After having a week off it was almost inevitable that it would be scored by Chris Ashton. Doncaster had had the better of the opening exchanges, helped by Dylan Hartley’s not claiming an Anthony Carter high kick. But they conceded a penalty for crossing, Matt Lord won the lineout and when the ball was sent along the line Bruce Reihana drew Carter and fed Ashton for the score. The Saints skipper also added the conversion and Saints were seven-nil up.
Ashton had his second try eight minutes later. With the sides still weighing each other up and play mired between the 22-metre lines Chris Planchant ran the ball from a scrum base. Unfortunately for the hosts his pass went straight through Bryn Griffiths’s fingers and into Saints hands. Jon Clarke took the ball on and fired out a long pass to Ashton who crossed unopposed. Reihana again converted and Saints were scoring at a point per minute.
Doncaster were still intent on running the ball though and one break by Bradley Hunt could have become very threatening had he fed Paul Bailey on the outside. But the hesitancy allowed the defence to drift and the attack was nullified. But Saints too were taking advantage of the conditions and Carlos Spencer and James Downey combined with Clarke to create a clean line break.
Clarke was denied a try in the 25th minute when the ball was deemed to go forward from Spencer to Downey close to the Knghts’ posts. And a second good chance went astray less than a minute later when Clarke fumbled the ball with the Doncaster defence hanging on.
The Knights showed that even at 14-0 down they shouldn’t be written off with a quick Planchant 22-metre drop-out that opened the way for play to go into the Northampton half. Ngalu Ta’u’s drop handed back possession to the Saints and after a wonderful piece of Spencer magic had turned the home defence inside and out, Reihana extended the lead to 17-0 with a straightforward penalty.
The first-half scoring was all about one man, however, and Ashton scored his hat-trick try in the 37th minute. Clarke created the score with a typical break and Reihana sent Ashton over with a well placed grubber kick. The ball was dotted down between the sticks and the extras took the lead out to 24-nil.
However Saints were down to 14 men before half-time with Dylan Hartley’s yellow card. The Knights pack took advantage and Bryn Griffiths crashed over from close range. Mark Woodrow missed the conversion and the half ended with Saints leading 24-5.
It was 24-10 three minutes into the second half. Bailey rounded Paul Diggin with a neat side-step and a good turn of pace and raced into the Saints 22. The ball was recycled quickly and with a huge overlap Justin Bishop’s try was a formality. But Woodrow hooked the conversion, not a problem faced by Reihana three minutes later.
His conversion sailed over and took the score to 31-10, but it will be Ashton who grabs tomorrow’s headlines with his fourth try of the day, and 29th of the season – a new National League One record.
Griffiths came close to adding to his tally as Doncaster sought another try. This time the defence was solid and drove the flanker back to win a scrum. Doncaster had another couple of goes at the visitors’ line before the hour but their efforts proved to no avail as Saints scored again.
Ashton’s run up the middle ripped the defence apart and a couple of phases later Spencer launched an inch perfect cross kick to the left wing. Alex Rae was on the end of it and he fed Matt Lord for a try that was received well by the thousand-strong travelling support. This time Reihana’s conversion went wide but with a quarter of the match to go the lead was a healthy 26 points.
The last 20 minutes were scoreless, but Saints let two chances go begging with a knock-on and a penalty for holding on spoiling the opportunities. Had the bonus point not already been won this would have been disappointing, especially when an injury-time scrum 10 metres out was lost against the head.
Ultimately it made little difference and the Saints left Castle Park with another win.
Teams:
Doncaster Knights – Carter; Bailey, Hunt Davey Bishop (capt); Woodrow, B Jones (Storey 75mins); List, Boden (Phillips 69mins), Ta’u (T Davies 47mins (Toke 66mins)), Gross (Fa’aoso 56mins), Kenworthy, Griffiths, J Jones, Planchant.
Northampton Saints – Reihana (capt); Ashton, Clarke, Downey (Starling 63mins), Diggin; Spencer (Myler 64mins), Howard (Robinson 71mins); Smith (Tonga’uiha 56mins), Hartley, Stewart (Shields 63mins), Lord, Rae (Short 66mins), Easter, Fox, Hopley (Shields 41-52mins (Tupai 66mins)).
Scorers:
Doncaster Knights – Tries: Griffiths, Bishop.
Northampton Saints – Tries: Ashton (4), Lord; Cons: Reihana (4); Pen: Reihana.
Attendance:
3,075
TIMELINE:
3mins SAINTS Try Ashton Con Reihana 0-7
11mins SAINTS Try Ashton Con Reihana 0-14
33mins SAINTS Pen Reihana 0-17
37mins SAINTS Try Ashton Con Reihana 0-24
40+2mins SAINTS Yellow card Hartley
40+3mins KNIGHTS Try Griffiths 5-24
HALF-TIME KNIGHTS 5 SAINTS 24
43mins KNIGHTS Try Bishop 10-24
46mins SAINTS Try Ashton Con Reihana 10-31
62mins SAINTS Try Lord 10-36
FULL-TIME KNIGHTS 10 SAINTS 36
