Northampton Saints were forced to dig deep on Friday night to keep their unbeaten run in the Gallagher PREM going, with a 19-36 victory eventually ensuring Alex Coles and his teammates left the North East will a full five league points.
Saints shot out to an initial 14-0 lead at Kingston Park, but Red Bulls showed their mettle in front of their sold-out home crowd and pushed Saints all the way to the final whistle, despite the scoreline telling a more flattering tale for the men in Black, Green and Gold.
Coles’ monumental contribution to Saints’ eventual victory – including the decisive final score at Kingston Park – earned the England lock the Player of the Match accolade, and the 26-year-old was pleased to see Saints get a second consecutive away victory under their belts.
“They (Newcastle) made it really hard work for us,” Coles said. “It’s never an easy game actually. We looked back at our last few results here and they’ve always been tight, coming down to the last play normally.
“Especially after the result they had last weekend (a 57-5 defeat at Sale Sharks), we knew they’d fight back, and they produced a really good reaction, making it hard for us all over the pitch.
“The support here was amazing for them – it was a sell-out and that made it a bit of an atmosphere, and they fed off that.
“We just stuck in it, and in the end, we managed to get ourselves a bit of a margin. But the whole game was really nip and tuck, and it was only at the end we managed to get two scores ahead.
“We’re happy to be two from two away from home in the PREM.”
One of the match’s bright moments for Northampton came in the final minutes of the clash, when Coles was sent galloping towards the try line after Emmanuel Iyogun wrestled the ball back into Saints hands.
The lock was unleashed just outside Red Bulls’ 22 when Fin Smith tipped the ball back inside; and Coles still had plenty to do from there, with his 30-metre sprint also requiring him to step his way around Newcastle’s fullback on his way over the whitewash.
“The space opened up quite nicely,” Coles said of his 19th try in a Saints shirt. “I was screaming at Fin to give it on the inside and luckily he heard me.
“I actually didn’t really know what to do when I broke the line – I was worried I was going to mess it up.
“But it was nice at that time to get it because it gave us a bit of a margin at the end and it made it a bit safer going into the last few minutes.”
It was a far from perfect performance for Saints in Newcastle, despite their five tries from JJ Van Der Mescht, Alex Mitchell, Tommy Freeman, Edoardo Todaro and player of the match Coles.
Red Bulls clawed themselves back into contention before the interval with a neat pair for scores, and when Saints made things harder for themselves as the team’s indiscipline led to a yellow card for opening try-scorer Van Der Mescht, Newcastle capitalised to chase down Northampton’s early lead.
A second yellow card, and subsequent 20-minute red card, for lock Van Der Mescht, meant Saints were down to 14 men for over a third of the match and left them work to do to fight off a Newcastle comeback.
But despite those shortcomings, Northampton held firm and Coles knows there is plenty the side can take away from both their strengths and weaknesses in the Newcastle win.
“We’re going to be hard on those things we can get better at,” he said.
“In the past few games, we’ve had really good starts and then not clicked, but I think a lot of that is just time.
“Both our half-backs (Mitchell and Smith) have only just come back from the Lions so that’s going to take some time to gel again.
“We’ve had people coming back from different places at different times, but the positive thing for us is that we’re getting results and then it’s a much easier place to review that performance on the back of a win rather than a loss.”
The men in Black, Green and Gold will have little time to reflect on their third consecutive league victory, as fourth-place Saracens make the trip to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens next Friday (24 October, kick-off: 7.45pm).
Saints last four PREM meetings with Saracens have gone the way of the home side, with last season’s clash on Northampton soil decided with a dramatic overtime score, and Coles is relishing the prospect of another thrilling encounter in Round 5.
He said: “We’re really happy with the results but I think we will just keep getting better and better.
"Performance wise, there’s bits we need to look at, and the coaches are really good at staying level-headed regardless of results so we’ll be looking at things objectively.
“We’ve got a really tough test coming up with Sarries at home because they’re also looking really good.
“We’re looking forward to that game, back at home, another Friday night game, and we love playing at the Gardens.
“We’ve had some real mega games against Sarries at home so we’re looking forward to it.”