Northampton Saints Under-18s secured victory in their third round fixture of PREM Next Gen in a thriller against Sale Sharks at Shelford Rugby Club.
There were over 100 points scored in the game, with the young Saints running in an impressive 11 tries against their northern rivals.
Northampton had five on the board before the break with England U18 winger Charlie Tamani scoring a brace as well as tries from Sonny Goode, Will Howes and Jack Woods.
Howes had got his second try after the break with Hardy Linnell, Kingsley Gallimore, Jack Lewis and Will Hepher all crossing the whitewash as well as Kai Fisher from the bench.
Reflecting on the result, Head Coach Charlie Reed said: “The main things as coaches that we were going to judge the players on was their intent and their want to play quickly, as well as how physical we could be on both sides of the ball.
“We certainly felt the boys went after that. There are always naturally things we can get better at, but overall, it was a pleasing night.
“Some of the tries we scored were brilliant and there was some lovely running rugby, which this team has a great natural ability to do.”
FIRST-HALF:
Saints opened the scoring before the five-minute mark with Goode swan diving under the posts. Sale responded with an early try themselves with a nicely weighted crossfield kick that the winger gathered and finished.
Northampton had their second courtesy of Howes, fishing off some nice handling from the backs to dive in at the corner, followed up by another try this time from scrum-half Woods, who sniped from the base of the ruck close to the line and crossed the whitewash.
Sale had their second after some pressure inside the Saints’ 22 and the centre cut a hard line to run it in, followed shortly after by a cross-field kick from Saints themselves for Tamani’s first.
Sale had another before the half was out, but it was Saints who had the final score of the first period, with Tamani taking a lovely inside ball from Woods to run it in from halfway and enter the break with a convincing lead.
SECOND-HALF:
It was the boys in Black, Green and Gold who opened the scoring for the second period with Linnell showing a clean pair of heels after breaking the line to run it in under the posts.
Howes added his second after quick ball at the breakdown got Saints on the front foot, allowing the winger to score in the corner, and Gallimore and Lewis scored in quick succession to take the lead to 40 points.
Sale responded with consecutive scores after constant pressure inside the Saints’ red zone to close the gap on the scoreboard; however, Saints came back with two scores in succession from Hepher and Fisher to take the game beyond reach for the visitors.
Sale did have one more try before the full-time whistle, following a yellow card for Noah Buxton for too many penalties. The Sale pack went over from the rolling maul, but that was to be the final act, and Saints took the victory.
The win marks Saints U18s’ final fixtures for the 2025 calendar year as they return to PREM Next Gen action in the new year, opening 2026 with an East Midlands derby away to Leicester Tigers.
LINE-UPS:
Saints U18: 15. Hardy Linnell, 14. William Howes, 13. Sonny Goode, 12. Callum Tarry, 11. Charlie Tamani, 10. Hugh Shields, 9. Jack Woods; 1. Aiden Reid, 2. Kingsley Gallimore, 3. Noah Buxton, 4. Alex Mead, 5. George Tonga’uiha, 6. Rafferty Hewitt, 7. Will Hepher, 8. Jack Lewis.
Replacements: 16. Charlie Utting, 17. Lucas Veevers, 19. Connor Wight, 20. Ronan Perkins, 21. Archie Ball, 22. Kai Fisher, 23. Elijah Jeyes
Sale Sharks U18: 15. Austin Keogh, 14. Vojtech Nevicky, 13. Christian Smith, 12. Luca Barrass-Robson, 11. Lincoln Gladwin, 10. Tom Jacques, 9. Will Bayston; 1. Hendro Hattingh, 2. Theo Macandrew, 3. Lawrence Ogbonnaya, 4. Nico Jones, 5. Ed Jones, 6. Chris Kirkby, 7. Ethan Banks, 8. Jordan Ikeh
Replacements: 16. Tom Cross, 17. Ferg Hayles, 18. George Shelton, 19. Victor Joulie 20. Jack Bowbeer, 21. Arthur Scrase, 22. Adam Jacques
Saints U17 54-33 Sale Sharks U17
Immediately following the PREM Next Gen league fixture was a friendly between Saints and Sale’s U17s sides, and it was the Northampton boys who came away with a 54-33 victory.
The U17s ran in eight tries including a hat-trick from Tommy Karponas and a brace from Jeremiah German as well as tries from Will Catley, Seb Dare and Kai Manson.