Chris Gleadell: Anglo-Welsh rivalry is alive and very well
The Saints travelled down to Watford on Sunday for the EDF game against Saracens with a mostly second string side, but with the first XV cavalry on the bench should things start to get away from us.
On paper the Sarries side looked fairly similar, a blend of their up and comers among a scattering of more experienced players like the new England captain Steve Borthwick.
As Jim Mallinder said afterwards, too many mistakes cost us the game.
We got into a position to maybe take more from the afternoon, how vital the way things have panned out a bonus point might have been, but that cavalry charge came too late.
So the 33-19 loss at Vicarage Road sets up an almost winner-takes-all game against the Scarlets of Llanelli on Saturday at the Gardens.
Sarries are in with a shout still if they get maximum points at Bristol, but for Saints and the Welsh side their destiny is in their own hands.
It might be a tall order, but a bonus point win should see us through bar the Scarlets scoring four of their own and staying within seven points of the Saints score.
So it is still all to play for and the much maligned competition, especially by me, has thrown up a game of real interest.
We both might have players from various nations, but its an English v Welsh club tie with something tangible at stake, a semi final game for both and for Saints just two games from a Heineken Cup place in the 09/10 season should they be successful.
It could be one of those no love lost, no quarter asked or given games at the Gardens.
Scarlets are probably quite rightly the bookies' favourites to progress but who knows with a bit of a favour from Bristol we might just edge it.
At the end of the day it might be quite close to call, I'm quite looking forward to it.
Saturday's visitors the Scarlets find themselves between homes at the moment.
Last Friday night, in an emotional night for the locals they said goodbye to Stradey Park in their last competitive game there, an EDF tie against Bristol.
The whole event was covered quite well by BBC Wales and by the end of the night there wasn't a dry eye in the stands, or studio, while even some players taking part got the odd spot of dust in their eyes.
Stradey was one of the last traditional old rugby grounds that has seen some historic moments over the years.
Most famous is probably the day 200,000 Welshman packed the stands (well that would have been the number if everyone that declares they were there were actually there) to see Llanelli beat the All Blacks.
Many of the players that played that day were there to say goodbye the ground, and everyone gave the old place a good send off.
One nice touch from a Saints point of view was an interview with Welsh legend and former Llanelli player Phil Bennett, who reflected on the move saying how he wished they could have stayed at Stradey to do what Northampton had done as the revamped Franklin's Gardens was 'a wonderful place to play rugby'.
The team now move across town to the new Parc Y Scarlets where they hope they can recreate that unique atmosphere they had at Stradey.
The regional team has also dropped Llanelli from the club's name, henceforth they will be known, in official terms anyway, as just The Scarlets.
Whether this is to mark the start of a new era I don't know, but I find it sad in a way that one of the great names of the past has been consigned to history.
Yes the name Llanelli will live on in the team playing in the Welsh Premiership, but I know for a lot of us outside the locality whenever we play the top class side, the Scarlets, again, and who knows that might be in a Heineken at the Parc Y Scarlets in years to come, the name Llanelli will still be the one we think of and use.
I am sure I am not alone in thinking how daft it was that lawyers from the New Zealand RFU are threatening legal action against National Division Two side Launceston for trying to officially register their name as the Cornish All Blacks.
I do think the NZ authorities are being heavy handed and, for want of a better word, a bit precious about the whole affair. It is not as if this is anything new, New Zealand might be known worldwide as THE All Blacks but Launceston have apparently been know by the moniker for the last 60 odd years too.
Of course, as always nowadays it seems, this is not a sporting decision it is a marketing one.
Quite what a threat a team that is sometimes watched by no more than a couple of hundred people poses to probably the biggest brand in worldwide rugby is beyond me and I hope sense prevails.
On the other hand, if sense does not win the day and the NZRFU are victorious will a precedent be set where the descendants of Saladin can sue Saracens, Arsenal pursue the Edinburgh Gunners and Cardiff and Auckland go round and round in circles.
On the plus side, I wonder how much we would get dragging the multi, multi-million dollar New Orleans Saints through the courts?
There is of course one simple solution.
Perhaps someone should call Helen Clark, New Zealand's PM and say "Ummm Helen, sorry but you can't call your three major cities Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland, we used those names first."
That should do it!
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Friday 10 February 2012
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