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| 5 April 2003, 11:02 pm |
| Fourth Time Unlucky For Saints |
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GLOUCESTER 40
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS 22
Powergen Cup final
Saturday, April 5, 2003
Twickenham
Full-back Nick Beal's stunning try and scintillating attempts at several others were not enough to grant Northampton Saints the domestic cup victory they so desired.
Saints were well and truly in the hunt for the first half and came away leaders at half-time but they failed to score any further points in the second half while Gloucester romped away with two more tries and victory.
Gloucester began their cherry and white assault early on following an opening penalty from Saints' fly-half Paul Grayson. No sooner had he thrown his tee to the touchline then Gloucester wing James Simpson-Daniel romped over the try line after lock Steve Williams was brought down under the kick-off ball. Ludovic Mercier kicked the conversion and took Gloucester to a 7-3 lead after just six minutes.
Mercier, who does not miss much, did miss a penalty shortly after, but he made up for it with a sublime drop-goal in the 12th minute to stretch that lead to 10-3. Grayson clawed some points back with a penalty nine minutes later after Gloucester were deemed offside by referee Tony Spreadbury. He then made it 10-9 with another in the 23rd minute when Gloucester's late replacement lock Rob Fidler was sent to the sin-bin.
Then came Beal's moment of triumph. The cup final programme article described him as 'Northampton's Natural' - and by natural, they meant natural sportsman. And he certainly looked that way when he cut through Gloucester's defence at speed to take Saints into the lead. Grayson kicked the conversion and the scoreboard read 10-16.
But how short-lived that lead was to be. Gloucester's talented No 8 James Forrester, who had turned on the style so many times at Franklin's Gardens during the England 'A' series, cut inside Saints hooker Steve Thompson to release fellow England 'A' team mate Marcel Garvey for Gloucester's second try. Mercier kicked the conversion and reclaimed the lead at 17-16 in the 31st minute.
Then both kickers exchanged penalties before Grayson has the final say on the stroke of half-time to give Saints a lead of 20-22 as the teams returned to the changing rooms.
It looked as though the second half was going to be more of the same and a real classic, nail-biting thriller, but it was not to be. Saints failed to score again after two sharp blasts - one from Gloucester and the other from Spreadbury's whistle.
The first was a try from Forrester after just three minutes. The second was the sin-binning of Grayson. Saints tried to battle against the tide, but in Grase's absence Mercier kicked two more penalties to add to the conversion he kicked following Forrester's try to take Gloucester's tally to 33-22 with eight minutes of normal time remaining.
A glimmer of hope came when Gloucester full-back Thinus Delport was sent to the sin-bin in the 80th minute and the fourth official indicated there was five minutes of injury time to be played. But Gloucester had the last word when Mercier incepted scrum-half Matt Dawson's pass to Ben Cohen and then found Simpson-Daniel, who relished taking the ball over the try line a second time.
Gloucester were the worthy victors with 40 points to Saints' 22.
Teams:
Northampton Saints - Beal; Reihana, Jorgensen (Hyndman 63mins), Leslie (co-capt), Cohen; Grayson, Dawson; Smith, Thompson, Morris (Stewart 54mins), Lord, Williams (Fox 77mins), Connors, Pountney (co-capt), Blowers.
Gloucester - Delport; Garvey, Fanolua, (Todd 75mins) Paul, Simpson-Daniel; Mercier, Gomarsall; Woodman, Azam, Deacon, Eustace, Fidler, Boer (capt) (Paramore 26-38mins), Hazell (Paramore 61mins (Pearce 75mins), Forrester.
Referee:
Tony Spreadbury
Touch judges:
Ashley Reay & Stuart Terheege
Scorers:
Northampton Saints - Try: Beal; Con: Grayson; Pens: Grayson (5).
Gloucester - Tries: Simpson-Daniel (2), Garvey, Forrester; Cons: Mercier (4); Pens: Mercier (3); DG: Mercier
Yellow cards:
Fidler (23mins)
Grayson (65mins)
Delport (80mins)
Attendance:
75,000
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