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| 4 January 2003, 5:56 pm |
| London Irish Make Saints Suffer |
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NORTHAMPTON SAINTS 10
LONDON IRISH 22
Saturday, January 4, 2003
Franklin's Gardens
For the second time in as many weeks, Northampton Saints were caught on the hop as the opposition went over for an early try. And just as the week before, Saints failed to make up the difference to take the home lead they should have strived for from the outset.
The man who went over for that try was London Irish's full-back Michael Horak. The Exiles had won a scrum, just metres out from Saints' line, and Horak took full advantage of such close proximity. Barry Everitt had no problem in kicking the conversion, but then goal kicking for last season's league highest points scorer was never going to be an issue.
The issue of the day was how were Saints going to get themselves back into this game, even at such an early stage. Their first chance of points came from a penalty, but Paul Grayson failed to find the mark and so the deficit was still seven points.
Danger loomed again when Everitt set off on a jinking run through Saints' defence to release Paul Sackey into space, only for the wing to drop the ball in front of the posts. Saints were definitely given a let-off then and they made use of their borrowed time by making sure they got the best out of a penalty kick to touch for a lineout just five metres out in front of the Shrubbery Terrace.
Lock Steve Williams was the man on the end of Steve Thompson's throw, and he fed the ball back to Thompson, who ensured all 18st 2lbs of his 6ft 2ins frame powered through the waiting Exiles wall for Saints' one and only try of the afternoon. Grayson kicked the conversion and Saints had put points on the board at last. But by this time Everitt has kicked two penalties and added another one before half-time to bring the score-line to 7-16 at the break - Saints were still woefully behind.
Something had to change if the game was going to pick up in the second half, but nothing changed for the better, In fact, the errors became more commonplace, and the lineout and scrums still failed to work efficiently. The most pertinent examples of how poorly the lineout functioned came in the last 10 minutes as Saints desperately fought for two more tries to combat the extra points put on the board by Everitt after he kicked two more penalties.
Two Saints penalties were kicked to the corner for lineouts but both failed - they lost possession in the first and dropped the ball in the second. This was the cue for a quick exit for many of the 10,000-plus supporters, and although Grayson had brought Saints' tally up to 10 with penalty of his own, it could not match the 17 points kicked by Everitt to bring up London Irish's final victorious tally of 22. Not a good start to the New Year.
Teams:
Northampton Saints - Beal; Reihana, Jorgensen, Leslie (capt), Ripol; Grayson, Vass (Howard 79mins); Smith, Thompson, Morris (Budgen 60mins), Williams (Lord 46mins), Phillips, Hunter (Fox 60mins), Pountney (Richmond 74mins), Soden.
London Irish - Horak; Sackey, Burrows, Venter, Bishop; Everitt, Edwards (Martens 66mins); Worsley (Hatley 51mins), Drotske (Kirke 47mins), Hardwick (Halford 7-11, 45mins), Delaney (Casey 54mins), Kennedy, Gustard (capt), Dawson, Sheasby.
Referee:
Ashley Rowden
Touch judges:
Mark Wilson & Steve Savage
Scorers:
Northampton Saints - Try: Thompson; Con: Grayson; Pen: Grayson.
London Irish - Try: Horak; Cons: Everitt; Pens: Everitt (5).
Attendance:
10,604
Travis Perkins man of the match:
Keiron Dawson
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