Match Report: Northampton Saints 50 – 23 Coventry Rugby

Northampton Saints claimed pole position for a home Premiership Rugby Cup quarter-final after replacing Coventry at the top of Pool B with a 50-23 victory at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

Josh Kemeny, Angus Scott-Young and Tom Lockett all landed first-half tries for the Men in Black, Green and Gold, but Coventry trailed by just half-a-dozen points at the interval courtesy of Jimmy Martin’s try and eight points from the boot of Tommy Mathews.

Tom Seabrook, Billy Pasco, Will Glister and Tom West tries after the interval, plus a 15-point haul from the boot of George Makepeace-Cubitt, secured a Saints’ victory with Coventry’s hopes of a salvaging a bonus point falling just short with Tom Hitchcock and David Opoku-Fordjour crossing the line in the second period.

FIRST HALF 

Saints enjoyed plenty of early entries into the 22 inside the opening ten minutes without gaining a reward on the scoreboard as Billy Pasco and Ed Prowse both went close.

The dam finally burst in the 17th minute when Fyn Brown bludgeoned a huge hole in the heart of the visiting defence before Australian flanker Kemeny wrestled his way over for a fifth try of his maiden Saints season, which Makepeace-Cubitt converted. 

A crossing offence from the kick-off that followed afforded Coventry great field position, but twice they were repelled at maul time. They did gain some reward for their efforts through when former Saints Academy fly-half Mathews landed a routine penalty approaching the game’s half-hour mark,

Saints discovered their efficiency in the red zone that eluded them in the first quarter to move further ahead when Tom James quickly-tapped a penalty and half-back Makepeace-Cubitt was stopped inches from glory, allowing captain Scott-Young to arrive and breeze over for a try that was improved once more from the tee.

The Championship outfit worked their way back into the contest as winger Martin looped around and sprinted under the posts for a try Mathews turned into seven points.

Saints’ response was immediate as Scott-Young cantered forward and fed Lockett to somehow finish from 20 metres out with opposition players seemingly hanging from every limb.

A missed conversion was compounded by a second Mathews penalty as Saints’ lead at the interval was cut to six.

SECOND HALF

Four minutes after the restart, and with Prowse still in the sin-bin for his offence at the end of the first period, Phil Dowson’s side secured a try-scoring bonus point.

With penalty advantage, Saints rapidly moved the ball on and good hands from Pasco freed Seabrook on an unstoppable surge into the right corner. Makepeace-Cubitt added a third successful conversion of the contest from the Carlsberg Stand touchline. 

Coventry struck back through Opoku-Fordjour’s strong finish under pressure, then lost Obina Nkwocha to the sin bin following a collision with Lockett, that was further punished through a Makepeace-Cubitt penalty. 

Belatedly, Coventry did look to make their man advantage pay with a strong period of possession. They were hit with a game-changing sucker when James fly-hacked ahead and Makepeace-Cubitt managed to scoop up at full speed and feed Tarek Haffar to gallop within inches of the line where he popped up for Pasco to score his first Saints try. 

The floodgates threatened to open as Glister profited from some deft juggling from James Ramm to cross out wide and replacement loosehead prop West muscled his way over for a first Saints try – with Makepeace-Cubitt converting all three from challenging angles to take Saints up to the 50-point mark.

Coventry’s hopes of adding another away scalp in this competition after defeating Tigers in the earlier rounds were gone, but they stayed in the hunt for a bonus point when Hitchcock angled a run home with seven minutes remaining.

With debutant Beltus Nonleh – a late call-up to the matchday squad following Elliot Millar Mills’ withdrawal – on the pitch, Saints’ defence held firm and closed out the game to secure a fourth win in five outings this term heading into the final pool game at Nottingham on Friday 14 February. 

LINE UPS:

Saints: 15 Ramm, 14 Glister, 13 Pasco, 12 Savala, 11 Seabrook, 10 Makepeace-Cubitt, 9 James; 1 Haffar, 2 Wright, 3 Green, 4 Prowse, 5 Lockett, 6 Kemeny, 7 Scott-Young (c), 8 Brown.
Replacements: 16 Walker, 17 West, 18 Nonleh, 19 Mayanavanua, 20 Benson, 21 Mapu, 22 Weimann, 23 Witheat. 

Coventry: 15 Hutler, 14 Opoku, 13  Tiueti, 12 Hitchcock, 11 Martin, 10 Mathews, 9 Maunder; 1 Trinder, 2 Poole, 3 Salt, 4 Nkwocha, 5 Tyas, 6 Ball, 7 Hinkley, 8 Nayalo.
Replacements: 16 Biggs, 17 Warren, 18 Nairau, 19 Anstey, 20 Okeke, 21 Barton, 22 Robson, 23 Mannion.