At 7.16pm, just around the time those Sunday night blues kick in, England’s Champions Cup cohort finally had something to cheer about. It was not pretty but after seven of their Prem rivals had failed to claim victory in the opening round of the competition, Saints survived a sizeable scare from Cardiff to put one on the board for the Prem, thanks in no small part to the excellent George Hendy.
It might be harsh on some of the performances this weekend – Gloucester were immense in drawing with Bordeaux, Exeter mightily unlucky to be beaten in Toulouse – but zero wins would have been a crushing embarrassment for a league that has been feted for its attacking exploits so far this season. One out of eight is not a lot to shout about as it is.
Ultimately first-half tries from youngsters James Pater and Toby Thame and second-half scores from Hendy and Fraser Dingwall were enough to see off Cardiff. Hendy also made the first try, stopped a certain Cardiff score and enhanced his reputation as a player who can make things happen for the Prem champions. “That has always been his forte, his super strength, George can break the game open, he can make breaks other people can’t,” said Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson.
Credit to the visitors, however, who were less than impressed with the scheduling of this fixture given they run out again just five days later and felt forced to heavily rotate as a result. They scored two impressive tries and midway through the second half had Northampton fans fearing an upset.
Northampton
Pater (Smith 70); Sleightholme, Hutchinson, Thame (Dingwall 57), Hendy; Belleau, Mitchell (McParland 57); Fischetti (Els 62), Smith (Langdon 62), Kundiona (Neculai 53), Lockett, Van der Mescht (Prowse 53), Kemeny, Taylor (Ulcoq 67), Chick
Tries Pater, Thame, Hendy, Dingwall
Cons Belleau 3, Pater
Sin-bin Belleau (61)
Cardiff
Young; Grady, Millard (Adams 57), Emanuel, Bowen; Evans
(Sheedy 62), Mulder (Davies 77); Southworth (Barratt 56), Hughes (capt), Wainwright
(Cowell 65), Manz, Thornton, Paea
(De la Rua 61), Thomas, Faletau (Lloyd 57;
McNally 71)
Tries Millard, Grady
Con Evans
Referee Jérémy Rozier (Fr)
Cardiff’s frustrations are understandable. The head coach, Corniel van Zyl, confirmed the club made representations to the tournament organisers EPCR in the hope of moving the fixture to earlier in the weekend but received short shrift. “Bonkers,” was the assessment of Cardiff’s plight by Dowson. Accordingly, Van Zyl rang the changes but there was a first appearance for Taulupe Faletau since March. Northampton opted to chop and change too with Tommy Freeman, Henry Pollock, Alex Coles and Emmanuel Iyogun left out of the matchday 23.
Sideways rain will always be a leveller and the opening 10 minutes here left you longing for the sugar rush of last weekend’s 119-point try fest. The first moment of quality yielded the first try, however. Hendy swerved his way through the Cardiff defence and charged clear, feeding the supporting Alex Mitchell, whose floated inside pass found Pater. Saints’ second try came after Rory Hutchinson’s inventive diagonal kick forced a Northampton scrum five metres out. Mitchell fed Hutchinson, who shipped on to Thame and there was no stopping the Northampton inside centre.
A period of scrappiness ensued and Cardiff certainly had their moments. They thought they had scored after a clever strike play near halfway put Mason Grady through a gap with Tom Manz appearing to go over. The referee, Jérémy Rozier, at the suggestion of the TMO, disallowed the score, however, insisting the ball had been dislodged in the tackle.
Exeter slipped to a 43-40 defeat against 14-man Toulouse despite Zack Wimbush scoring a hat-trick. In a thrilling start Wimbush scored for Exeter only a minute into the match, with Henry Slade adding the extras. Ange Capuozzo soon struck for the hosts, but Romain Ntamack was unable to convert before, who then went ahead through a penalty try.
A frenetic seven-minute period saw the visiting full-back Sam Harris sent to the sin-bin before Toulouse prop Rodrigue Neti was shown a red card for a high tackle and Exeter pounced as Wimbush went over again with Slade’s kick successful.
Toulouse responded through Joshua Brennan’s converted effort and a Teddy Thomas try, but the latter was shown a yellow card which allowed Exeter to regain control as Jack Yeandle and Stephen Varney both crossed, with Slade only able to convert the latter, to lead 26-24 at the break.
They extended their advantage soon after the restart when Will Butt grounded and Slade converted, but they continued to be tested by Toulouse, who squeezed ahead as Matias Remue and Ntamack both scored in quick succession, with the fly-half converting both. Wimbush completed his hat-trick and Slade’s conversion put Exeter in front again, but Ben Hammersley was then shown yellow and Toulouse struck through Remue’s try to edge ahead.
Slade sent a penalty wide in the final moments as Toulouse snatched a narrow victory.
Ollie Chessum made a try-scoring return from injury but Leicester fell short in their opener at Pau. Archie van der Flier gave the visitors a flicker of hope when his 54th-minute try put his side within touching distance but the hosts pulled away for a 41-17 bonus-point win.
Leicester went into the game on the back of two wins in the Gallagher Prem and their confidence was evident when the returning Chessum powered over in his first appearance of the season.
But tries from Rodrigo Marta and Jon Zabala gave Pau a half-time lead and when they stretched their advantage through Marta’s second early in the second half, it looked all over for the visitors.
Van der Flier had other ideas when he powered over, Billy Searle’s kick taking them back within seven points, but a silly penalty and a subsequent try from Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang all but sealed it for the French side.
Pau secured their bonus point in the dying stages when Searle’s attempted pass was intercepted and Fabien Brau-Boirie blazed home to confirm the win. Press Association
After the break an interception from the covering Pater denied Cardiff a certain score on the right but to their credit the visitors kept hammering away and after a tap-and-go penalty, the outside-centre Harri Millard had the strength to force his way over the line. Jarrod Evans’s conversion brought Cardiff to within a score.
And when Northampton’s fly-half Anthony Belleau was sent to the sin-bin for infringing near his own line on the hour mark, Cardiff were within two points when Grady was worked into space on the right. Evans, under pressure from the charging Ollie Sleightholme, missed the conversion however.
Saints swiftly made him pay and after Cardiff failed to clear their lines on the restart, Dingwall put Hendy through a gap and the Northampton wing juggled the ball towards the line before gathering just in time to score. For good measure Hendy then rubber-stamped his fine performance by chasing down Josh Adams on the left. The 31-year-old Wales winger has lost a yard of pace but it was a significant intervention from Hendy, effectively extinguishing Cardiff’s hopes of victory.
Dingwall added a fourth for Northampton at the death rounding off a far more workmanlike victory than eight days earlier. “The joy of it is both, there’s a balance [of both types of games],” added Dowson. “The stats will say only Saints won but I don’t think the English sides are too far away.”
