Alex Mitchell hails ‘fearless’ Northampton players after Leinster ‘punched in the face’
Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell and director of rugby Phil Dowson.
Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell couldn’t hide his delight after the Premiership outfit advanced to the Investec Champions Cup final courtesy of a 37-34 triumph over Leinster on Saturday.
As the scoreline suggests, this was a thrilling encounter at the Aviva Stadium with both sides scoring five tries apiece although Northampton got the rub of the green during the early exchanges and held a 27-15 lead at half-time.
Tommy Freeman led the way for the visitors with an outstanding attacking performance, which saw him being rewarded with a first half hat-trick while Fin Smith also impressed with a 12-point contribution after succeeding with three conversions and a couple of penalties.
Sweet revenge for Saints after 2024 defeat
The result was sweet revenge for the Saints after they suffered a 20-17 defeat against Leinster at the same stage of last year’s Champions Cup and Mitchell hailed his side’s efforts against the Irish province, who will have to wait another year to win their fifth title in this competition.
“A couple of pundits were saying they’re going to win by 20-30 points and that Saints won’t score a point,” the England number nine told RTE after the match.
“We showed up today and were a bit more fearless this time around.
“Last year, we were waiting to see what Leinster were going to do.
“We showed up today and the first 20 minutes, we punched them in the face. They weren’t really expecting that. Credit to the boys, we got the result.”
Despite their 12-point deficit at the interval, Leinster launched a brave fightback in the second half and although a penalty from Smith gave Northampton a 30-22 lead – after Caelan Doris crossed the whitewash soon after the restart – a Josh van der Flier try on the hour-mark narrowed the gap to three points.
However, Saints regained the initiative when James Ramm went over for a converted five-pointer shortly afterwards and although a James Lowe try, which Sam Prendergast converted, in the 71st minute ensured a thrilling finish, the visitors held on for a momentous victory.
Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson deserves plenty of credit for his side’s triumph and revealed how he felt during those nervous closing stages.
Hails Northampton’s belief
“Lots of people wrote us off and we understood we were underdogs but the belief within the group was outstanding,” he told BBC Radio Northampton.
“I would hate to think what my blood pressure was doing at the end but the last defensive set spoke volumes about our group, about the lads coming on and their impact. We got the turnover, killed the clock and cue the wild scenes in the coaching box.
“We have had experience before of playing into a press defence. We had practised playing through it and we revisited those principles. There were more opportunities we could’ve taken but we took enough to get on the scoresheet.”
