Soane Tonga'uiha on the charge, London Irish vs Northampton Saints, May 2010
And so the biggest day of the season so far has arrived – Saints take on Saracens for the fifth time and with each team have beaten the other twice this season, it’s going to be a fair old tear up. Saints were back to their assured selves at the Madjeski – they scored three tries and managed to deal with the pace out wide of the London Irish backs. The highlight was Tonga’uiha’s pop pass to Kruger whilst being ‘tackled’ by two Irish players. Such guile and power demonstrated at the same time. It led to Chris Ashton scoring under the posts. 7-31 was a fair reflection of the the dominance of the Saints pack.
I was joined by Hannah Wearmouth pitchside. We had a great time taking photos of the boys – the light was flat and variable but generally good and we were able to capture some excellent action shots. After the game, we also had some excellent photo opportunities as it was Mike Catt’s last match. He’s a pro who know how to look after us photographers – I ended on the end of a group of snappers – Mike made sure everybody got their shot with him looking at them.
I think today is the most important match I have shot so far – Saints have been to two GP semi-finals away and lost both. Now we’re at the Gardens with a rested group of players who are raring to go and get their turf back and secure a place in the final at Twickenham. Sarries are now playing some brilliant rugby and have an edge to their play that will test both the Saints’ discipline and I imagine referee Wayne Barnes’ patience.
Here’s to a brilliant game of rugby:)
