The young guns in Northampton Saints squad ‘stepped up’ to help deliver a big victory over Coventry in the Premiership Rugby Cup, according to Director of Rugby Phil Dowson.
A six-point lead at the interval on Saturday at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens was converted into a resounding 50-23 win – Saints’ 30th in their last 32 competitive home games – that sees the Men in Black, Green and Gold top Pool B head into Friday’s final group stage game at Nottingham with their quarter-final destiny in their own hands.
With 25 players unavailable due to international involvement and injuries, Dowson picked a tight five with the average age of just 22 and late call-up Beltus Nonleh became Saints #2108 with his second-half appearance.
Further game time was put into the young legs of Billy Pasco, Will Glister, Fyn Brown, Archie Benson, George Makepeace-Cubitt, Jonny Weimann and Rafe Witheat as Saints moved to four wins from five in the competition this term.
“I was really pleased with the younger players, they really stepped up,” said Dowson.
“It is exactly what this tournament is about. It is great to review these games and see these guys taking big leaps forward.”
Phil Dowson
“It is not just exciting to see these young lads play in this competition, but it is integral to what we are trying to do. They are the next guys in, our whole business model and our whole recruitment model is based on these guys stepping up and pushing themselves. To see how they have taken to it and behaved under pressure was brilliant.”
The final score did not tell the full story of proceedings as Championship side Coventry proved difficult to put away in the first period, with Saints tries from Tom Lockett, Josh Kemeny and Angus Scott-Young being countered by two from the visitors along with eight points from the boot of former Saints Academy fly-half, Tommy Mathews.
“Coventry are an ambitious side,” added Dowson. “They want to get promoted to the Premiership so we knew they would be trying to make a point. They’re experienced and battle-hardened, that was the test for us.”
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Congrats to Beltus Nonleh, who made his debut on Saturday afternoon. pic.twitter.com/5DIRsPUVLf
In the second half, Makepeace-Cubitt took his personal points tally to 15 with an exhibition of accurate goal-kicking from the tee as his teammates Tom Seabrook, Tom West, Pasco and Glister added further tries to seal the victory.
Saints sit on 20 points from their five games played heading into Friday’s final pool-stage game away against Nottingham, with work still to do to ensure a last-eight knock-out encounter over the first weekend in March.
“The approach never changes, we pick the side that is most suitable to get a performance,” explained Dowson. “Nottingham were 25 points up here not so long ago, so we are not going to take them lightly. We are going to make sure we prepare properly, and we go into that rest week having performed to the Saints level.
“We work out what we need to do, week to week. We wanted a bonus point against Coventry, the best way to do that is perform really well, along the lines of how we have trained for umpteen years.
“We are going to do the same thing this week and the maths will work out in the end based on our performance. If we play really well and win games, we generally get good things.”
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