Saints marked their return to the top flight of English Rugby with a determined display by all those in the Gold Black and Green bringing a victory against most pundit's predictions over Worcester Warriors.

At last, at last.  At last the sun shone over Franklin's Gardens to bring some relief to this wretched summer weather. At last we were back at home after a seemingly inordinately long summer break. At last we were greetings familiar friends wearing the uniform of the Jimmies. And at last, we are back in the Guinness Premiership!

A new look Saints starting 15 took to the pristine Piggy's Patch, with 5 new forwards and another new face at scrum half. The visitors also had new faces with Chris Latham, the Australian World Cup winner, the headline signing at full back.

More familiar was the first chorus of Oh Wendy which managed to drown out the annoying muzak as Captain Bruce Reihana lead the team on to the field to start the season proper.

Early on it was obvious that the Warriors forwards were going to be a handful and that Saints' supporting and offloading game was looking exciting and pacey. Within 9 minutes, Saints had the chance to open the scoring with a straight forward penalty kick but Bruce faded the ball just outside the right post, followed by another miss after 15 minutes when he missed left. Saints had been awarded the penalty after Rawlinson had taken out Carlos Spencer after he chipped ahead. Carlos had a long word with the offender before letting Sean Davey do his job. Bruce took the kick where Carlos's kick had alighted but didn't hit the target.

Warriors opened the scoring after 22 minutes with a Jones penalty after Saints' front row had been pinged for standing up in the scrum. Bruce was able to level the scores from a penalty 3 minutes later.

The restart was caught by Neil Best but he was pushed into touch. The Warriors line out was stolen by Saints but stolen back by Craig Gillies and some scrappy stuff lead to Saints giving away a penalty which Jones converted to move the score on to 3-6.

The half wore out with no change in the score but boring it wasn't. Saints were fighting for any 50/50 ball and the new back row of Gray, Best and Wilson were proving to be effective. Recycling at the base of the ruck was swift and precise and the threat of the Warriors backs was being contained. The line outs were messy but Saints were managing to stop Gillies and Rawlinson gaining complete control of their own ball.

Bruce's miss-hits apart, Saints could have been further ahead through a Best try which was disallowed when Mr Davey adjudged that a ball had bounced forward off a Saints player into the hands of the flanker. It was disappointing that he didn't consult the TV Match Official who would have probably given the try as good.

Saints emerged early from the new improved half time break for a spot of passing practice, a huddle and a team talk.

Saints restarted the game, Worcester caught and cleared to touch and the officials then conducted a seminar on the Experimental Law Variations to try and decide where the kick had been taken from and where the line out should be taken. It isn't coming naturally yet!

Six minutes in, Bruce cleared a penalty kick to halfway. Saints nearly lost the line-out but managed to regain the ball and attacked through Chris Ashton. The speed merchant was finding that the gaps of last season aren't there as often in the Premiership but Shields took the ball on through the midfield. Warriors stopped the ball illegally and Tom Wood received 10 minutes in the bin for his misdemeanours. Bruce couldn't miss this one and levelled the scores at 6-6.

Shields, a handful in the loose all afternoon was replaced by the first of the subs, Dylan Hartley and it was he who scored Saints' first try soon after. A series of attacking moves involving the whole team in wave after wave of moves past the gain line saw Hartley spin out of a half tackle to dot down in front of the South Stand. Unfortunately, Bruce missed this kick as well to leave the score at 11-6.

Saints scored again when Warriors took too long over a line out. The Saints free kick went straight to Latham who tapped from the mark and cleared to give Saints a line out on the visitors 22m line. Gillies had left injured by now and Saints won the line out cleanly. Moving on through a couple of phases, Lobbe played first receiver and passed out to Spencer, the ball moved right through Wilson to John Clarke who had space to get in near the right corner for the try. And, from out wide, Bruce got this one! 18-6 and clear water between the teams now.

Unfortunately, Bruce walloped the ball long out of his 22 and Latham seemed to let the ball roll over the dead ball line and head off back up field for a scrum to Warriors. Indecision by the officials lead to some malarkey for a couple of minutes before they did decide that Latham was in fact correct. Saints were to give away a try from this position as the Warriors hooker Lutui barrelled through two ineffective tackles to gain 7 points, as Jones added the conversion. After 34 minutes the score narrowed to 18-13.

Bruce was on target soon after however and stretched Saints lead to 21-13 after Warriors came in from the side at the breakdown with 6 minutes to go.

Ben Foden arrived to make his Saints debut in place of (Sale readers please note) scrum half Lee Dickson who departed after a strong game. Saints knew that all they had to do now was to keep the ball, play the game tight and strong but that didn't stop both sides giving away penalties and free kicks, fortunately mostly in Saints favour and well away from the goal posts.

The home crowd of over 13,000 counted down the clock and Mr Davey agreed that they were in fact spot on with this particular observation and blew for no-side as Saints marked their return to the Premiership with a sound victory.

Scott Gray was announced as Man of the Match but my own pick would have been Ignacio Lobbe for his general play and leadership around the field. The pack grew in strength after a shaky start in the tight and the back row will outperform many units this season.

Lee Dickson is thoroughly competent at 9 and Carlos was his usual

bag of tricks and annoyance to the opposition. Both centres, Clarke and Downey had strong games but the wings had little space or opportunity to shine. Bruce was less than precise with his kicking from hand and the tee but ran strongly in attack. He did miss one or two clear off load opportunities however.

There is a long way to go yet but the future is looking promising.

Teams:

Northampton Saints

Reihana,(c) Ashton, Clarke, Downey, Lamont, Spencer, Dickson, Tonga'uiha, Shields, Murray, Lobbe, Day, Best, Gray, Wilson

Replacements: Hartley, Smith, Lord, Hopley, Foden, Myler, Ansbro

Worcester Warriors

Latham, Gear, Rasmussen, Tuitupou, Benjamin, Jones, Powell, Mullan, Lutui, Taumoepeau, Rawlinson, Gillies, Talei, Wood, Hortsman

Replacements: Horsman, Fortey, Bowley, Collins, Powell, Chricton, Pennell

Pictures courtesy Simon Robinson & Empics

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• News: Northampton Saints v Worcester preview
• Northampton Saints: Thoughts from the Chron 050908
• News: Northampton Saints New Forwards

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

Northampton Saints Poll