Gloucester vs Northampton: Five takeaways as returning winger ‘inspires’ comeback effort while Saints youngster provides ‘x-factor fizz’
Gloucester vs Northampton Five takeaways as returning winger 'inspires' comeback effort while Saints youngster provides 'x-factor fizz'
Northampton Saints beat Gloucester 35-37 on Sunday afternoon in a thrilling match at Kingsholm Stadium.
Here are our five takeaways.
Top line
It was not a day for defences, as the attacks ran riot for both sides.
Northampton struck first early on through Tom Pearson after some poor Gloucester defending. Saints touched down for a second try just minutes later when Tom Litchfield latched onto a delayed pass. As the game settled, Anthony Belleau continued his perfect kicking display to extend the lead even further.
Now things were starting to slip for Gloucester. Archie McParland latched onto a breakaway to score his side’s third before George Hendy produced a brilliant individual finish to ensure the bonus point for the visitors.
At 31-nil down, it looked as though the game was done for Gloucester. Few people would have seen a way out of the mud as the Shed end watched in despair. Fortunately, one of Gloucester’s finest sparks of the afternoon, Ben Loader, created his most memorable and important action of the afternoon.
As Northampton looked to develop the ball out wide, Loader lined up Northampton centre Litchfield to hit him with such force that the ball was dislodged and then held on to by Northampton on the ground, giving the penalty to the home side. The importance of this moment cannot be understated, with this hit creating the momentum and the field position for Gloucester to recover.
Gloucester returned fire shortly after, thanks to a barrelling try from Cam Jordan. The two sides went in at half-time with one clearly well out in front, but the trailing side now had a fire to grow.
Following the break, new signing Will Joseph got straight to it with a touchdown between the posts. Gloucester would then score three more unanswered tries, including a swan dive from the up-and-coming prop Afolabi Fasogbon as they took full advantage of the visitors’ deteriorating discipline.
Just when it felt like Gloucester were set to run away with victory, Ross Byrne was shown a yellow for a deliberate knock on with mere minutes left on the clock. The resulting penalty was sunk by Belleau.
With very little time left and down to 14 men, Gloucester were unable to recover from this final setback, but will find solace in achieving two bonus points when, at one stage, it looked as though they would be fortunate to avoid an embarrassment.
Attacking thrills and defensive stills
Both sides were thrilling in attack, but both struggled defensively. Gloucester spent much of the first half appearing to play touch rugby, as even a weakened Northampton side ran rings around the disjointed and thoroughly unaware defence. Byrne, in particular, missed five tackles during the match, which caused havoc for the home side, as he found himself constantly targeted by the big boys of Northampton.
In the first half, Gloucester scrum-half Tomos Williams did his very best to create some movement within his side’s attack, but struggled to make things click as communication went awry. In the second half, the Gloucester defence had very little to do, but when it did, it felt a lot more organised, almost as if the first half was simply their settling-in period. It was their attack that truly flourished, however. Both wings were constantly involved as the playmakers threw every trick and flick in the book in what was a wonderful display of fluid rugby. The power game up front was working wonders, pushing the gainline forward whilst giving the men out back freedom to breathe.
Northampton were the polar opposites. In the first half, they were untouchable in attack and immovable in defence. The second, invisible in both. George Hendy and James Martin, for all their efforts in attack, struggled in the tackle area. Rory Hutchinson, however, was instrumental in defence throughout, but particularly in the final minutes – most memorably for a giant hit on Loader to crash him out into touch and stop what appeared to be an almost certain try.
One to watch
With so much going on in this game, it’s difficult to pick out just one player who did something special, so we’re going with someone who promises to do something spectacular.
Northampton wing Edoardo Todaro scored two tries on his Prem debut last weekend and threatened to do the same against Gloucester. He was dazzling with the ball in hand, stepping opposition players in spaces no bigger than a work desk as he added that x-factor fizz to the Saints’ attack. Unfortunate not to have been involved on the scoresheet this week, his electric feet will cause serious damage if he’s fed the ball more moving forward.
Italian qualified, the Northampton Saints academy graduate is just 19, but he’s certainly one to keep an eye on this season and beyond.
Game-defining moments
Late into the first half, and with Gloucester lagging with no real fight in their veins, Loader’s hit on Litchfield was instrumental in changing the attitude of the game. If that had not happened, then the penalty wouldn’t have been given for holding on the floor. As we know, this eventually led to Jordan’s try, which lit the fire for Gloucester’s comeback effort.
Byrne was given a yellow card with just 10 minutes to go. It was determined that he had purposely knocked the ball down, but he claimed that he had made a legitimate attempt to intercept the ball. The commentators appeared to agree with the fly-half’s assessment, claiming that he had clearly tried to pad the ball upwards, so it should be only a scrum, or a penalty at most. The referee didn’t see it that way and instead sent Byrne to the bin without checking the TMO, resulting in a converted penalty and Saints regaining the lead, and eventually, victory.
Ill-discipline
Four yellow cards in total. When the whole attacking plan is about creating space, you don’t half make the opposition’s time easier when you do it for them. At one stage, Northampton were down to 13 men. During this time, Gloucester scored two converted tries. When they were down to 14, they scored another. That’s 21 points as a result of ill-discipline on Northampton’s behalf. Phil Dowson will be putting a huge focus on maintaining discipline this week in training.
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