Match Report: Northampton Saints 49 –29 Harlequins

Northampton Saints kept up their chase for a place in the semi-finals of the Premiership Rugby Cup on Tuesday evening with another entertaining performance to beat Harlequins 49-29 on home soil.

A whopping 61 points were scored in an end-to-end first half at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens – although the men in Black, Green and Gold were always in the ascendancy, wrapping up the bonus point in the 25th minute and crossing six times in total through Kayde Sylvester, Angus Scott-Young, Tom Collins (twice), George Hendy and Tom Lockett.

Scrum-half Tom James, captain on the night, added another try shortly after the interval to stretch Saints’ lead as Northampton surged to the top of Pool C in the Cup competition courtesy of the resounding five-point win.

FIRST HALF

The visitors took the lead in what proved to be a lively first half, as Will Edwards’ scruffy kick under pressure from Ethan Grayson somehow stayed in play for Cassius Cleaves to pick-up and dot down.

Edwards’ conversion was good but Saints were level just two minutes later thanks to a bizarre try which saw Harlequins attempt to quickly take a short goal-line drop-out, only for it to drop straight to Sylvester who slid over the whitewash from five metres out.

With a quarter of an hour played, the hosts went ahead as Scott-Young burst through a ruck to score under the posts.

James Grayson made no mistake with either conversion, and was in the centre of the action again three minutes later as Quins were penalised on halfway for an accidental offside. The Northampton No.10 was alert and quickly fired an inch-perfect kick across the field for Collins who was in acres of space and rounded the last defender to score.

Despite another conversion from Grayson making it 21-7, the visitors answered again shortly after as Saints were caught narrow in defence and Edwards flung a pass wide for Conor Oresanya to score in the left corner.

The bonus point was secure within 24 minutes as James Ramm drew the last defender and flung an offload out the back door to Hendy on the right wing – Grayson added the extras although that was his last action of the night as he went off nursing an arm injury.

Quins added their third try just before the half-hour mark as Connor Slevin got on the shoulder of scrum-half Jack Stafford to score under the posts, but five minutes later Saints were up the other end again as James’ dummy at the base of the ruck saw him go through a gap, and after an offload to Joel Matavesi (on for Grayson), the replacement fly-half offloaded again to Lockett who burst under the posts.

Matavesi’s conversion made it 35-19, and there was still time for another seven-pointer before the break as Collins flashed over again. Ed Prowse won a scrum penalty in Quins territory, and as the resulting maul trundled towards the line, James sent a pass down the blindside for the winger to dive into the corner.

SECOND HALF

Collins was replaced by Jake Garside at the start of the second half, which Saints started as they ended the first – building the pressure for several minutes before the dam finally burst, James scampering around a ruck and through a gap in Quins’ line to cross under the posts.

Another routine conversion for Matavesi took the score to 49-19, and the hosts then unloaded the bench before the hour mark as Ehren Painter, George Patten, Archie Kean, and Isaac Bell all entered the action.

Bell came close to scoring in the 61st minute after another scrum penalty was won by the Northampton pack, but after an effective lineout maul, the replacement hooker was held up over the line.

Harlequins did snatch a bonus-point try through Edwards with five minutes remaining as the No.10 scampered over in the right corner, but not even another score in the last minute from the same player (after an incredible run from his own goal-line from Jamie Benson) could take the gloss off the result for Saints, who toasted a 20-point win at the final whistle.

Next up for Northampton is a visiting Newcastle Falcons side, who come to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens this Saturday afternoon for a Gallagher Premiership clash.