Saints edge thriller after Gloucester fightback

The Prem.

Gloucester (7) 35

Cons: Byrne 5; Joseph, Venter, and Fasogbon

Sin-bin: Byrne (72)

Northampton (31) 37

Cons: Belleau 4 Pen: Belleau 3 Tries: Pearson, Litchfield, McParland, Hendy

Northampton won their first Prem title game against Gloucester at Kingsholm thanks to a ferocious second-half fightback.

The Saints’ opening-day draw with the Exeter Chiefs last week looked like they were going to have a nightmare of a game because they lacked a lead after the break and lost a 33-7 half-time lead.

As Tom Pearson, Tom Litchfield, Archie McParland, and George Hendy each grabbed the bonus point within 35 minutes, they surged to a 31-0 lead in front of a stunned Shed.

When Northampton once more fell apart, Gloucester summoned the Chiefs’ spirit, with Will Joseph, James Venter, and Jordan scoring the hosts before half-time before Will Joseph, James Venter, and Jordan finally getting them within striking distance of Saints as three Saints players were penalized for repeat offenses.

With Afo Fasogbon’s fifth try, Gloucester’s fifth try appeared to have won it dramaticly, Ross Byrne getting a quick conversion, but Northampton cleared their heads and Anthony Belleau coolly kicked the penalty that followed after Byrne was yellow-carded to win it.

After Gloucester lost their opening game to Sale Sharks last week, both teams desperately needed a win, and Saints’ shocker felt like a defeat despite their excellent first half.

With Pearson falling over and Tom Litchfield burst through an alarming gap in the Cherry and Whites’ defense to make it 14-0 after just 10 minutes, they were back on the field to start the second half of their seven home games against a Gloucester side that had already won their previous seven.

As Gloucester made mistakes in defense and attack, Saints were ruthless as Rory Hutchinson broke and fed McParland, and then McParland fell to the blindside from a scrum and sent George Hendy over.

The ghosts of last week spooked the Northampton dressing room at halftime thanks to Jordan’s crucial try late in the half from a tap-and-go.

With Belleau’s penalty providing some respite, Joseph’s superb dummy and sprint reinforced those doubts.

The Gloucester pack took control after Joseph’s excellent running try, forcing a number of offsides and hammering away at the Saints line.

Hendy was the first to notice a yellow card, Pearson followed him to the bin within five minutes, Venter crashing over from a ruck a yard out, and Jordan doing the same to fix Saints sights on Gloucester.

After Tom Lockett had become the third visitor to the field, Afo Fasogbon gleefully dived over under the posts to make it 35-34 after Hutchinson made an incredible try-saving tackle to deny Ben Loader.

According to Gloucester’s head coach, George Skivington,

“I suppose the positive thing is that we almost managed to climb the mountain and win at half-time.”

“The first half obviously wasn’t good enough. Although our defensive combinations aren’t yet perfect, especially after some set-plays, we found some good positions in our 22nd and fumbled a lot in ours.

“We tried to put our pedal to the floor in the second half, but it’s very difficult to come back from a first half like that in the Premiership,” we said.

I believed the boys followed our lead and that they had to back what they were doing after the break because I was still confident in our game.

Phil Dowson, the rugby director for the Northampton Saints, stated to BBC Radio Northampton:

There is no team in this league that will roll over, especially at home.

“We had to dig very deep, not helped by some injuries that caused us to fall to 14 and some really poor discipline that caused us to fall to 13,” the author said. It is unacceptable to receive three second-half yellow cards.

I believed our team showed incredible fighting spirit, which epitomized where the team is at.

Innard, McArthur, Laulala, Alemanno, Bokenham, Taylor, Englefield, and Edwards-Giraud are the replacements.

Hendy, Todaro, Hutchinson, Litchfield, Martin, Belleau, McParland, Iyogun, Walker, Miller Mills, Coles, Van Der Mescht, Scott-Young, Chick, Pearson, Northampton.

R. Smith, Fischetti, Kundiona, Lockett, Brown, Weimann, Thame, and Pater are the replacements.