A provocative question perhaps  - but one that comes to mind as we approach the start of a new season, back in the premiership  with all of the excitement of some real contests that we are assured will accompany the match day experience.

Well we have always prided ourselves on the enthusiasm of the Saints supporters and the special atmosphere that is alleged to exist at Franklin's Gardens on a match day. Really ?

Compared to the walls of sound generated at some rugby league venues and even more soccer venues we are a relatively sober and silent spectator group. The average Franklin's Gardens - Oh Wendy   - is  a faint  if garrulous recitation  compared to the same song as performed by St Helens RLFC or even Southampton FC.

To tell the truth (well as I see it) we are complacent about our singing support simply because  in most other parts of the English rugby universe it is even more fragmented and hesitant. So we can chant with impunity "One Word no song" to our friends from Leicester, Wasps, Gloucester etc  on the very tenuous basis that we have "one song" which we repeat ad nauseam.

In terms of singing support we are the equivalent of the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind.

However, I have another question which is, do we actually sing  ?   

I think not. What we do to " Oh Wendy"  is to shout it  in a vaguely rhythmic manner worthy of a bunch of drunken trainee drill sergeants  rather than a choir, amateur or otherwise. Once or twice I have even detected a variation in pitch between one phrase and another.

And I  - who used to be a reasonably competent choral singer  before  fags, beer and age corrupted my vocal cords am as guilty as any other of bellowing rather than singing our iconic anthem. So why do we do this?

Firstly I suspect it is because we want to be heard and are very unsure that  sufficient numbers will join in to be heard. I wonder sometimes if we all tried to sing then a greater sound and a better sound would ensue and that would lessen the need for a section of the crowd to shout.

Now I know some don't like it - which is not unusual when others do things better than you do - but Munster do actually sing "The Fields" and it is a  pretty impressive sound...Why cant we do something similar?  

Even at the Millennium stadium the much vaunted Land of Song struggles to make a sound  worthy of the epithet compared to the   Hwl of yesteryear. A flaccid rendering of  "Hymns and arias" just does not compare to a full throated Cwm Rhonda or Calon Lan.

Are we all just so  used to being entertained by electronic means   that we are afraid to loose our inhibitions and  sing ?  

Well I for one fear that if we allow ourselves to settle for  the occasional chant as a demonstration of  our presence and support  then we will get to the stage where as I observed in the recent All Blacks tri- nations games - almost any stoppage in play was marked by loud muzack over the public address system.

The rather special arena that is Franklin's Gardens demands something better than that which we are serving up - singing (or chanting if we must) should be used to support and encourage and not just to applaud .

Next season we are back in the premiership and I for one want  everyone to know we are back, especially when they visit our patch. " Come on you Saints " should echo round the ground with one section following another and so on and so on.

Let's make "Oh Wendy" something special again. That is a challenge to others and a source of strength to our own.

Boris Notquitegoodenuff