Match Report: Northampton Saints 38 – 22 London Irish

Northampton Saints secured maximum league points with their first win of the new Gallagher Premiership season, scoring four tries to seal a 38-22 victory in an action-packed contest with London Irish on Saturday afternoon. 

Following last Sunday’s defeat at Sale Sharks, bouncing back in their first league outing of the season at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens was paramount for Saints, who played far better when their opponents were at full strength than when they had multiple players in the sin bin. 

Eventually, tries by Juarno Augustus, Ollie Sleightholme, Alex Mitchell and George Furbank were enough to secure a bonus point and a first notch in the ‘W’ column under new director of rugby Phil Dowson. 

FIRST HALF

In truth, the first half was something of a slow-burner after the 10,658 inside the Gardens immaculately observed a minute’s silence following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem. 

Saints had been forced into a change pre-match when illness caused Dan Biggar to be withdrawn from the starting line-up and replaced by James Grayson at fly-half, which also meant the captain’s armband passed to Furbank. 

The alteration did not appear to affect the hosts too adversely, however, as they opened the scoring after nine minutes with an absolute belter of a try. 

It was mostly down to two pieces of brilliance from Mitchell as the scrum-half collected his own chip over the London Irish defence before flinging a long pass to the right wing, where Augustus was ready to run in at the corner. 

Conceding a succession of penalties meant Saints were under pressure just before the half-hour mark and Irish looked set to finally strike when their captain Adam Coleman barged his way over the line. 

However, the Australian lock was held up by a superb last-ditch tackle, allowing Grayson to clear his team’s lines, before unfortunate injuries to the visitors’ Facundo Gigena and Coleman further interrupted what was already a disjointed half. 

The Exiles thought they had their try three minutes before the break when Henry Arundell went clear after Curtis Rona’s charge through midfield. 

Their joy was short-lived though, as – after a lengthy TMO check – the score was not only ruled out due to a high hit by Tom Pearson on Alex Waller in the build-up, but the flanker was sin-binned and Grayson kicked the resulting penalty to add to Saints’ tally.

SECOND HALF

Saints had a huge opportunity to pull further clear early in the second half as further yellow cards for Arundell and Rob Simmons before the break meant they would be restarting against 12 men. 

Incredibly, the visitors struck first after the interval thanks to a Paddy Jackson penalty. But in keeping with the strange nature of the game, Saints got back on the front foot almost immediately after Irish were back up to 15 as a good pass right by Grayson gave Sleightholme a walk-in. 

The lead then looked to be a match-winning one after 55 minutes when the ever-alert Mitchell spotted a gap when picking up at a ruck and darted through it to score under the posts. 

Having missed several opportunities earlier, Irish then had their first try of the afternoon in the 63rd minute and it was a well-worked effort as Ollie Hassell-Collins broke before passing to Arundell, whose off-load was gathered by scorer Will Joseph. 

A few nerves in the Gardens were then set jangling when Grayson was sin-binned for deliberately knocking on Rona’s pass, which would have put Ben Donnell in the clear. 

A penalty try was awarded to Irish but Saints quickly regathered themselves and extended the lead back out to 28-15 through a penalty by Furbank. 

The stand-in skipper then claimed the bonus-point try for Saints with seven minutes left by going in under the sticks after running onto Alex Coles’ off-load, before he then added a second penalty from the tee for good measure. 

There was still time in what was a full-on second half for Hassell-Collins to power over in the left-hand corner in the game’s final play after being found in space by Arundell, but Saints now head into next week’s East Midlands derby against Leicester Tigers with maximum league points from their first win. 

LINE-UPS

Northampton Saints: Furbank, O Sleightholme, Proctor, Hutchinson (Litchfield 62), Collins (Skosan 75), J Grayson, Mitchell (Braley 73), A Waller (Iyogun 38), S Matavesi (Haywood 59), Hill (Petch 51), Salakaia-Loto (Nansen 73), Moon, Coles, Hinkley (Scott-Young 53), Augustus 

London Irish: Arundell, Loader (Joseph 57), Rona, Van Rensburg (Morisi 73), Hassell-Collins, Jackson, White (Englefield 55), Gigena (Fischetti 28), Cornish (Miller 70), Chawatama (Parker 57), Simmons, Coleman (Ratuniyarawa 33), Donnell, Pearson, Rogerson (Cunningham-Smith 67)