Fired-up Saints book final spot
It might be the forgotten cup but a fired-up Saints powered into next week's final with a four-try win over Sarries.
In a feisty affair there were more yellow cards than tries as five went into the bin.
French referee Romain Poite had already shown he wasn't mucking around by sending Ernst Joubert to the bin for trying to kick the ball out of Lee Dickson's hands while lying offside.
And when Richard Skuse refused to roll away despite a good, old-fashioned shoeing Poite showed him yellow.
Geraghty kicked the penalty to end the half and then straight after it tries from Brian Mujati, a real force in the scrum, and Paul Diggin gave Saints an unassailable 24-12 lead.
Downhill and with the wind behind them, Saints ran in three tries after the break to show the superiority that had been mothballed in the first 40 minutes.
Saracens fly-half Derick Hougaard had a drop-goal shot from halfway within 30 seconds of the kick-off.
With the wind behind him, Hougaard had two more long-range drop-goal efforts that missed and provoked boos and chants of 'boring, boring' from the Saints fans.
Saracens' reputation for kicking the leather off the ball precedes them and with a swirling wind to work with they didn't disappoint.
The visitors' underpowered scrum is also gaining a reputation and in the first 10 minutes Saints drove them back 10m into their 22 to win a penalty.
But Saints kept on playing after a good burst from Roger Wilson and a series of drives saw Phil Dowson twist and spin over for a try.
Geraghty hit the post with the conversion to leave Saints 5-3 in front after a Hougaard penalty.
But two more Hougaard penalties, one against Mujati in a scrum, put Sarries 9-5 in front.
On 20 minutes Saracens captain Joubert saw yellow and Geraghty made it 9-8.
But the fly-half failed to see an overlap with Sarries a man down as Saints squandered the powerplay with Hougaard and Geraghty exchanging penalties in the 10 minutes.
Saints made no mistake with the next yellow for Skuse, which provoked a 'heated debate' between Saints forwards coach Dorian West and Sarries boss Brendan Venter next to the tunnel that needed fourth official Andrew Small to intervene. Geraghty slotted the penalty to give Saints a 14-12 half-time lead and straight after the break Mujati scored.
Diggin touched down after a fine move and then Saints sealed their place in the final with a fourth try from Best.
A poor kick gave Reihana acres to run into from 40m out. James Downey looked to have mucked up the overlap with a poor pass to Diggin, but the winger got onto the line and Best picked up to burrow over.
Geraghty converted to make it 31-15.
Regardt Dreyer was sin-binned almost as soon as he got on and then another bout of pushing and shoving saw Juandre Kruger and opposite number Mouritz Botha yellow-carded to make it 14-13 for the last six minutes.
Justin Melck scooted over from a scrum, but Saints comfortably held on to seal a final place.
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Weather for Kettering
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 7 C
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