Northampton Saints 23-13 Harlequins

It was, perhaps, inevitable after the heady successes of the past 2 weeks that Quins would be brought down to earth in the mundane surroundings of Northampton where they lost 23–13.   It was a disappointing and ill-disciplined performance orchestrated to the sound of Chris White’s whistle & punctuated by 2 yellow cards, for Gomarsall & Fuga, which left Harlequins playing with 14 men for 20 minutes

The first penalty against Quins came after only three minutes and from a couple of metres inside the Harlequins’ half Meyler hit the crossbar. Three minutes later another chance from the ten-metre line opened the scoring for the home side.  But Quins appeared to be settling down and beginning to put pressure in attack with Monye looking dangerous when given any space.  A penalty allowed Nick Evans to level the scores.

But now Mr. White was finding fault with the Harlequins’ front row where the Northampton tight head was deliberately not permitting Ceri Jones to bind.  The tactic succeeded when another successful kick from Meyler put Saints back into the lead. Then from another scrum, Gomarsall’s pass found Monye at pace slicing straight through the Northampton line to score under the posts.  Nick Evans converted and Harlequins were in the lead 6 – 10.

There was little else of excitement in the remainder of the half. Evans added another successful penalty. Northampton tried to attack but was easily rebuffed.  They never really threatened.  The kicking duels continued but brought no profit. With ten second on the clock Nick Evans tried a drop goal but it went wide to ironic cheers from the Saints’ faithful and the half-time whistle. At the break Quins led 6 – 13.

The second half started in much more explosive fashion as Saints moved the ball rapidly left along the backs and Clarke forced his way over in the left corner for a try which Meyler converted to level the scores.  Evans had a chance at three points but his kick narrowly missed.  Then as Northampton attacked a chip forward by Reihana saw Gomarsall block his chase for the ball and a yellow card followed, but Meyler missed the easy penalty.

With Harlequins reduced to fourteen men and Monye acting scrum half, Harlequins found themselves under considerable pressure from a rampant Saints.  Pressure on the Quins’ line brought another yellow card and as Gomarsall returned Fuga was dismissed for a deliberate offside. Meyler took the points to give the home side the lead 16 –13.

Quins continued to battle with a man short but without their hooker, Easter took the throw at a lineout.  Northampton stole the ball and from that produced another try under the posts from Downey, converted by Meyler, which effectively killed off any chance that Quins may have had of salvaging a win.  Quins went close as a good flowing move saw Mike Brown just put into touch about ten metres from the Northampton line. Evans missed with two penalties. Saints easily ran the clock down despite losing Lobbe to the sin-bin with six minutes remaining.

So Quins came away empty-handed and will have to work hard to gear themselves up again to deal with Leicester at Twickenham next week, if the Big Game is not to become a Big Loss.

NORTHAMPTON: B Reihana (capt); P Diggin (C Mayor 79min), J Clarke, J Downey, S Lamont; S Myler, L Dickson (B Foden 66min); S Tonga’uiha (T Smith 66min), D Hartley, E Murray, I Fernandez Lobbe, C Day, M Easter (M Hopley 66min), R Wilson, S Gray.

HARLEQUINS: M Brown (C Malone 77min); S Stegmann, D W Barry, J Turner-Hall, U Monye; N Evans, A Gomarsall; C Jones, T Fuga, M Ross, J Percival (G Robson 63min), J Evans, C Robshaw (A Croall 65-67min, T Guest 68min), N Easter, W Skinner (capt).

Referee: C White (RFU)
Attendance: 13,349