Northampton Saints delivered their most complete performance of the season to defeat Exeter Chiefs, but director of rugby Phil Dowson dropped short of labelling it a ‘great’ display.
Chiefs arrived at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday brimming with confidence after securing three wins in four games but were no match for the men in Black, Green and Gold who ran out 34-19 winners.
Tommy Freeman, Curtis Langdon, Alex Mitchell and Fraser Dingwall contributed to a tryscoring bonus point while man-of-the-match Fin Smith added 14 points from the tee.
After a third successive win — with the other two coming by margins of two and six points — Dowson was asked if it was Saints’ most complete performance so far this season.
“Yes, definitely,’’ he said. “All the games have been very tight so far, so I think both sides of the ball we did lots of good things today. By no means are we perfect and it wasn’t a great performance but I think it was very good.’’
Saints had built a 17-point lead in a brilliant first half at the Gardens as their defence, work at the breakdown and good discipline were key factors in stopping Exeter getting a foothold in the game.
“What we spoke about was the balance of discipline and not giving them fast ball from which they can really generate momentum. They’ve been so effective that this campaign, particularly at home, they key factor was being physical but also being disciplined and not giving too many penalties away.’’
Phil Dowson, Northampton Saints director of rugby
Saints had to to cope with losing James Ramm from the original starting line-up but did so well with the replacements making key impacts, as the returning Sam Matavesi impressed along with lock Alex Coles were among the substitutions to impress and take the game away from Exeter.
“We emptied our bench completely,’’ said Dowson. “Those players are there to have an impact and to make a difference without doing anything extraordinary. There was a great example last week, when Sam Graham came off the bench [against Bath].
“He was disappointed not to start and he was outstanding and got the turnover at the end of the game which allowed us to finish the game winning it. We've talked a lot about the impact those guys can have. The strength and depth is something we continually work for.
“It’s a whole-squad effort with the way the season is, for James Ramm to drop out late and Ollie Sleightholme to step up onto the bench and have a really good understanding of what the plan was and how he was going to impact it was fantastic. Credit to the players in terms of their application, week in, week out.’’
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