Aviva Semi 1: Northampton Saints v Saracens, 23 May

First topic message reminder :

                    
Northampton Saints v Saracens
Saturday 23 May 2015
KO: 14:00
Franklin's Gardens

Live on BT Sport

Referee: Greg Garner (82nd Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce and Matthew Carley.
TMO: Sean Davey.

A. Head to Head - Aggregate

46 Played 46
20 Wins 26
26 Losses 20
0 Draws 0
106 Tries 91
75 Conversions 62
115 Penalties 141
8 Drop Goals 15
1,049 Points 1,038
25 Avg. Age 28

B. Head to Head - This Season

Sun 23rd Nov 14 - Saracens 24 - 31 Northampton Saints

Sat 25th Apr 15 - Northampton Saints 25 - 20 Saracens

C. Run-In

Northampton Saints

16/05/15 Tigers 22 - 14 Saints

09/05/15 Saints 46 - 0 L Welsh

25/04/15 Saints 25 - 20 Saracens

Saracens

16/05/15 L Welsh 17 - 68 Saracens

10/05/15 Saracens 20 - 24 Chiefs

25/04/15 Saints 25 - 20

D. Teams

Northampton Saints

15 Ahsee TUALA
14 Ken PISI
13 George PISI
12 Luther BURRELL
11 Jamie ELLIOTT
10 Stephen MYLER
09 Lee DICKSON

01 Alex CORBISIERO
02 Dylan HARTLEY (capt)
03 Salesi MA’AFU
04 Courtney LAWES
05 Christian DAY
06 Tom WOOD
07 Calum CLARK
08 Samu MANOA

16 Mike HAYWOOD
17 Alex WALLER
18 Gareth DENMAN
19 Sam DICKINSON
20 Jon FISHER
21 Kahn FOTUALI’I
22 Tom STEPHENSON
23 James WILSON

Saracens

15 Alex Goode
14 Chris Wyles
13 Duncan Taylor
12 Brad Barritt
11 David Strettle
10 Owen Farrell
09 Richard Wigglesworth

01 Mako Vunipola
02 Jamie George
03 Petrus Du Plessis
04 George Kruis
05 Alistair Hargreaves (capt)
06 Maro Itoje
07 Jacques Burger
08 Billy Vunipola

16 Schalk Brits
17 Richard Barrington
18 Juan Figallo
19 Jim Hamilton
20 Jackson Wray
21 Neil de Kock
22 Charlie Hodgson
23 Chris Ashton

It's funny that the attacking team can join the maul ahead of the ball.

Saints stealing noises card things from Leicester city

looking like a great contest so far. 7-7. pen try to saints

Stupid lost lineout by Saracens gave Saints that try.

ref doing very well so far

itoje and sarries generally looking very up for it in open play

itoje rolled lawes back like a tenpin

Itoje 1 - lawes 0

wow great offloading and skills by saints. cracking game so far.

Dickson should of gone to his left there

Not a fan of monye commentating

Dickson trying hold he player in with his legs. Glad the ref just told him off for it

give monye a chance.

i like the pre-match on-field tactical runthrough of the difference in how each team blitzes. never seen anything like that on sky or bbc.

nathan, you really need to experiment with throwing the odd positive comment in. you just come across as a one-eye tigers fan who obviously wants saints to lose. seriously mate.

No consistency from ref.

bit of an odd comment that Sarries didn't concede a single point during the sin bin though ... did he miss the try and conversion?

quinsforever wrote:nathan, you really need to experiment with throwing the odd positive comment in. you just come across as a one-eye tigers fan who obviously wants saints to lose. seriously mate.

What are you smoking?

I don't care who wins because I don't think Tigers will beat bath. I'll give positive/negatives about either team thank you very much.

I presume you would like me to just comment positively about saints because serries are the pantomime villains?

nathan, i'm enjoying a great game of rugby. everytime i read a comment of yours its a whinge about something.

quinsforever wrote:nathan, i'm enjoying a great game of rugby. everytime i read a comment of yours its a whinge about something.

So you thought you would counter it by having a whinge?

Great decision in there by the ref team, nothing wrong with that tackle

good work by the TMO there

LOL

bloodyhell!
a few minutes ago my tv provider lost the signal for the match and will not get it back soon. Of all days.
I pay a boatload of quag to (rather surreptitiously) receive the tv signal, just for the extremely rare opportunities like today.

Not sure Saints can win without me watching. Clear cause and effect. I bet Darth Wray is behind this. Now, wtf am I going to do?

Knew I should have come home. Damn.

Agh, hope it isn't bad for corbs.

nathan wrote:Agh, hope it isn't bad for corbs.

what happened?

doctor_grey wrote:

nathan wrote:Agh, hope it isn't bad for corbs.

what happened?

Off injured but didn't see what happened. He was shaking his head when leaving

best 30mins ive seen from corbs this season so hope its just a stinger. for RWC sake

nathan wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:

nathan wrote:Agh, hope it isn't bad for corbs.

what happened?

Off injured but didn't see what happened. He was shaking his head when leaving

knee? shoulder? I am now listening on BBC Radio Northampton and they are not clear. Seems half the team is off.

Not sure doc

Oooooh, it's kicked off!

Missed the Itoje skittling of Lawes, sounded impressive! I've been worried he ends up another willowy forward who's great in the loose but average in the tight. Looks like he's packing on the beef!

Some huge hits - particularly from Burger.

Itoje and Wood battle fascinating - both looking good.

Wonder if it was the slap or something Dickson said to burger but I would be worried if I was dickson

nathan wrote:Wonder if it was the slap or something Dickson said to burger but I would be worried if I was dickson

Why would a flanker like Burger care what any scrum half says?

How is Saints offloading game? How are Saints set pieces?

My concern is this is the kind of tight game which will be decided by a late penalty. I have absolutely no confidence that would go Saints way. Saints have got to amp it up.

doctor_grey wrote:

nathan wrote:Wonder if it was the slap or something Dickson said to burger but I would be worried if I was dickson

Why would a flanker like Burger care what any scrum half says?  

How is Saints offloading game?  How are Saints set pieces?  

My concern is this is the kind of tight game which will be decided by a late penalty.  I have absolutely no confidence that would go Saints way.  Saints have got to amp it up.  

Don't know, but something made burger flip

nathan wrote:Don't know, but something made burger flip

Well played.

Think saints should use the driving line out more, seems to have worked fairly well for them.

I do still wonder if saints will be hanging on in the last 10 minutes thouh

Rugby Fan wrote:

nathan wrote:Don't know, but something made burger flip

Well played.

Wilson off too

Ken pisi at FB

Missed almost all of the first half after Virgin decided to die on me. Would you all say the score is a good reflection of how the game has gone?

HammerofThunor wrote:It's funny that the attacking team can join the maul ahead of the ball.

It's bothered me all season tbh. I've not looked at any of the stats but there does seem to have been an unusually high strike rate for attacking mauls, and this could be a big cause of that.

Poor start from sarries

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Missed almost all of the first half after Virgin decided to die on me. Would you all say the score is a good reflection of how the game has gone?

HammerofThunor wrote:It's funny that the attacking team can join the maul ahead of the ball.

I
It's bothered me all season tbh. I've not looked at any of the stats but there does seem to have been an unusually high strike rate for attacking mauls, and this could be a big cause of that.

Yeah, overall I would saints have played better although they were very nervy in the first 10

nathan wrote:Ken pisi at FB

Ken Pisi can't catch a cold. Terrible under high kicks.

Try sarries

merde

16-20 to sarries

Saints looking tired, do they train more than most teams?

I'd normally love to back Saints after Tigers but for selfish reasons I want to see Sarries and Tigers go through purely because because I hate the play-off system. A couple of years of the top 2 teams missing out and I might have a few more allies calling for a proper league

Dickson off for a head injury assessment

Not more than most teams. In fact, they really minimised the physical stuff for the last few weeks. It is a long season and a small squad, especially for the top players. Less opportunity for rotation. They do look tired. I think having Fotuali'i on can help. He is a good change of pace from Dickson. And that might give Saints an edge.