Northampton Saints
News: Tiger Tactics Hound Hartley Tigers 27 Saints 16
By Ben_D
January 9 2011
I haven’t been to Welford Road derby since the opening day of the season in 2005, when Carlos Spencer made his premiership debut for Northampton with not exactly the most auspicious of games. A time well before the construction of the CAT stand, in which I was happily ensconced forty minutes prior to the kick off. Appropriate sponsorship for a stand that greets the players looking for all the world like a huge mechanical bucket ready to scoop up everything in it’s path and dump it cleanly back in to the next county, it is mightily impressive.
Less impressively Leicester had organized pre match delivery of the ball in the form of a parachute jump, which put the sky divers target slap bang in the middle of the Saints pre-match warm up area, whilst Tigers players at the other end of the pitch trotted though their warm up routines unimpeded. Not clever.
Parachute jumps aside Leicester set the bar high when it comes to standards on and off the pitch and ominously the Tigers early season stumbling seems like a distant memory. The Tiger tank is rolling and it will take something special to stop this side claiming yet another title. Northampton, second in the table with two games in hand is one of the sides tipped to rain on the annual Leicester parade and on the evidence of this encounter they still lurk in the shadow of their East Midlands cousins but not entirely without hope.
The match itself was a post Christmas and New Year cracker that contained that extra bang. Both sides put in performances that resulted in a wrestle for the lead that was to extend well into the final quarter when Marcos Ayerza finally put the game beyond Saints with a bulldozing run that started in the city centre. Tigers always looked more likely to score tries and it was some credit to the Saints defence that they held out against the pace, depth and angles that Leicester put on the game; it was not without cost though as both Chris Aston and Courtney Lawes departed to early knocks.
Saints were the first to ignite the game and the scoreboard lights as Ben Foden finished the first move of the game with a lovely dummy to open up a straight run to the corner, Tigers had been caught flat footed in midfield as the speed of the ball found the fullback on the twenty two. Saints fans found their vocal cords and instantly Welford Road didn’t seem such an intimidating place.
You have to be on your metal though to keep this home side on the back foot for long and Leicester answered with a Flood penalty after a tap and go for Youngs made a massive dent in the Saints defence. Craig Newby followed almost immediately with a try that started inside the Leicester twenty two with a lovely break from Murphy who’s intermediate fumble of the ball on the way to the try line was adjudged to have gone backwards?
With the conversion missed Tigers lead by 8 points to 7 until an illegal barge from Youngs allowed Steven Myler the opportunity to put Saints back in front. The action was breathless and worthy of a title fight. Foden again threatenedThe hits were thundering, the scrums monumental, the rucks and counter rucks savage as both sides sought to invent spaces that weren’t there. The pace of the game even preventing time for a traditional derby punch up.
With barely a quarter gone Flood put Tigers back in front with a second penalty and the last score of the first half to give them a narrow 11-10 lead.
For the second week running Northampton were undone by a side that did their homework. Pre-match machinations from the Saints coaching team might have identified lineout possession as an area of strength but the reality was far from the expectation.
Not completely unassisted by Referee Pearson, Leicester seemed to take lineout ball at will from Saints, to the extent that Hartley’s lineout throw began to take on all the accuracy of a Michael Fish weather forecast. Without the lineout platform Saints were deprived of a rich source of possession which proved vital to the course of the second half that started with a regulation Flood penalty for hands in the ruck.
Saints came under increasing pressure that they worked harder and harder to repel.
They hit back though when Tigers themselves were forced to infringe, Northampton piled on huge pressure at a scrum that marched Leicester back ten metres into their own half. Ben Youngs might be considered very lucky not to receive ten minutes for such an obvious professional foul. The single point difference was restored.
Dan Cole replaced Castrogiovanni and the favour was returned as Flood stretched the Tigers lead back to four points. The ding, dong battle continued.
Still breathless stuff, Foden broke again from open play to put Diggin into a one on one battle with Murphy for the ball, Diggin won but Tigers closed out any opportunity for the try at the cost of a another three points to the Saints. 17-16 with less than twenty minutes to go, step forward Ayerza and that thundering try that could only have been made in Leicester. Tigers, eventually free of the Northampton shackles didn’t look back despite a determined fourteen man Northampton mounting a final assault.
This was a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable game between the two best sides in the country. Saints will be disappointed not to have secured at least a loosing bonus point which they had probably earned with this performance but Welford Road is a tough place to win at the best of times and without your lineout; impossible.
Leicester’s standards are something to aspire to for all Premiership sides, on this evidence Saint’s can test those standards. Twickenham might yet host the final showdown between these two teams. One-all for the season; everything to play for.
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Stumbleupon09/01/2011 11:34
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A very balanced report that puts a few things in perspective!
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:01:09:11:54:11 by St Marlowe.
For those who enjoy the Agatha Christie genre, it was the lineout that dunnit.
6 more periods of possession for Tigs, six less for Saints. In any match that would make it very, very difficult to get a postive result. Away at Tigs, in a match where building pressure was everything, it was absolutely crucial.
One all. Let's hope for a Twickers decider (in better weather)
Saint til I die
*I could agree with you - but then we'd both be wrong...*
I think you were very charitable to a dreadful reffing perforemance.
ClaireJ
RedHatPhoto.com review of 2015 photos here...
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