NORTHAMPTON SAINTS 68

 

MOSELEY 12

 

National League One Round 3

 

Franklin’s Gardens

 

Saturday, 15 September, 2007

 

Moseley had come down the M6 with one of only five undefeated records in NL1. Despite this expectations were high that it would be Saints who would continue their perfect record, and when Barry Everitt’s dancing feet took him over the line in the second minute these expectations

 

Saints had three further opportunities before the end of the first quarter. All of the attacking play headed down the right hand side, generally involving Johnny Howard and Paul Diggin. The scrum-half’s break on his own 10-metre line took Moseley by surprise but his kick ahead was swept up by full-back Andrew Binns.

 

Instead it was the visitors’ 14, Nathan Bressington, who scored next in the 17th minute following two successive powerful Moseley rolling mauls. Matthew Jones’s break had emulated Everitt’s by slicing through the Saints defence, but he failed to add the conversion. Nevertheless the 7-5 score line had nerves fluttering.

 

But what got the crowd going the most – aside from the later tries of course – was Mark Foster’s dangerous tackle of Diggin while the latter was in mid-air. Foster saw yellow and Diggin reaped the benefits three minutes later.

 

A Saints lineout was sent straight down the line. Visser came off his wing to create an overlap and some straight running and good timing of passes by the Saints midfield had Diggin away and in the corner to finish off a sweeping 60-metre move.

 

Everitt missed the touchline conversion from the right and should have had another try from the left had Carlos Spencer not knocked the ball on a couple of metres shy of the line. It was unfortunate as further good handling had created more havoc in the Moseley defence and five points would have been suitable reward.

 

A fourth try did come to the Saints before the break scored by Ben Lewitt, and a fifth dotted down by Dave Ward. Everitt landed two conversions to make the score at half-time Saints 33, Moseley 5.

 

A trio of front row replacements was made by the visitors in an attempt to shore up the wobbling scrum. It had little impact two minutes into the second half though as Mark Hopley dived over between the sticks. Everitt converted and Saints were up to 40 points.

 

Foster, still probably smarting from his earlier sinbinning, had come to the Gardens with an excellent scoring record. His 48th-minute effort took his season’s tally to three but he was joined at the top of the charts by Ward’s second of the afternoon two minutes later.

 

Like his try last week this score was followed by some fisticuffs and a warning for both captains. It also necessitated a four-minute stoppage and the replacement of Richard Stott with Oliver Atkinson. It didn’t matter to Everitt however – the conversion still went over to make the score 47-12.

 

Bruce Reihana’s interception and try from a desperate Jones pass took Saints past the 50-point mark and his conversion added two further points. The game was well won by this stage but Moseley worked themselves into Saints’ 22 and even had a man advantage thanks to Chris Budgen’s sinbinning.

 

The best was left ‘til last however. An 80-metre spectacular by Mark Robinson from a scrum was followed by red cards for Simon Emms and Neil Bayliss for fighting at the scrum from which Robinson scored.

 

And then more magic feet from Spencer and more great hands from James Downey and Travis Perkins man of the match Alex Rae put Chris Ashton over for the tenth and final try.

 

Teams:
Northampton Saints – Spencer; Diggin, Reihana (capt), Downey, Visser (Ashton 60mins); Everitt (Kydd 60mins), Howard (Robinson 40mins); Emms, Ward (Gray 69mins), Stewart (Budgen 64mins), Short (Lord 60mins), Rae, Tupai (Stewart 76mins), Lewitt (Easter 60mins), Hopley.

 

Moseley – Binns; Bressington, James, Adams, Foster; Jones, Hunter; Williams (Buxton 40mins), Caves (McMillan 40mins), Forster (Bayliss 40mins), Arnold, Stott (Atkinson 56mins), Mason (capt), Uzoigwe, Lightowler (Evans 56mins).

 

Scorers:
Northampton Saints – Tries: Everitt, Visser, Diggin, Lewitt, Ward (2), Hopley, Reihana, Robinson, Ashton; Cons: Everitt (6), Reihana (3).

 

Moseley – Tries: Bressington, Foster; Con: Jones.

 

Red cards:
Emms (80mins)
Bayliss (80mins)

 

Yellow cards:
Foster (27mins)
Budgen (74mins)

 

Travis Perkins man of the match:
Alex Rae

 

Attendance:
10,071

 

TIMELINE:
2mins SAINTS Try Everitt Con Everitt 7-0
17mins MOSE Try Bressington 7-5
23mins SAINTS Try Visser Con Everitt 14-5
27mins MOSE Yellow card Foster
30mins SAINTS Try Diggin 19-5
40+1mins SAINTS Try Lewitt Con Everitt 26-5
40+4mins SAINTS Try Ward Con Everitt 33-5
HALF-TIME SAINTS 33 MOSELEY 5
42mins SAINTS Try Hopley Con Everitt 40-5
48mins MOSE Try Foster Con Jones 40-12
52mins SAINTS Try Ward Con Everitt 47-12
69mins SAINTS Try Reihana Con Reihana 54-12
74mins SAINTS Yellow card Budgen
77mins SAINTS Try Robinson Con Reihana 61-12
80mins MOSE Red card Bayliss
80mins SAINTS Red card Emms
81mins SAINTS Try Ashton Con Reihana 68-12
FULL-TIME SAINTS 68 MOSELEY 12