Saints v RCM matchthread

anyone else watching?

this has started incredibly openly. both teams showing tons of ambition. could be a classic.

oh yeah, and dylan hartley just got a yellow...

Silly play from Hartley. His citings are well documented, but I bet his YC record is probably one of the worst too.

actually it was a yc that he would willingly take the chance of getting caught for. may well have saved a try.

george north looking in fine fettle Saint.

quinsforever wrote:george north looking in fine fettle Saint.

He does most of the time for Northampton. He hasn't for Wales since last year's 6 Nations. We've got wingers playing well and who have been playing well for a long time now. It's time they had recognition over North and Cuthbert.

who would your starting wingers be for Wales?

quinsforever wrote:george north looking in fine fettle Saint.

Good to hear. I don't really think he's in any danger of not starting v England, despite what Gatland says.

RCM deserve the lead at half time. Pressure in the saints half telling in the end

We seem to have spent about 6 weeks having scrums. Corbs both taking it and dishing it out.

Racing fairly good value for their lead.

Racing looking the better side. I think some of Nigel's idiosyncracies and their scrum have kept Saints in this.

quinsforever wrote:who would your starting wingers be for Wales?

My back three would be Amos, Halfpenny and Williams. I'm not so sure who will be full-back, but Gatland probably is.

dont know much about amos other than that he got a central contract.

1/2P is playing really well for toulon. much more of a running game than gatland lets him usually do. biggar is a pretty great kicker no, so at least Gats can choose between williams and 1/2P without basing it on 1/2P's kicking alone?

its going to be a good match on the 6th

Naughty try that was. I expected Saints to top this group, but it looks as if it will be Racing.

terrible decision to go right there from saints. put them in a 2 on 5 situation.

try rcm...

Another try....to RCM.

What's going on then? Just turned this on to see Saints getting stuffed...

Better...

lapeyre seemed like a right tw4t from minute 1. tbh i'm not sure its not why a penalty try?

Roberts gets fourth try, I'm glad he's playing well at least.

cranberry sauce with that stuffing?

Saints losing because Racing playing better.

Owens having an absolute shocker though. Penalises Saints (correctly) for something then allows Racing to do the same.

However the perfect examples were not giving a PT then barely 60 seconds later watched the Racing openside hook the ball from the middle of the tunnel.

LT, do you mean cross in the maul? Because just before Roberts' try it seemed the carrier lost the bind and then drove into the players in front of him.

Where does this leave Saints, I assume as a best runner up

Manoa correctly pinged for that maul in my view. But Saints should have had a PT for the deliberate knock on, and then a penalty at least for the second guy pulling down the maul in front of Manoa.

Then when Racing cleared their lines, there was a scrum that Owens simply allowed the Racing flanker - right in front of him - to hook the ball.


Makes no difference to the result as Racing superior, just highlights Owens really poor form recently.

Another anomaly result for Saints at home (previous ones were against Munster, then Leinster). I think that's kind of strange for a very good team.

Brendan wrote:Where does this leave Saints, I assume as a best runner up

guaranteed to qualify on 19 points as runner up

The Saint wrote:Another anomaly result for Saints at home (previous ones were against Munster, then Leinster). I think that's kind of strange for a very good team.

they ha ve put in some dreadfull performances this season. Home to Exeter and away to Sale. Like this game they looked disinterested and struggled. Once a month they just seem to have no energy, perhaps it is a Heather Watson thing?

Thought North was going all the way for a sec. Welsh players looking good - is Roberts in Welsh team?

agree. welsh players dominating this match.

roberts, north, charteris.

although, i heard a rumour imhoff has an english grandparent...

ominous...

great great performance by RCM. dominated in every department. kept it tight and simple when it mattered. and a few pieces of individual skill broke Saints chances.

Roberts had his best game for Racing by miles. Cant remember a performance from him wearing that shirt that comes even close. Not sure he scored more than a couple of tries for them before. Welsh players seem to have their DNA modified to all peak before the 6N typical!

whocares wrote:Roberts had his best game for Racing by miles. Cant remember a performance from him wearing that shirt that comes even close. Not sure he scored more than a couple of tries for them before. Welsh players seem to have their DNA modified to all peak before the 6N typical!

Not always a good thing as it means the more consistent performers get overlooked.

quinsforever wrote:agree. welsh players dominating this match.

roberts, north, charteris.

although, i heard a rumour imhoff has an english grandparent...

ominous...

Indeed quins - already looking forward to Friday!

whocares wrote:Roberts had his best game for Racing by miles. Cant remember a performance from him wearing that shirt that comes even close. Not sure he scored more than a couple of tries for them before. Welsh players seem to have their DNA modified to all peak before the 6N typical!

It does seem that way doesn't it?

Is it me, or do French sides in particular get coached in running interference lines, sometimes yesterday I thought I was watching NFL with players running across the defence's backline protecting the ball carrier running behind him. At least twice Burrell had to push Roberts out of the way to allow him to get to the player running behind.

It annoys the hell out of me, you see it mostly at kick offs, where a loose wall suddenly appears around the guy making the catch, not stopping but interfering with the chasers trying to contest the ball, seems to be migrating out to the backs now.

It needs stopping and quickly.

I am still curious about how Lapeyre stayed on the field in the last 10 minutes of the match, Saints attacking, trying to make the score respectable, they whip a miss pass out for Elliot and Lapeyre, jumps up one handed, no attempt to catch the ball and knocks it on, Elliot would have strolled in otherwise.

Owens saw it and just gave a knock on, not even a penalty. You cannot jump up at the full extent or your reach one handed and be trying to catch the ball. If he had awarded the penalty he would have had to yellow card the player and as it would have been his second card for the same offence, it would presumably have had to be red.

There is a strong argument that Saints should have had two Penalty tries as if the passes had gone to hand, both would have been stroll ins for North and Elliott respectively.

Was I the only one that thought the French scrum was going up under pressure in the first 15 minutes, nothing given but it seemed that whenever Saints got a push on the Stade front row came up.

One last thing, when is Owens announcing his retirement, on yesterdays display and previous I have seen this year, he needs to go back to reffing kids.

WPI If it is the incident that I remember Lapeyre knocked the ball up & tried to catch it before it hit the ground, getting his hands to it but not catching. If he had knocked it down then I think you would have more of a case.

broadlandboy wrote:WPI If it is the incident that I remember Lapeyre knocked the ball up & tried to catch it before it hit the ground, getting his hands to it but not catching. If he had knocked it down then I think you would have more of a case.

Braodland, you are making my point for me, he delibrately knocked the ball forward, if he caught it then he gets away with it; he didn't and deprived Saints of a walk in try by his actions.

broadlandboy wrote:WPI If it is the incident that I remember Lapeyre knocked the ball up & tried to catch it before it hit the ground, getting his hands to it but not catching. If he had knocked it down then I think you would have more of a case.

What Lapeyre did is actually irrelevant. Owens penalised him for a deliberate knock on. So Owen's deemed it deliberate - and if catch had gone to North it would have been a try. Most clear cut PT I have seen in a while.

As I said earlier, that was just one of a catalogue of blunders from Owen's. He should be thankful that his pitiful display had no effect on the match as RCM's superiority over Saints was colossal.

Have to agree that this was not one of Owen's best displays. That said yesterday there was a country mile, clear sky, deep water or any other distance analogy you can think of between Metro and Saints. Saints weren't at the races.

aye, Saints made Owen's look competent

Wow didn't see that score coming. Did Saints not turn up on Sunday or have Racing just cemented themselves as Toulons biggest challenger for the trophy?

Racing were better than I have ever seen them, while Saints were as poor as I have ever seen them with no energy what-so-ever.

My goodness, that was terrible.

Turned out I couldn't be home and was not able to write something until now. I am completely shocked to see a club come in to the Gardens and administer a defeat like that on Saints. Hard to know where to start, Racing was simply better. And seemed better prepared. In a weird way, I think Saints have been off form a bit since the training runs against Treviso. Very unfortunate. But no excuses. We dealt our cards and now have to play them. Will make winning the Championship even more sweet............

Come on doc, you're not going to get relegated. Chin up

LondonTiger wrote:Racing were better than I have ever seen them, while Saints were as poor as I have ever seen them with no energy what-so-ever.

At the risk of being a complete @rse and kicking a man when he is down. Did you not watch Leinster's visit to the Gardens just over a year ago? I watched the first half on the plane on my way to Coventry at the weekend.

We can all have off days. More shocked at NH than Toulouse tbh. Though I shouldn't be after our win there.

NH came back the following week away from home though. Even if it was an intercept on their own line when we had an overlap in the last minute, and that lack of a BP sent us to Toulon.

Perhaps they can be the team that scores an away win in the QFs (1 in 4 statistically) Big ask, but hey so was beating a team away that just hockeyed you at home.

HammerofThunor wrote:Come on doc, you're not going to get relegated. Chin up

Chin up, you say?
Are you mad?  We L.....L....Lo.........Los..........
Can't even type.  This was devastating.  

The end is nigh.

I think I know how it must feel to be Nick Clegg.