Saintly return as Northampton win
Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:40
Northampton Saints marked their return to the Guinness Premiership with a deserved 21-13 win in their First Round match against Worcester Warriors at Franklin's Gardens on Sunday.
After a season in National Division One - where they were unbeaten last season - the Saints showed, with an efficient second half performance, that their are good value for their return to the top flight.
After trailing 3-6 at the break, the Northampton men outscored their rivals from Worcester by two tries to one to secure a winning start to their new Premiership campaign.
The Saints also managed to get that proverbial monkey off their backs, as Worcester had won their last five games on the Saints' home ground.
It was a professional and efficient performance from Saints, who did what they had to do after the break to protect their lead.
That lead came courtesy of a a yellow card flashed at Worcester flank Tom Wood in the 48th minute.
Worcester will look at that sin-binning as the turning point in the game. It cost them eight points - from leading 6-3 they went to trailing 6-11.
That is a lead that the Saints never conceded.
After two early penalty misses by Bruce Reihana, Worcester took the lead in the 23rd minute with a Matthew Jones penalty.
But two minutes later Reihana levelled matters up with his first successful penalty of the afternoon.
Jones put the Warriors back into the lead with a second penalty in the 28th minute, a 6-3 lead they kept till half-time.
Following Wood's yellow card Reihana slotted the penalty shot at goal to make it 6-all, before Saints took advantage of their numerical advantage to score the first try of the match three minutes later.
The score went to replacement Dylan Hartley, who replaced Paul Shields at hooker at the same time as Woods were carded. Reihana missed the conversion, but at 11-6 the Saints had their noses in front.
Hartley, the only Saints player in new England manager Martin Johnson's national squad, made an almost immediate impression after replacing Shields - gratefully accepting a long pass from young scrumhalf Lee Dickson and crashing through a tackle before stretching for the touchdown.
Another try 10 minutes later, by Jon Clarke, converted by Reihana, put the Saints 12 points clear at 18-6 and left the visitors with a mountain to climb.
Clarke took a pass from No.8 Roger Wilson, the new recruit from Ulster, following yet a sustained spell of Saints pressure, the centre had a clear run to the line.
Worcester were not about to give up and with 10 minutes to go Aleki Lutui forced his way over and the Jones conversion put the Warriors back in the game at 18-13.
The Lutui try came when Wallaby fullback Chris Latham, making his Premiership debut, finally made an attacking impression - with the hooker, Lutui, going through the home defence with a strong run.
But a 74th minute penalty by Reihana put the match beyond doubt, as Worcester again needed two scores and Saints simply shut up shop.
The scorers:
Northampton Saints:
Tries: Hartley, Clarke
Con: Reihana
Pens: Reihana 3
Worcester Warriors:
Try: Lutui
Con: Jones
Pens: Jones 2
Yellow card: Tom Wood (Worcester Warriors, 48)
The teams:
Northampton Saints: 15 Bruce Reihana (captain), 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 James Downey, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Carlos Spencer, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Scott Gray, 6 Neil Best, 5 Christian Day, 4 Ignacio Fernandez-Lobbe, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Paul Shields, 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Tom Smith, 18 Alex Rae, 19 Mark Hopley,
20 Ben Foden, 21 Stephen Myler, 22 Joe Ansbro.
Worcester Warriors: 15 Chris Latham, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Dale Rasmussen, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Miles Benjamin, 10 Matthew Jones, 9 Matt Powell, 8 Kai Horstmann, 7 Tom Wood, 6 Netani Talei, 5 Craig Gillies, 4 Greg Rawlinson (captain), 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 2 Aleki Lutui, 1 Matt Mullan.
Replacements: 16 Chris Horsman, 17 Chris Fortey, 18 Will Bowley, 19 James Collins, 20 Ryan Powell, 21 Loki Crichton, 22 Chris Pennell.
Referee: Sean Davey
