Saints pile the misery on Umaga's men
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:53
A dominating performance from Northampton Saints set up a memorable 56-3 bonus point win for the Guinness Premiership side over Tana Umaga's disappointing Toulon side at the latter's home ground of Stade Félix Mayol on Thursday.
Impressive flyhalf Stephen Myler added 19 points with his boot, while seven tries from Northampton condemned the home side to defeat in the opening match of the European Challenge Cup competition.
No doubt the result will add to the pressure they already find themselves under so early in the new season.
Toulon coach Umaga had gambled by leaving out some of his big name stars, including Australian scrumhalf Matt Henjak and surprisingly his former New Zealand and Hurricanes teammate Jerry Collins.
Quite clearly it was a move that did not pay off for the All Black legend. With his position already reportedly under pressure, following a poor start to he domestic season, the 35-year-old former New Zealand captain will have some serious work to do to get his troops back on track.
Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal has already publically made known his disappointment with the team's performances and one would be surprised if he did not have some choice words for his coach following their latest result.
It was in fact the home side who opened the scoring with a Sebastien Fauque penalty in the second minute but, unfortunately for the home fans, that was to prove to be their only highlight of the match.
Left wing Sean Lamont started the try scoring spree with his effort in the ninth minute before Joe Ansbro scored the first of his brace and, temporary replacement, Paul Diggin, followed him over to give the visitors a big lead at the break. Diggin’s try came with almost his first touch while he was on the pitch with Saints centre James Downey temporarily out of action.
It took Jim Mallindar’s men seventeen minutes to cross the line after the break but once they did they seemed unstoppable. Chris Ashton, Ben Foden and Lee Dickson all added their names to the score sheet before the European Challenge Cup opener finally came to an end.
It truly was an impressive result for the English side. Despite being under-strength many expected a good performance from the wealthy French side but they will surely now have to return to the drawing board with Northampton powerful display clearly having shown they are not up to scratch at the moment.
Scorers:
Toulon:
Pen: Fauque
Northampton:
Tries: Lamont, Ansbro 2, Diggin, Ashton, Foden, Dickson
Conv: Myler 6
Pens: Myler 3
Teams:
Toulon: 15 Sonny Falconetti, 14 Marc Andreu, 13 Olivier Grimaud, 12 Tusiata Pisi, 11 Clement
Imbert, 10 Sébastien Fauque, 9 Anthony Giacobazzi, 8 Fotunuupule Auelua, 7 Thomas Sourice, 6 Soane Toevalu, 5 Jocelino Suta, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Davit Kubriashvili, 2 Phillip Fitzgerald (captain), 1 Nicolas Agnesi.
Replacements: 16 Anthony Muleta, 17 Jérome Filitoga, 18 Sisaro Koyamaibole, 19 Olivier Missoup, 20 Luke Rooney, 21 Damien Vidal, 22 Orene Ai'i.
Northampton: 15 Bruce Reihana (captain), 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Joe Ansbro, 12 James Downey, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Ben Foden, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Scott Gray, 6 Mark Hopley, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Tom Smith.
Replacements: 16 Paul Shields, 17 Soane Tonga'uiha, 18 Matt Lord, 19 Ben Lewitt, 20 Lee Dickson, 21 Barry Everitt, 22 Paul Diggin.
