Northampton v Harlequins: Five takeaways as ‘England 2.0’ should have Saints spine but Quins ‘repercussions’ likely after latest embarrassment
England duo Alex Mitchell and Alex Coles in action for Northampton Saints against Harlequins.
Following Northampton Saints’ dominant 66-21 victory over Harlequins, here are our five takeaways from the Gallagher PREM encounter at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.
The top line
Harlequins were torn to shreds at the Gardens by a Saints side that unwrapped the visitors’ defensive efforts with all the gusto a kid with presents on Christmas Day.
10 tries came courtesy of the hosts, with England lock Alex Coles grabbing a hat-trick and Italian loosehead Danilo Fischetti leading the charge with two himself in a brilliant personal performance on both sides of the ball.
Northampton’s other tries came from England stars Alex Mitchell, Tommy Freeman and Fin Smith, with young Azzurri star Edoardo Todaro grabbing two, one of them a quite unbelievable carry through four hapless Harlequins defenders.
It was a chastening experience for the West London club, one that may have been particularly frustrating given their start where Cassius Cleaves scored in the very first moment of the match. Skipper Alex Dombrandt, a class act trying to hold together a collapsing side, grabbed two himself, but Quins had no answer to the ambition, accuracy and execution of the brilliant Saints, whose five-point haul takes them two points ahead of Bath Rugby as Phil Dowson’s men claimed their eighth try bonus of the season.
It is one that may lead to wider repercussions with a question mark hanging over the head of senior coach Jason Gilmore, a man that’s seen his team lose three on the bounce without looking like they have the accuracy or game plan to get out of their form slump.
Brawn and brains
Saints may have a brand of flowing and attacking rugby that has you thinking about the brilliance in their back division, but key to their game plan is the comfort of their big men with ball in hand. Dowson and Sam Vesty look firstly for handling skills and this performance was evidence of just how effective their pack are in attack.
Coles and Fischetti made 24 carries between them, and rightly will claim all of the headlines for the five tries they combined to deliver. But elsewhere, Tom Pearson made 11 for 80 metres, the behemoth JJ van der Mescht 12 rumbles (and well timed header for Smith’s that will be the envy of the mighty Quin Joe Marler himself!). Callum Chick, one of the shrewdest signings made in many a year, gave Saints glue with another 11 carries to go with his two turnovers and his 12 tackles, whilst Sam Graham, on early for Josh Kemeny, carried and tackled his heart out in a really impressive performance on the flank.
But it’s more than just the numbers, it’s the ability of these big guys to keep the ball alive, to step back inside the attacking line to create waves of continuity and options around them, and above all, to hit their man when offloading or passing.
It was a sensational day at the office for the Saints pack, lineout wobbles aside, and the contribution of all of the back five and Fischetti himself was at the absolute heart of this win.
Saints superpower
What precisely is the superpower of Northampton Saints?
Both they and Quins subscribe to the same rugby doctrine of attack and ambitious play, but one succeeds regularly whilst the other lives somewhere between those age old options of hopes and prayers.
Saints are prepared to play a high tempo, but high possession game. This relies above all on recycle accuracy and two things come into play here. The straightness of their attacking lines and the speed of their distribution. At the heart of it is Mitchell (more on him later) as a player, but it’s more a simple ethos that defines Saints; pass into space.
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The aggression on their passing, always into a metre box in front of the man running on to the pass, sets them aside. It maintains pace and continuity through phase plays that few can live with. It’s formed on the training ground working in pods of three, at extreme speed and fatigue in short sharp bursts.
Watch the accuracy of the half-backs in getting the ball onto their runners so they’re not breaking stride into contact – the way Smith gets Freeman arcing onto the ball at pace, the manner with which Mitchell exploits the narrow side with George Hendy almost playing a roving role into the second receiver slot.
It’s high tempo, high accuracy, high fitness – the three golden rules of coaching winning rugby – and best of all, it’s a cultural system that allows personnel to slot into, rather than one reliant upon availability.
Saints recorded a pass accuracy of 91% and a ruck accuracy of 96% whilst scoring 66 points, no mean feat on a freezing cold East Midlands evening. Couple that with their 4.7 points scored from every incursion into the Quins 22 and there’s little argument they’re the most attractive team in Europe to watch right now.
Masters of own downfall
Contrast the manner Quins play with to the way Saints are delivering. The number of times players break stride to receive direct to chest passes kills any momentum they’re trying to gather. Time and time again we saw Marcus Smith sniping, taking up space to try and get close to the defensive line, only to lose all momentum through passes to body rather than passing to hands and space.
Sure, Harlequins have some talented runners. Rodrigo Isgro worked all night to make an impact, as did Dombrandt and Chandler Cunningham-South, but as much as they tried, their own inaccuracy killed them time and time again. When ball is as slow as they received, the power of the tackle they face also increases and Quins coughed the ball up a remarkable amount of times in contact, with Cunningham-South the worst culprit with 11 individual handling errors.
Couple that with a defensive set that recorded below 75% tackle success and it’s clear to see that the issues they have are both sides of the ball. With Gilmore’s rather interesting announcement that this was now some sort of project season for the club, there surely is a need for change within the coaching team, with rumours abounding that the mightiest Quin of all, Nick Easter, is in conversations with his former club.
England foundation
George Ford has been a mighty servant to English rugby and there’s little doubt that, at Six Nations level, he’s a fine and effective Test 10, but to beat the very best, to win the biggest prizes, England need a half-back pairing that not only offer control, but are able to attack the line at front of them with pace.
On this weekend’s showing, there’s little doubt that Steve Borthwick really needs to consider how he builds his England 2.0 around the Saints backline and in particular, Mitchell and Smith. Mitchell, of course, is a shoo-in, but after him the drop-off in pace and style is massive. Ben Spencer is an admirable player, but he doesn’t subscribe to the same spiky style of the Lions nine, and other than hoping for Raffi Quirke to keep fit or Archie McParland to continue to improve, the Saintsman remains one of England’s most irreplaceable assets.
At 10, Smith can challenge defences in every way – direct, with footwork, with passes and with strategic kicking – which is exactly what you need at the very highest level. With Fraser Dingwall and Freeman two of England’s four key centre options (alongside Ollie Lawrence and Max Ojomoh) then there’s a possibility we might see an all Saints midfield come Six Nations time. And given the need for impact across a Test 23, and with Hendy on fire, George Furbank returning, and up front Coles, Pearson and Chick putting in eight out of 10 performances each weekend, there’s a great argument that the spine of Borthwick’s vision for the Rugby World Cup might very well be coloured in green, black and gold.