European Rugby Champions Cup: Treviso-Saints

Sitting here watching on TV, far from my peoples, I felt the need to see a topic mentioning Saints.  We have had about 1,000,000 threads about Leicesterrr, Leinsterrrr, Gloucesterrr, Munsterrrr, Exeterrr, Ulsterrr.  So here is one for my Saints.  

Unfortunately, a fairly pedestrian bonus point win in northern Italy.  Neither well played nor exacting.  Sloppy really, especially in the last 15-20 minutes.  A lot of individual efforts and a nice pack.  As the commentators mentioned good luck for Saints with the draw so they can slowly re-integrate their internationals whilst not burning out the players.  

As far as this comp is concerned, Saints will need a much better effort in the return matches against Treviso, Ospreys, and critically Racing.

If it was a year or two ago this could have been a very competitive game (remember how close they used to run Leicester) and would have been played in front of about 5k people.

It really is depressing how they have regressed.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:If it was a year or two ago this could have been a very competitive game (remember how close they used to run Leicester) and would have been played in front of about 5k people.

It really is depressing how they have regressed.

They do have improved recently, here they were unfortunate to be missing their 1st choice tighthead and lose their key player Zanni so early.

Agree that their attendance dropping is a real worry though..

I have to wonder why the Italian teams are located in the moddle of farm country, far from the bigger cities. Seems to make it harder to draw people. And money.

doctor_grey wrote:I have to wonder why the Italian teams are located in the moddle of farm country, far from the bigger cities.  Seems to make it harder to draw people.  And money.

In the country in the North there are rugby clubs and a rugby culture but no people. In the cities there are people but no rugby culture. It's a circle they really haven't figured out how to square. They also seem to be riven by political infighting. Initially the idea when they joined the Pro12 was to have a team in Rome, but the internal politics of Italian rugby ensured Treviso replaced them.

They also seem to be suffering from the Welsh disease which is that fans of the clubs don't necessarily translate their support to the new super clubs. Especially when one of them is basically just the biggest of the old clubs.

Shame. Hopefully they get their business sorted.

Go Saints.