Northampton 37-0 Edinburgh
A record four tries by the wing Paul Diggin elevated Northampton to a position they have not known since they won the Heineken Cup 11 years ago. This bonus-point victory and a favourable result in Cardiff ensured that the Saints will top Pool One and a home Heineken Cup quarter-final will be guaranteed if they win in Castres next week. The French side can no longer qualify.
The Saints will scarcely be bothered that this match provided only one-way traffic, with Diggin scoring three tries in eight late minutes to make the injured England wing Chris Ashton feel envious. The 25-year-old local boy showed persistence to score a significant first-half try and later took advantage as Edinburgh, smashed at the scrum and outgunned physically, ran out of cover. No Northampton player had scored more than three tries in a Heineken Cup match before.
"He's not the biggest or the fastest player in the league but he gets into really good positions," said Jim Mallinder, Northampton's director of rugby. "He's been good for us all season."
If Diggin and his team-mates go on to secure a perfect six pool wins, they might even qualify as one of the top two seeds in the knockout stages, alongside Toulouse, the only other unbeaten team. That would enable them to avoid the other pool winners, improving their chances of reaching the semi-finals. Given English clubs' poor showing in Europe last season, it is a giddy prospect.
"It's another great step for the club," said Mallinder. "Now we can look ahead and try and get a home quarter-final. We're ambitious and we want to do as well as we possibly can."
This was scarcely a perfect display but the Saints will not be too self-critical following two Premiership defeats and injuries to two England stars, Courtney Lawes and Ashton. From the fifth minute, when the prop Brian Mujati was adjudged to have touched down beneath a pile of bodies, the Edinburgh pack was mostly on the back foot. Rob Moffat's team probably knew there was no way back 10 minutes before the interval, when Diggin squeezed into the left corner.
Even the early departure of Christian Day, another limping English lock who was named in the Saxons squad this week, provided only a temporary respite for the Scots, who had the prop Kyle Trainor sent to the sin-bin following a dust-up with Dylan Hartley at the end of the first half. The England hooker had a nightmare with his lineout throwing against Leicester last week but he enjoyed a much less stressful night here.
Mallinder could even afford to withdraw Hartley, his captain, before the final quarter, sending on a stream of substitutes in an attempt to score the two tries then required for a bonus point. Diggin's second, after a long-range sprint, brought the crowd to life and the wing then completed his hat-trick thanks to the unselfish Joe Ansbro. By the time "Digger" appeared on Bruce Reihana's shoulder to nick a fourth, with two minutes left, Edinburgh's narrow 31-28 defeat by the Saints at Murrayfield in October felt like a long time ago.
"I was at the Saints during some dark times but now it's brilliant," said Diggin, who once scored five tries in a Division One game, against Sedgeley Park. "We're not in the tournament just to make up the numbers."
Northampton will have Lawes and Ashton back in business for a quarter-final that they may switch to Milton Keynes, despite having lost away to Munster at the same stage last season. With eight of their remaining 11 Premiership games against clubs in the bottom six, it is fair to say that the Saints are once again marching confidently on all fronts.
Northampton Foden; Ansbro, Clarke, Downey (Reihana, 64), Diggin; Myler (Ford, 77), Powell (Commins, 70); Tonga'uiha (Waller, 70), Hartley (capt; Sharman, 56), Mujati (Mercey, 58), Clark, Day (Sorenson, 32), Dowson, Wood (Easter, 64), Wilson.
Tries Mujati, Diggin 4 Cons Myler 2, Ford Pens Myler 2.
Edinburgh Paterson (Webster, 34); Thompson, Cairns (King, 64), De Luca, Visser; D Blair, M Blair (Laidlaw, 64); Traynor, Ford, Cross (Young, 49), Macleod, Lozada (Hamilton, 57), Macdonald, Rennie, Grant (capt; McInally, 56).
Sin-bin Traynor 40.
Referee C Berdos (France) Attendance 13,165.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jan/14/northampton-saints-edinburgh-heineken-cup
Students Cancún climate change conference 2010 | COP16 Occupational pensions Nuclear weapons Savings rates Liza Minnelli
No comments:
Post a Comment