A comfortable victory it most certainly was, but Northampton spent much of the afternoon running around as if their feet were stuck in treacle against a desperately poor Overmach Parma side that had conceded 10 tries against the Saints in Italy eight days ago.
Yes, Northampton scored another six touchdowns yesterday and yes, the English club are suff ering from an alarming number of injuries among their threequarters. But it really was thoroughly poor fare and the only satisfaction that the Saints can truly glean is that they won - and that they also secured a tryscoring bonus point.
Soane Tonga'uiha and Daniel Browne,the loose-head and No 8 respectively, showed up well for the Saints, as did Chris Wyles, who produced some powerful breaks on the right wing. But if this had been, say, Stade Francais or Biarritz rather than a hapless, helpless and frankly hopeless Italian side, one dreads to think what the outcome might have been.
Such are the injury problems afflicting the Saints - they were without Bruce Reihana, Ben Cohen, Jon Clarke, Luke Myring, David Quinlan, Rhodri Davies, Rob Laird and Stephen Myler among the backs - that they were forced to play Carlos Spencer at outside centre and selected a lone three-quarter on the bench.
But even that sort of casualty list was unlikely to halt the progress of the Saints towards qualifi cation for the last eight - quite probably as one of the two best placed runners-up - for Pool Six is demonstrably the weakest of the six groups.
Though Northampton were the lowest seeded of the English clubs to qualify, so too were Parma, who the Saints thumped 68- 21 in Italy last weekend, and Borders in their respective countries. All the luck of the draw, really. If truth be told, Northampton were far from fluent in the opening skirmishes against a Parma side that were long on commitment, but disappointingly short on technical ability. Still, the visiting pack were cute enough to slow up the opposition's ball on occasion, although the Saints' early failings were almost exclusively of their own making.
So much so that the English club had but one try to show for all their huff - ing and puffi ng in the fi rst half-hour. That said, it was a cracker, with Wyles breaking up the left after seven minutes, Browne, who was a conspicuous presence in the loose, taking the ball on and Robbie Kydd latching on to a delightful grubber by Spencer that completely wrong-footed the Italian defence.
But it was a rare moment of enlightenment, and the Saints had to wait another 25 minutes before they troubled the scoreboard again. It came about by way of a penalty try after the Italian set scrum had infringed for the umpteenth time in succession. Paul Diggin crossed in the corner just before the break to extend the advantage to 19-0 .
Wyles claimed the fourth try and the bonus point four minutes after the restart, following a quickly taken tapped penalty by Ian Vass that caught the Italians snoozing. And that was just about that.
Tonga'uiha rumbled over for his first try for the club while Sean Lamont went over for the Saints' sixth and final try in the final minute.
In between times, Luke Tait almost scored an interception try for Parma, but it would not have been deserved. 'Crap' was the game summary of one departing Northampton supporter. Quite right, sir.
Franklin's Gardens: 12,619
Northampton Diggin; Lamont, Spencer (Howard 70), Kydd, Wyles; Vass, Robinson; Tonga'uiha, Thompson (Hartley 67), Barnard (Budgen 67), Lord (capt), Short, Tupai (Lewitt 70), Harding (Fox 52), Daniel Browne (Easter 52) Tries Kydd, Pen, Diggin, Wyles, Tonga'uiha, Lamont Cons Spencer 3
Parma Robuschi; Ghidini (Mazzucato 64), Galon, Sego, Pavan; Canale, Pellicena (capt, Frati 70); Fontana (De Marchi 65), Masetti, Staibano (Paoletti 49), Tait, Minello (Soff redini 65), Barberi, Pascu, Vosawai Referee D Changleng (Sco)
