through. Biarritz were committing very few players at the breakdown which enabled them to fan their defensive line out wide to counter what ever Saints could throw at them.

 

However, with the clock ticking down, Northampton finally scored a try. Another foray forward gave Ian Vass (on for Luke Myring) the chance to dink a grubber kick through the BO line and its perfect weight gave Johnny Howard the chance to pounce on the ball. Howard then slotted the conversion from out wide to make the score 22-10 and put Saints within reach of grabbing an unlikely bonus point. Alas, it was not be and although Saints threw everything but le eviér de cuisine at Biarritz the match ended on that score.

 

From the radio commentary it sounded as though Saints gave a good account of themselves in the south of France but were ultimately undone by the superior finishing of the Biarritz backs in the first half. It all makes next week’s encounter with Border Reivers at Franklin’s Gardens a vital, must win game.

 

 

*Please note, I have not read any other match reports whilst compiling this piece, it’s entirely from badly scribbled notes whilst listening to Radio Northampton. If there are any errors I’ll be the first to hold my hand up and apologise!