Guinness Premiership Round 20

Northampton Saints v Gloucester Rugby

Saturday 17th April 2020,

Franklin's Gardens. KO 3pm

Northampton Saints 38 – 23 Gloucester

The home side found themselves behind almost immediately, after a fumbled restart and a clearance from Myler was returned by James Simpson-Daniel.   The ball was lost, however, but the Saints were penalised at the resulting scrum and Nicky Robinson put Gloucester ahead in just the third minute.  Myler evened things up five minutes later though, as the Saints were this time the recipients of a penalty after a scrum.

Another poor restart put the Saints under pressure once more, though Rory Lawson had to resort to kicking to touch as his side couldn't find a way through the Saints' defence.  Gloucester were soon on the attack again, however, and a quickly taken penalty almost found Freddie Burns in space.  The Saints turned the ball over though, and Foden cleared.  With the fullback and Ashton chasing, Nicky Robinson found touch under pressure, and the Saints won the resulting lineout well, thanks to an excellent leap by Courtney Lawes.  The ball was quickly worked to the middle of the field and Ashton, attacking the Gloucester defence at pace, found a gap and streaked through it to score.  Myler added the extras, and the Saints were 10-3 up after almost fifteen minutes.

The Saints were penalised at the restart, giving Gloucester the opportunity to close the gap immediately, but Robinson missed from the touchline.  The visitors came close once more though as they almost duplicated Ashton's try with Sharples breaking through the middle but he was brought down and Tindall couldn't progress and the Saints turned the ball over.

Both sides had opportunities during the next ten minutes, but neither made anything of their position until Gloucester were awarded another penalty which Robinson missed, kicking from almost the same spot.

Gloucester attacked once more through Simpson-Daniel, but the pressure was relieved as the Saints were awarded a penalty.  The ball was cleared, and now it was the home side's turn to attack with Foden skipping down the touchline, with support from Dickson and Ashton.  Ashton was hauled down, but the attack continued through Tiny and Reihana who was forced into touch.  All was not lost, however, as the referee had been playing advantage and play was brought back for a penalty which Myler duly slotted.  This took the Saints ten points ahead, 13-3, with ten minutes to go before half time.

The lead didn't last long, as the Cherry and Whites attacked once more through Simpson-Daniel.  He was brought down close to the line, but Charlie Sharples was on hand to dive over.  Robinson was successful with the conversion, closing the gap to just three points, 13-10.  The scoring didn't stop there though, as Dickson, Ashton and Lobbe combined to give Myler another shot at goal almost immediately.  The kick was successful, and the lead increased to six.

James Downey was lucky to escape punishment after seemingly deliberately knocking the ball dead to prevent a Gloucester try, but after consulting with his touch judge the referee decided a 22 dropout to the Saints was the appropriate action.

The break did little to slow the action, as almost immediately the visitors took a penalty quickly, Eustace making good ground.  May spotted a gap at the back, as Foden was injured on halfway, and chipped ahead, just losing out to Myler in the race for the ball.   Though Gloucester started the half the stronger, it was the Saints who scored first as Murray and Lawes made good ground, and Myler combined with Ashton to put the skipper Hartley through for the team's second try.  He ran behind the posts before grounding the ball, making the conversion simple for Myler.

Once again the restart didn't go the Saints' way, with them being penalised for crossing.  Robinson was successful with the kick, taking the score to 23-13 after eight second-half minutes.  The next restart went the way of the home side though, and Ashton broke through to score his second and the Saints' third try of the afternoon.  Myler was once again successful  with the conversion, taking the score to 30-13.

Out of keeping with the game, the next action was not a score but a sin-binning, with Dylan Hartley receiving a yellow card from referee Small for killing the ball.  Robinson kicked the resulting simple penalty, narrowing the gap slightly to 30-16.  The visitors scored again while Hartley was off the pitch, with lock Dave Attwood finishing off a move of several phases.  Robinson added the two points, and the Saints' previously healthy lead was reduced to a slightly more nail biting seven points, at 30-23.

Hartley returned to the field soon after, and a raft of replacements on both sides resulted in a scrappy ten minutes or so, but the Saints calmed the nerves with a penalty from one of their replacements Shane Geraghty.  With the gap increased to ten, the crowd roared the Saints on to try for the bonus point try.  Geraghty almost created it as he made a wonderful break, but he could not offload to the chasing Ashton and the move ended with Gloucester winning the ball and breaking out of their half. 

The last few minutes of the game were breathless, with both sides trying to score but losing the ball at key moments.  Having not learned their lesson, some Saints supporters began to leave Franklin's Gardens, almost a sure sign that something dramatic would happen in the closing minutes!  The architect of the drama was Bruce Reihana, who first turned the ball over by wrestling it from a Gloucester player's hands, only for the Saints to lose the ball themselves soon after.  That was not the end of Reihana's contribution though, as he burst through a tackle and sprinted down his wing,

crossing the line for the fourth try...which was actually scored by Chris Ashton, as Reihana passed the ball to him when both had crossed the line ensuring his young colleague scored his second hat-trick of the season.  Geraghty missed the conversion, which turned out to be the last kick of the game, meaning the Saints won at home once more, by 38 points to 23.

Once again Gloucester contributed to a wonderfully entertaining game of rugby, having two exiting wingers in Sharples and Simpson-Daniel.  It was the Saints' exciting winger Chris Ashton, however, who took the plaudits (and the witty "Volcanic Ashton" headlines) thanks to two excellently taken tries, a hand in Hartley's and as recipient of an act of generosity from Bruce Reihana.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• News: GP: Northampton Saints vs Gloucester - Match Preview
• News : Saints overcome Gloucester to win AWC Cup