Try number two: Roger Wilson
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Northampton romped to a convincing 24-3 win over Aviva Premiership leaders Harlequins on Friday.
Northampton turned in a dominant display in front of another full-house at Franklin's Gardens to inflict Harlequins' second defeat of the English domestic season.
Saints were much smarter and more physical at the breakdown than the visitors, and all the eagerly-awaited England match-ups went their way in front of watching caretaker boss Stuart Lancaster.
Two Ryan Lamb penalties handed Saints a 6-0 lead and that would have been extended further had Tom Williams' timely intervention not prevented Tom Wood gathering in Samu Manoa's pass for the first try.
But Saints did score when Ben Foden fended off full-back rival Mike Brown to go over in the right-hand corner for a well-taken try.
A strong run from Chris Robshaw set up the platform for Harlequins' first and only points of the night which came through a Rory Clegg penalty.
But Lamb kicked a drop goal shortly after Nick Easter returned from the sin-bin to hand Saints a 17-3 interval lead.
Saints safely negotiated a sin-binning of their own as they continued to boss the second half, and their only disappointment would have been their inability to score more than the one try they managed after the break.
That came from number eight Roger Wilson when the Irishman strolled over the line after Lee Dickson, another strong performer on the night, got quick ball away from the base of the ruck to find Lamb whose distribution skills did the rest.
Lamb landed the conversion to put the final nail in the coffin of league leaders Harlequins.
The scorers:
For Northampton:
Tries: Foden, Wilson
Con: Lamb
Pens: Lamb 3
Drop: Lamb
For Harlequins:
Pen: Clegg
Yellow card: Easter ( Harlequins - 20th min)
Northampton: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 George Pisi, 12 James Downey, 11 Noah Cato, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Tom Wood, 6 Phil Dowson, 5 Mark Sorenson, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Paul Doran Jones, 2 Dylan Hartley (c), 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements: 16 Mike Haywood, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Brian Mujati, 19 Christian Day, 20 Ben Nutley / Calum Clark, 21 Martin Roberts, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Tom May.
Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Tom Williams, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Rory Clegg, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Chris Robshaw (c), 5 George Robson, 4 Olly Kohn, 3 James Johnston, 2 Chris Brooker, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Joe Gray, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Tim Fairbrother, 19 Tomas Vallejos, 20 Tom Guest, 21 Richard Bolt, 22 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 23 Sam Smith
Venue: Franklin's Gardens
Referee: Dave Pearson
Comments
damo says...
hey jedi, all I can say back is fair play to you and the result was great,
I worry about the Premiership though, the games are packed with scrummages and re-set scrummages so they are not enjoyable to watch, Heinie is class and the games are a step up but that could be due to the higher standard of refereeing also. Austin Healy made the point about home town decisions from the refs I was just re-iterating it. In this game all decisions went to the saints and thus it was never a contest not the Saints fault though :)
Posted 14:29 08th January 2012
Jediboy says...
Damo - I try not to get involved in debates about referrers. It's seems a pointless exercise. But I agree with you about the two apparent high tackles. I was surprised they went unpunished. But the ref refs as he sees fit.
But playing against top of the table Quins that was an impressive performance.
Posted 16:41 07th January 2012
Kappelange says...
No Evans no wins
Posted 12:15 07th January 2012
NHsaints says...
My only problem with this is that A: saints didn't quite take all their oppertunities, it was inches stuff but it still would have given us a full set of bonus points... and secondly that after performances like that Lancaster is going to want half our bloody squad for the 6nats...I certainly would after that...
Posted 11:09 07th January 2012
damo says...
Hey Jediboy, I watched the game and it was no exhibition of rugby, Saints were the better team but I have to say the referee only went with the saints for the first 65 minutes giving them everything, turning a blind eye to numerous offences from 2 high tackles in 2 minutes, hands on the ball in the ruck for the first 20 minutes of the second half and the penalties in the scrum were a bit strange where the saints only went forward once in the scrum but won about 7 penalties for the scrum?
As a neutral it meant the game was no contest which has happened all too often in the Aviva Premiership no wonder its being said in Europe the English clubs are not far ahead of the Italians. Not a slight on the Saints but watch the game back the ref must have given 10 pens and a yellow card to 2 with 15 mins to go.
Posted 11:00 07th January 2012
Jediboy says...
Just got back from from the game. And I've got to say Saints were brilliant. Defence was outstanding ad never allowed Quins to get into the game.
I'd say that the Saints players were better to a man than Quins. I Wonder what SL will make of it.
Well done Saints. Impressive performance.
Posted 23:09 06th January 2012
simojukes says...
should make the EPS intersting!
Posted 22:06 06th January 2012