NORTHAMPTON SAINTS  0

Round one Guinness Premiership

Saturday, September 3, 2005

Welford Road

Leicester Tigers gave Saints a rather rude welcome to the GUINNESS PREMEIRSHIP by beating them 32 points to nil at Welford Road.

The great East Midlands derby began with a dismal display of kicking though, led by Tigers’ fly-half Andy Goode. The player that was announced as “the league’s highest points scorer for the last two seasons” did not begin 2005/06’s tally too well in that he missed seven kicks out of eight in the first half alone. Saints’ captain and kicker Bruce Reihana also failed to find his mark but by just two penalties.

However, the scoreboard did eventually get rolling when Goode opted to kick his fourth penalty attempt to touch for the lineout. This resulted in a classic Leicester driving maul and the body at the bottom of the scoring mass was lock James Hamilton. Goode missed the conversion though and the score remained at 5-0 from the 16th minute to the 33rd.

The major turn of events during that scoreless period was a yellow card for Saints’ prop Tom Smith, who was sent to the sin-bin for bringing down a Leicester player in the lineout. Tigers tried to take a quick try from the restart but Saints managed to hold up the searching hands of Goode.

Saints also managed to weather the storm as Tigers’ scrum-half Harry Ellis tried to peel off the back of the scrum for a try. He met his match in John Rudd but again Saints gave away a penalty. Goode went for touch but this time Saints won the ball back and Reihana kicked to touch. Tigers made the most of this lineout though and another driving maul gave the home side their second try through prop Michael Holford. Goode finally landed a kick and Tigers were 12 points in front.

And Leicester did not have to wait long for their third try when a loose pass from No 8 Daniel Browne failed to find Matt Lord or Saints Academy hooker Dylan Hartley, but rather the hands of wing Alesana Tuilagi, who raced a near full length of the pitch to make it 19-0.

Saints made one change at half-time with South African international Selborne Boome coming on for Alex Rae. But the fresh legs could not stop Leicester from scoring their bonus point try through centre Dan Hipkiss after he was set up with a another stunning run from Tuilagi. After 44 minutes, the scoreboard read 24-0 after a Goode conversion.

Saints wing Ben Cohen then tried his luck but as he off-loaded the ball to the waiting Jon Clarke, the touch judge spotted a Cohen toe on the line. The visitors brought on more fresh legs in Ben Lewitt and Chris Budgen, only for Goode to convert his fifth penalty attempt to take Tigers’ account to 27.

Carlos Spencer also gave it a go by running from deep but again Cohen was shoved into touch when he took over the mantle. Nothing, it seemed, wanted to go Saints’ way. Everything they tried did not completely work and the frustration was obvious in the players’ faces.

The final disappointing moment was when Reihana was hauled up by referee Roy Maybank after he pushed Tuilagi into touch after the latter had passed the ball. This incident led to penalty to Tigers, who opted for the scrum. It resulted in a try for wing Tom Varndell, which left Leicester very worthy winners.

Teams:
Northampton Saints – Reihana (capt); Rudd (Lamont 72mins), Clarke, Mallon, Cohen; Spencer, Robinson; Smith (Budgen 59mins), Hartley (Richmond 78mins), Sturgess, Lord, Damien Browne, Rae (Budgen 29-40mins) (Boome 40mins), Fox (Lewitt 59mins), Daniel Browne.

Leicester Tigers – Vesty; Tuilagi, Hipkiss (Lloyd 49mins), Gibson (Hipkiss 58mins), Varndell; Goode (Broadfoot 68mins), Ellis (Healey 68mins); Holford (White 60mins), Chuter (Taukafa 71mins), Moreno (Holford 79mins), Hamilton, Cullen (Kay 56mins), Johnson, Jennings, Corry (capt) (Abraham 49mins).

Referee:
Roy Maybank

Scorers:
Leicester Tigers – Tries: Hamilton, Holford, Tuilagi, Hipkiss, Varndell; Con: Goode (2); Pen: Goode.

Yellow card:
Smith (27mins)

Attendance:
16,815