Northampton v Castres: Five takeaways as ‘fizzing’ Alex Mitchell stars to set up date with ‘mighty’ Leinster
Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell impressed.
Following a 51-16 win for Northampton Saints against Castres in the Investec Champions Cup quarter-final, here’s James While’s five takeaways from Saturday’s game.
The top line
Northampton booked themselves a semi-final trip to Dublin to take on the mighty Leinster as they disposed of a scrappy and ill-disciplined Castres at Franklin’s Gardens.
Seven tries from Tommy Freeman, Curtis Langdon, Alex Coles, George Furbank, Henry Pollock (2) and Tom Pearson played just the one from Castres scrum-half Jeremy Fernandez, who scored all of the points the visitors gained.
It was a scrappy and indisciplined affair, one that saw 34 penalties dished out by Italian referee Andrea Piardi, and with the number of indiscretions committed it came as little surprise that the match saw four yellow cards, three to Castres and one to Saints.
Saints were never at their best in this match, perhaps lacking some accuracy up front, but with their backs, and particularly Alex Mitchell, fizzing in the second half, it was a comprehensive win that will give them something to work with in terms of confidence as they face the challenge of that fantastic Leinster side who have yet to concede a point in the knockout stages of the Investec Champions Cup, as the only English side left in the tournament.
England stars shine
This was a game where the emerging England stars of the last two or three seasons really came good to drive their team home.
In the backs it was Furbank (more of him later), Mitchell, Fin Smith and Fraser Dingwall that created the chances for their colleagues. The relationship between the fly-half Smith and his inside centre Dingwall is something that’s been at the centre of the Northampton success for some time now, and their partnership of subtle passing and clever space-making continued in fine style at the Gardens in this match.
Alongside Smith and Dingwall, Player of the Match Mitchell was back to his spiky best, taking on big forwards directly but most of all getting real momentum and speed of thought into the Saints effort. His dummies created a try for Pollock and a second came for the flanker from another brilliant Mitchell run.
But the real unsung hero was up front in the forwards in the huge frame of Coles. The lock cum flanker grafted himself into a standstill with an immense display. He scored a try from short range, carried like the fourth back-rower he is and was the key man in the Saints lineout. Coles hasn’t had much of an opportunity with England recently and there’s a lot of good judges that will back the big man to make a real impact in Argentina in June and July.
Furbank returns
Furbank’s energy and joyous love of rugby has been missed for far too long at Franklin’s Gardens and his contribution to this match, coming onto the pitch to replace George Hendy early on, was huge.
His very first touch saw him combine brilliantly with Freeman to exchange passes down the right flank to send the flying England wing over. It was wonderful interplay, skill execution at high pace and with positive outcomes and Furbank’s passing skills were the key to unlocking space for Freeman.
A few moments later, a lovely little grubber from the England full-back in the faces of the Castres defence was timed brilliantly to allow Langdon to slip over for a really clever score.
Add in his own personal try, crashing into the line at pace to crash over just as Castres were turning their comeback screw, and his work in attack was, as it usually is, wonderfully effective and brilliant in its vision.
To complete his day, it looked for all money that Abraham Papali’i was through the Northampton primary defence for a gallop to the line, when Furbank produced a textbook drag and drop tackle to take down a man 30kg heavier than himself in a key moment of the match.
Yes, Furbank is back, and it’s wonderful to see his enthusiasm and skills back in the green, black and gold at the Gardens.
Saints work-ons
Northampton Saints are free spirits with ball in hand, but the key to their game last season when they won the Premiership is that they also got the basics right.
In this game, they really made life difficult for themselves at the breakdown where Castres caused them all sorts of issues around continuity. Balls were placed too short allowing the visitors to slow and steal, taking away a lot of momentum and scoring opportunity from the hosts.
It isn’t a fashionable thing to do, but Pollock needs calling out for his lack of work around the ruck, clearing and securing in the first half. Sure, he’s got a hell of a highlights reel but the great back-rows nail the basics of the job and the Saints flank cleared or secured rucks on only three occasions in that first period, preferring instead to stand out of the breakdown in the attacking line as an extra man – not the core role of a seven.
However, to their mutual credit both Saints and Pollock himself clearly identified the issue as the young flank came back well with some better stripping work in the second half and got a lovely cheap shoulder charge into his ribs as a result of his renewed nuisance which earned Castres a yellow card for their stupidity.
Couple in some really poor lineout maul defence and it’s clear that Saints are not quite as sharp in the basics as they were last year – and if they’re to progress against the mighty Leinster in the semi-finals, they simply must sort out their basics.
Castres heart
Castres may not have come away with the result they wanted, but their graft and attitude left a mark on the Saints faithful, as they fought as hard as they could against a very good attacking side.
They might not have gotten the reward they expected at scrum time with Piardi neutering much of Will Collier’s power as the former Quins tighthead fell foul of simple scrum engagement protocols but in the breakdown Castres were, as noted previously, fantastically committed.
Led by a great shift over the ball from Mathieu Babillot, for some 50 minutes they gave Saints real issues on the floor, but a flashpoint in the 52nd minute, when Remy Baget clattered Pollock and both he and Lois Guerois Galisson saw the ire of Piardi as they were sent to the bin.
With Leone Nakarawa also copping yellow for a build up of team transgressions, Castres showed real heart and commitment, but they need to temper that with the discipline to retain 15 on the pitch at all times.
