Two Different Games, Two Similar Results

Bad times for the Saints. Two very different games a week apart, but between them shipping over 90 points. The defensive machine has fallen and no-one is entirely sure why.

The first of these matches was against Munster and it was the last pool game of the Heineken. We had already messed up the Heineken and wouldn't be going through but, as well as pride, there was the chance to drop into the Amlin. So not a dead rubber.

Munster played their best game this season. But that doesn't tell the whole story. The Saints just didn't really get going. Whenever they made progress then they rapidly shipped points from poor restarts. Was it the disruption of playing a home match in Milton Keynes, something that had caused an awful lot of angst amongst the fans. Was it the antics of Flash and his move to Saracens announced during the week leading to him storming off the training pitch a few days earlier. Was it ten players with their eyes on the England shirt. Whatever it was, the end result was ugly. The Saints scored over 30 points, normally enough to win a match but gar away even more. In the last 5 matches the opposition only crossed the try line 3 times, in this match Munster crossed 5 times. A remarkable transformation.

Which brings us to the second match. LV Cup this time. The LV is still a possible route for us to get to the Heineken next season. So some consternation when a young team was picked to play an almost full strength Bath side. And it was as painful as we feared. Lacking Dicko to marshal the forces and all the rest of the Englamd call ups to provide stability, there was a lack of game management that Bath were able to capitalise on.

Still wearing the shirt, still a Saint, but a tough week at the office!