BRISTOL RUGBY  16

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS  19 

Guinness Premiership round 21

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Memorial Stadium

The first minute of this game was indicative of a rather ugly first 20 minutes of rugby at the Memorial Stadium today. Paul Tupai and Mark Regan squared up to each other for a not-so friendly introduction and the forwards continued to dominate those early minutes until Bristol’s wing Marko Stanojevic brought the backs into the game with a run down his wing before he was bundled into touch.

The Saints forwards then tried to stamp their authority on the game when they stole a ball from a Bristol scrum, and Saints’ fly-half Carlos Spencer booted the ball into touch to give the visitors some breathing space. The breathing space was wasted however as Bristol were awarded a penalty when Saints brought down the maul from the ensuing lineout. Bristol’s prolific kicker Jason Strange wasted no time in putting three points on the board.

Saints then put pressure on themselves by losing their own lineout but Tupai somehow got his hands on the ball to edge themselves back into Bristol’s 22. However, the territorial gain came to nothing as wing Sean Lamont knocked on. The same was true when Ben Cohen also knocked on a pass from David Quinlan after the game had been stopped due to an injury to Bristol scrum-half Shaun Perry.

Bristol then had a chance to go over the whitewash when Mariano Sambucetti intercepted a Sam Harding pass but Daniel Browne was on hand to regain possession and to charge back downfield. Only then, 16 minutes into the game, did Saints’ backs start to threaten thanks to some hard work from the forwards. Cohen made some probing runs and Spencer was awarded a free kick just 15 metres from the try-line. It looked as if Bruce Reihana had thwarted their chance of a score with a knock-on but Bristol were called back for being offside. However, somehow Bristol did win the ball back and opted to kick it away… straight into Reihana’s waiting hands, but then he knocked on again – for real this time. The game was not going Saints’ way.

But Bristol had further misery to inflict on their visitors with Strange kicking his second penalty in the 25th minute and then a try coming from Stanojevic after the Bristol forwards had camped themselves in Saints’ 22 for a prolonged period. Stanojevic threatened minutes later too but then Saints started to come back, again with a Cohen run that was taken on by Lamont, Mark Robinson and Reihana. Centre Jon Clarke actually got the ball over the line but his foot had already gone into touch with the scoreboard signalling half-time. Saints ran back to the dressing room facing a 13-point deficit.

Saints’ club captain Steve Thompson replaced Dan Richmond at half-time to create a new-look front row which had already lost Pat Barnard to injury in the last minute of the first half. And as the England tour hopeful hobbled around the perimeter of the pitch on crutches, Strange lined up another penalty to take the score to 16-0.

Desperate times called for imaginative measures and when Spencer slid a grubber kick under the feet of the Bristol defence, it looked as though Saints would get their chance. Quinlan came close to scoring his first try for Saints but offloaded the ball to Lamont who came tantalising close… but not close enough. Saints continued to apply pressure but Bristol stole the ball back leaving Saints to defend once again with Mark Robinson sprinting back to cover a kick down the wing from Lee Robinson. Territorial advantage was once again in the hands of the home side.

Bristol’s Robinson threatened again with another chip-kick just minutes later but this time the ball sailed into touch. It kept the momentum going, however, as Saints continued to fail to get any foothold in this game. Their fate worsened when Harding was sent to the sin-bin. So, with a man advantage, Bristol used their forwards to good effect to drive towards the line. Their first attempt came to nought but a lineout gave them another opportunity which was heaved into touch by Saints’ desperate but effective defence.

In fact the visitors fared better a man down and were further aided by the sin-binning of Neil Clark. Lamont headed for the line but could not get there himself. That task fell to replacement hooker Steve Thompson.

Reihana missed the conversion but he did not miss a second time when he called up to duty when Lamont went over two minutes later. All of a sudden, Saints were right back in it with seven minutes remaining on the clock.

Thompson pressed for the line again, assisted by Matt Lord and Johnny Howard, and the game had begun to swing Saints’ way with a scrum 10 metres out from Bristol’s line. Cohen pounced to take the lead and Reihana got the conversion to take it to 16-19. They had left it late but they had got the job done.

Teams:
Northampton Saints – Reihana (capt); Lamont, Clarke (Rudd 59mins), Quinlan, Cohen; Spencer, Robinson (Howard 57mins); Smith, Richmond (Thompson 41mins), Barnard (Budgen 40mins), Damien Browne (Gerard 63mins), Lord, Tupai (Fox 54mins), Harding, Daniel Browne.

Bristol Rugby – Stortoni; Robinson, Higgitt (Lima 59mins), Cox, Stanojevic; Strange, Perry (Gray 74mins); Hilton (Clarke 55mins), Regan (Clark 66mins), Crompton (Irish 61mins), Sambucetti, Winters, Salter (capt) (Morgan 74mins), Short (Regan 74-79mins, Lewis (Ward-Smith 57mins).

Scorers:
Northampton Saints – Treis: Thompson, Lamont, Cohen; Cons: Reihana (2).

Bristol Rugby – Try: Stanojevic; Con: Strange; Pens: Strange (3).

Yellow card:
Harding (63mins)
Clark (69mins)

Attendance:
9,862