I know that it's Star Wars day today and that this post should probably reference the best sci fi series of all time ... but I haven't finished off the posts I started last month yet. "May the 4th be with you" in this instance will have to be related to a different underdog versus conqueror battle ... from April.
The recent(ish) rugby match (14th April) between the Northampton Saints and the Leicester Tigers was the best game of rugby I have seen this year, certainly better than anything from the Six Nations.
Though rugby has been featured on this site a number of times, this is the first time I have written a post that’s a review of a single game … it was that good!
But first a digression, I am actually a follower of both sides - one day you’ll see me in a Tigers’ shirt and the next in a Saints’. Lots of people don’t accept/understand that I could follow two local (for me) derby protagonists. In a football context, it would be like supporting the Blues and Villa or Oxford and Swindon. Or, because it's today, the Empire and the Rebellion!
The reality is that I am not a diehard fan of either side, I just like a good game of rugby. When tuning into this particular game, I wasn’t too concerned about who was going to ultimately win. Listening to the pundits pre-kick-off though, started to annoy me. All were expecting the Saints to get a hammering from the Tigers. To be fair, Northampton’s form this year has been poor and the side had got a spanking only the week before. But listening to all the “knocking” got me thinking that the Saints deserved better. I’d be supporting the underdogs for this game.
When the match got underway, it was clear Northampton had travelled to Welford Road to play.
Highlights included precision kicking from Stephen Myler, robust defence throughout the game - one particularly inspired scrummage defence on the Saints’ five metre line that saw Saints win from a Tigers put it. And of course the tries from Foden, Reinach and Tuala.
But the Saints most definitely didn’t have the game all their own way. Rob Horne, in his capacity as captain, was injured in the first minute of the game and has since had to retire with nerve damage. Nine penalties were given away by the Saints. The Tigers were generally much stronger in the scrum. Toomua (Tigers) scored a try as a result of a kick being charged down by Kitchener. Alex Waller (Saints) was sin-binned for ten minutes in second half, the Saints down to 14 men just as the Tigers were upping the ante. A try for the Tigers in the last minutes of the game was heart-stopping but ultimately disallowed by the TMO for obstruction.
On the downside, the game probably stopped Tigers accession to the play offs but, the action was end to end and genuinely exciting right down to the final whistle. Against all expectations Northampton won 27 -21 and deserved to. But the points difference was less than one converted try.
If you didn’t watch the game, find a way to catch up. I watched it on Channel 5 so you might still be able to find it on Demand 5. During the final minutes of the game, I was leaping out of my chair and shouting at the telly in excitement … it’s probably a good thing I was on my own.
Afterwards I was pumped, enough to spend the next hour running on a treadmill. Rugby is rarely that good ...
... unlike Star Wars!
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The recent(ish) rugby match (14th April) between the Northampton Saints and the Leicester Tigers was the best game of rugby I have seen this year, certainly better than anything from the Six Nations.
Though rugby has been featured on this site a number of times, this is the first time I have written a post that’s a review of a single game … it was that good!
But first a digression, I am actually a follower of both sides - one day you’ll see me in a Tigers’ shirt and the next in a Saints’. Lots of people don’t accept/understand that I could follow two local (for me) derby protagonists. In a football context, it would be like supporting the Blues and Villa or Oxford and Swindon. Or, because it's today, the Empire and the Rebellion!
The reality is that I am not a diehard fan of either side, I just like a good game of rugby. When tuning into this particular game, I wasn’t too concerned about who was going to ultimately win. Listening to the pundits pre-kick-off though, started to annoy me. All were expecting the Saints to get a hammering from the Tigers. To be fair, Northampton’s form this year has been poor and the side had got a spanking only the week before. But listening to all the “knocking” got me thinking that the Saints deserved better. I’d be supporting the underdogs for this game.
When the match got underway, it was clear Northampton had travelled to Welford Road to play.
Highlights included precision kicking from Stephen Myler, robust defence throughout the game - one particularly inspired scrummage defence on the Saints’ five metre line that saw Saints win from a Tigers put it. And of course the tries from Foden, Reinach and Tuala.
But the Saints most definitely didn’t have the game all their own way. Rob Horne, in his capacity as captain, was injured in the first minute of the game and has since had to retire with nerve damage. Nine penalties were given away by the Saints. The Tigers were generally much stronger in the scrum. Toomua (Tigers) scored a try as a result of a kick being charged down by Kitchener. Alex Waller (Saints) was sin-binned for ten minutes in second half, the Saints down to 14 men just as the Tigers were upping the ante. A try for the Tigers in the last minutes of the game was heart-stopping but ultimately disallowed by the TMO for obstruction.
On the downside, the game probably stopped Tigers accession to the play offs but, the action was end to end and genuinely exciting right down to the final whistle. Against all expectations Northampton won 27 -21 and deserved to. But the points difference was less than one converted try.
If you didn’t watch the game, find a way to catch up. I watched it on Channel 5 so you might still be able to find it on Demand 5. During the final minutes of the game, I was leaping out of my chair and shouting at the telly in excitement … it’s probably a good thing I was on my own.
Afterwards I was pumped, enough to spend the next hour running on a treadmill. Rugby is rarely that good ...
... unlike Star Wars!
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