A frustrating 34-22 loss was how Northampton Saints brought their second block of PREM Rugby Cup matches to a close against Leicester Tigers on Friday night.
Saints seemed to dominate the first 40 minutes at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, with a brace of JJ Van Der Mescht tries and a timely drop goal from captain George Furbank putting them both on the front foot and ahead on the scoreboard.
But a score for the hosts against the run of play sent Northampton into the break four points adrift and from there, Saints struggled to find their footing after half-time, while Tigers made the most of their opportunities to add their fourth and fifth tries of the evening to take the win.
And while that result – coupled with last weekend’s home defeat to Newcastle Red Bulls – ended this run of Cup matches on a somewhat sour note, Saints’ Director of Rugby Phil Dowson knows the learnings that Saints’ young group will have taken from this block of games will be invaluable going forwards.
He said: “First half, I thought we were excellent, but there were three really soft scores, particularly the one before half-time.
“It was disappointing to go in at half-time 19-15 down when I thought we had been really dominant.
“In the second half, with various injuries and people we’re trying to manage, it got a bit ragged.
“The changes made a difference but also credit to Leicester who came out in the second half. They didn’t score until the 58th minute so it was pretty nip and tuck early in that second half and then we had a few changes, with Chunya [Munga] going off, which meant we were a bit short up front.
“It was frustrating, but we’ll get better; we’re back into the league now and we’ll have taken a lot out of it for this young group in the PRC.”
One bright spark in the second half came for Saints in the game’s final play, when Northampton’s younger stars seized on their moment to strike.
The move was started by a brilliant break from 18-year-old centre Henry Lumley, who sliced through Tigers’ defence before finding Amena Caqusau on his shoulder. From there the winger turned on his blistering pace to get play into Tigers’ 22, where Saints’ relentlessness in attack forced a pair of penalty offences from their hosts, the latter of which was tapped quickly and saw Oliver Scola stretch over the line.
The score marked not only Scola’s first in a Saints shirt, but the his first try in adult rugby; and, for Dowson, it is those kinds of experiences that will be invaluable for the 19-year-old prop.
“Ollie has probably been most improved in the off-season into this season,” said Dowson.
“We’d seen some of his physical potential, but Jaco [Pienaar] has put his arm round him and got the absolute most out of him.
“His scrummaging has been excellent; he’s been great in training so for him to be rewarded with a try at Welford Road is excellent and there’s still plenty to come from him.”
For now, Saints will park their Cup run and head back into a week of Gallagher PREM action before beginning their Investec Champions Cup campaign – travelling first to Bristol Bears on Saturday 29 November (kick-off: 5.45pm), before making the trip to face Section Paloise in Round 1 of the European competition on Sunday 7 December (kick-off: 1pm local time).
“The PRC is different because we give players opportunity, we put them under pressure and they find out about themselves, at places like Welford Road,” Dowson said.
“We said we were going to squeeze everything out of that game, be really brutal in terms of our review, really get stuff out of it and then make sure we go into this Bristol game and we’re humming.”