Aviva Premiership Review - Northampton Saints 16 - 22 Leicester Tigers

There are certain events that just don't feel the same without that vital ingredient.  An Oscar acceptance speech wouldn't be right without incoherent blubbing, a football World Cup wouldn't be a proper tournament unless England arrived with grossly unwarranted optimism and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Simon Cowell's latest ear-bashingly bad product dominating the airwaves.  And Saints v Tigers seems, frankly, wrong, without a healthy dose of controversy.  Luckily, a certain Mr Wayne Barnes, the man with the unhappy knack of presiding over these chaotic encounters, was back in charge of the next instalment of the East Midlands rivalry at Franklins Gardens.

It was an odd situation that both sides found themselves in.  Northampton had seemed near-invincible for large swathes of the season, but back-to-back defeats against Exeter, in the LV= Cup Final, and Sale, forced that ugly old question of Saints' ability to win pressure games to simmer back to the surface.  Leicester, meanwhile, have been roundly panned, having their worst season in years – and yet sit relatively comfortably in the playoff places.  And two convincing wins against Newcastle and Exeter, with the return of Manu Tuilagi from injury, seems to have reinvigorated the Tigers season; although many doubted that it could push them to claim a win at a ground where the hosts have remained undefeated in the Premiership all season.  On a hazy Spring afternoon, the stage was set.

The home crowd sprung into life as Wayne Barnes’ name was read out, offering a generous chorus of boos, but it was the visitors who looked livelier in the opening exchanges with Ben Youngs probing dangerously and Adam Thompstone making yards on the left.  However, Saints were the first to trouble the scoreboard after Ben Foden – wearing a near-blindingly bright pair of boots – half-charged down an Owen Williams kick, and George North charged straight back into the heart of the Tigers’ defence, forcing the penalty.  Young Will Hooley, deputising for Stephen Myler, settled some nerves by landing the penalty to give his side a 3 point lead.

If North was making his usual impacts for the hosts, Manu Tuilagi was returning the favour for the Tigers, shrugging off his England rival for the 13 shirt, Luther Burrell, on two separate occasions to put the visitors on the front foot, but the move broke down as Niki Goneva was shunted into touch on the right hand side after an ominous break.  Things were beginning to spice up nicely, though, as expected, with Tom Youngs and Dylan Hartley in particular exchanging pleasantries, and the England rivals were involved again as the game took a more sinister turn.  Under pressure at a scrum, the Leicester front row folded backwards, and Tom Youngs emerged from the bottom of the pile looking enraged and stating that he’d bitten.  Now, Tom Youngs is a tough player, but he’s an honest one, and I for one have no doubt that he probably was nibbled – but whether it was accidental or deliberate, I don’t know, and with video replays not showing anything conclusive, Wayne Barnes did the sensible thing and just calmed everyone down.

From the reset scrum, though, the Tigers finally got the reward their pressure deserved.  Ed Slater carried hard and broke tackles – not from the first time – and when the ball was recycled Ben Youngs fizzed a superb 15 metre pass across to Anthony Allen, who touched down in the corner.  Williams, still preferred to club captain Toby Flood, has not been renowned for his goal kicking, but the young Welsman hammered a wonderful conversion over from the touchline.  3 – 7 to the visitors.

That lead was extended 2 minutes later as Luther Burrell aimlessly meandered into traffic and was forced to concede a penalty, with Jordan Crane and Julian Salvi working hard at the breakdown to give Williams a chance to nudge over another 3 points.  With Saints conceding silly penalties – such as Kahn Fotuali’i blocking Anthony Allen on a kick chase – and the Tigers dominating territory through some intelligent Ben Youngs kicking, Leicester were looking dominant.  Where had this side been all season?  And, conversely, where had this blunt Saints outfit come from?  Leicester grabbed 3 more points 5 minutes later thanks to another Williams kick after a sharp break involving Goneva, Scott Hamilton, Allen and Crane got the hosts backpeddling. 

Finally, after 30 minutes, Northampton roused themselves into life, with a Kahn Fotuali’i atoning for his earlier indiscretions with a sharp break from a Foden offload, but the home side were hit with a double blow soon after Salvi was penalised with hands in the ruck.  Firstly, young Will Hooley horribly sliced the ensuing 3 point opportunity, and then they had to suffer the sight of Hartley – who wasn’t having his most accurate game – being forced off the field with a head injury after a clumsy clearout at a ruck.

Finally, though, their moment came after Jamie Elliott chipped ahead and Ben Youngs spilled the awkwardly bouncing ball, allowing Northampton to regather possession 5 metres out and press for a try.  From that position, they were awarded a penalty for offside – although Goneva was lucky to get away with a careless high tackle on Phil Dowson – and, from the ensuing lineout, Fotuali’i wriggled his way over.  There was half a hint of a block by Wayne Barnes on Williams as he came across but, in my view, Williams didn’t make anywhere near enough of a meal of it to gain Barnes’ attention and/or sympathy and, in any case, it didn’t seem like he would have definitely got there.   It was a crucial riposte for Northampton but, unfortunately, Hooley missed another simple kick.  The young fly half was having a fine game in defence, but his kicking was starting to cost his side points; but for his misses, the scores would have been level at half time.  As it were, Leicester led 8 – 13.

Despite their overall dominance in the first half, Leicester fans would have been nervous at the sight of the hosts clawing their way back into things in the last 5 minutes, and those nerves wouldn’t have been eased by a scrappy opening to the second half in which neither side managed to take real control.  Leicester came closest when Ben Youngs put Anthony Allen away down the right and the centre chipped ahead, only for Fotuali’i to win the race and dot the ball down for a 22 – despite replays showing he’d actually carried it over himself.

The Tigers were still looking the more threatening though in a messy third quarter, with Logovi’i Mulipola and Ed Slater all making big charges, but strong defence by Tom Wood and Will Hooley, as well as sharp breakdown work by Calum Clark, meant that the visitors were denied a chance of troubling the scoreboard.  In fact, it was Northampton who had the next chance, after a stray arm by Tuilagi caught Alex Waller marginally high, but Hooley was once again off target.  His third consecutive simple miss led to Kiwi George Wilson replacing the hapless youngster in the 10 slot.

After Williams had slotted another 3 points for a scrum offence, Wilson went straight to work and hit 3 straight back after Marcos Ayerza was penalised for not releasing, but Saints indiscipline was costing them dearly.  The magnificent Ed Slater won a penalty at a breakdown straight from the restart, before the Saints defence was caught offside just 2 minutes later, and Williams made them pay both times to take the score out to 11 – 22. 

Saints had looked clumsy and inaccurate for so long throughout the game but finally, with 10 minutes to go and roared on by the Franklin’s Gardens faithful, the beast stirred into life.  The beast in question was George North.  After a driving maul had been well held up by Jamie Gibson and Julian Salvi, the Welsh giant fielded a bouncing ball and tore off through the middle, leaving a trail of Tigers player floundering in his wake.  Ben Youngs got back to made a superb covering tackle, but undid his good work by failing to clearly release before he went back in to try and pinch the ball – net result?  A yellow card.

The hosts were frantic and attacked at an intensity at least twice that of anything we’d seen from them previously.  After Ken Pisi had been denied a try in the corner thanks to a thunderous cover tackle from Scott Hamilton, Goneva found himself taking a trip to the bin as well after a swinging forearm caught North in the gym as the winger wrestled his way forward.  Now, with a 2 man advantage and 4 minutes left, the game was on a knife edge.  Saints made the most of the advantage almost immediately with Ethan Waller going over after Leicester had been caught short on the blindside.  Wilson missed the tricky conversion – I don’t know why he took so long to take it, seeing as his side would need to score again anyway – but the tension was up pant-wettingly intense levels.

The game was in no way short of drama, but it had been surprisingly sparse on controversy.  Wayne Barnes and co duly obliged in the last play of the game from a Saints lineout on the Leicester 22.  The ball went wide, George North oddly put boot to ball, and Manu Tuilagi covered – ‘spilling’ the ball into touch. Was it deliberate?  It was impossible to tell but if it was, it certainly wasn’t obvious enough to award a penalty or another yellow card.  A Leicester physio then touched the ball as it went into touch, preventing a quick lineout.  Again, it was hard to tell if this was deliberate but, given the cover across, it would be hard to see how a quick lineout would have been possible.  And finally, Barnes checked with the fourth official for the time, since the display clock at the stadium was wrong, and was told time was up – he blew the final whistle, sending all of Franklins Gardens up in fury.  But for me, this was the least controversial decision of the lot – time was up, just nobody knew it. 

The real issue Saints fans should have will be the decision making of their own team on that last play.  Against 13 men, with the clock about to run out, they decided to throw the ‘hail Mary’ wide off first phase ball, when if they had run through the phases (as they had for their try moments earlier) the space would have been there to exploit.  It was a costly decision; the wrong one to make under pressure. 

Saints have shown this season that they don’t want to be the ‘nearly’ men of English rugby anymore.  They've 'nearly' achieved that goal – they can't let it slip now.

What else was happening in the Premiership over the weekend?

Bath Rugby 11 – 12 Sale Sharks:  The Sharks continued their surge towards the playoffs with a fine win at the Rec, courtesy of 4 Danny Cipriani penalties.  Bath, who scored the only try of the game through a late Ross Batty effort, were left to rue missed kicks and drop goal attempts from George Ford, as well as a blunt refusal by referee Dean Richards to award a penalty try despite the hosts earning approximately 43 scrum penalties on Sale's line.

Exeter Chiefs 13 – 14 Gloucester:  The Cherry and whites continued their late-season improvement in form as they turned over a lacklustre Chiefs side at Sandy Park.  Matt Jess had scored for the hosts before Charlie Sharples had responded in the second half to put his side in front, but Exeter missed a chance to win in the last minute as Gareth Steenson missed a conversion after a score by Don Armand.

Harlequins 23 – 9 London Irish:  Quins eased out in the second half to take a comfortable win against Irish at the Stoop.  The visitors could only muster 3 penalties through the boot of James O'Connor, whilst the hosts scored 3 tries through Nick Evans, Sam Smith and Mike Brown.

London Wasps 20 – 32 Saracens:  Sarries cruised to victory against their London rivals at Adams Park.  Wasps scored 3 tries through Jonah Holmes, Tom Howe and Carlo Festuccia, but Jackson Wray, Jamie George (2) and Alex Goode claimed a bonus point win for the league leaders.

Newcastle Falcons 12 – 17 Worcester Warriors:  Yes, you read this right.  Worcester finally won a game to give themselves the faintest of chances to survive this season.  A late Josh Drauniniu try was enough to steal a win, with Phil Godman providing all of the hosts' points from the kicking tee.