Your correspondent arrived early to take up his place in block D of the terrace.  My car indicated an air temperature of minus two Celcius.  I was at once made welcome by a member of the ground staff handing out black beenies courtesy of a sponsor.  This I wore, and very welcome it was too, but underneath my free Santa hat (red and white) from a Christmas dinner.  Once green is subtracted from the club colours of these two teams, Saints are left with black and gold and Tigers with scarlet and white. 

Saints started with high energy and pinned Tigers in their own half.  Tigers conceded an early penalty for not rolling away from the tackle, but Saints fly-half Myler pushed his kick to the left of the posts.  Tigers could have put points on the board when Northampton were ruled offside but Flood missed the penalty from in front of the posts.

From a line-out Saints put together a well-worked backs move across the width of the field that ended with Ben Foden putting Paul Diggin in to score on the right. However, Myler's conversion fell short to leave Saints 5-0 ahead. Myler then missed with another penalty, his third miss from three kicks.

Diggin scored his asecond try of the game, coming off the left wing to collect Myler's pass after Myler wriggled through the Tigers' defensive line. Again Myler was off target with the kick at goal.

Flood kicked a simple penalty from in front of the posts to reduce Northampton's lead to 10-3. Myler then missed another kickable penalty, pushing his 30m effort from the left-hand side to the right of the posts.

A quick penalty by scrum-half Julien Dupuy then took Tigers into the Saints 22 and as Saints attempted to win possession at the breakdown they were penalised for going off their feet. Flood slotted the penalty from in front of the posts to leave Tigers 10-6 behind going in at the break.  I agreed with the Saints supporter to my left that this flattered our rather poor performance in the first half.

Tigers made a change in their backs at half-time with Scott Hamilton replacing one of Tigers' better performers in Johne Murphy. The half began more evenly but when Dupuy missed touch, Saints ran the ball back and Foden broke the Tigers line on the left to run in behind the posts. Myler completed the seven-point score with his first successful kick of the game to give Saints a 17-6 lead.

Tigers countered midway through the half through Flood's sixth try of the season. Rabeni's break took Tigers into the Saints 22 and, when the home side were penalised at the breakdown, Dupuy's quickly taken penalty took him to the last man in the Northampton defence, Dylan Hartley who clattered him with a high arm but only after Dupuy had offloaded for Flood to force his way over from 5m. Flood converted to leave Tigers 17-13 but live-wire Dupuy had to leave the game.

From there Tigers tried to press.  One opportunity saw Croft drop the ball with a gap in front of him.  Another saw Tigers press down the touch line into the 22 but at the ruck the ball squirted back suspiciously fast and Youngs at scrum half could not control the ball. Saints then kept the ball in their forwards for the last five minutes in a way the ELVs were supposed to have stopped.

The Saints crowd were gleeful.  The Saints players did a lap of honour and I made a dash for the chip shop and the warmth of my car.

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