Match Report: Northampton Saints 33 – 29 Harlequins

Northampton Saints stretched their winning Gallagher Premiership run at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens to 11 matches with a brilliant second-half display to deny Harlequins.

A frenetic first half saw Emmanuel Iyogun and Ollie Sleightholme land tries for Saints – who went in at the interval behind as Marcus Smith registered 17 points through two tries, a couple of conversions and a penalty to supplement Jack Walker crossing the line early on. 

The men in Black, Green and Gold roared back in the second period attacking the cinch Stand with a penalty try, Sam Graham’s snipe and Sleightholme’s second of the evening. Quins took two points from the contest through Will Porter’s late try but couldn’t deny the defending champions from sealing a bonus-point victory.

FIRST HALF

The action in the opening five minutes was as bright and dazzling as the pregame light show that saw thousands of supporters get involved using the Stadium FX app on their mobile phones.

Saints were penalised in the opening passage of play, giving Marcus Smith a chance to kick to the corner and hooker Walker cashed in with a rolling maul drive.

The Quins full-back added the conversion but was then caught running lateral along his own goalline and the penalty was awarded Saints’ way. Boldly under the posts, the ball was tapped and Iyogun muscled his way over for the second try of his Saints career. Fin Smith added the conversion to tie the scores after five minutes. 

Tommy Freeman and Curtis Langdon were both called into brilliant goalline action to twice hold the ball up, either side of losing England lock Alex Coles to injury. But there was no stopping Marcus Smith as the Quins talisman drifted and devilishly stepped infield to dive over then convert his own score.

Just as they did in the game’s opening passages, the hosts responded immediately when Furbank freed up his hands in a tight area and via Josh Kemeny’s rapid transfer, Sleightholme opened his tryscoring account for the 2024/25 campaign. 

Fin Smith’s extras briefly drew the scores level, only for Marcus Smith to land eight unanswered points of his own after pulling in a looping pass to dive over in the left corner before adding a central penalty to give the visitors a 22-14 lead at the break.

SECOND HALF

That gap closed to just one three minutes after the restart when Sleightholme’s dive into the left corner was illegally thwarted by Nick David’s high tackle, resulting in a yellow card for the perpetrator and referee Matthew Carley awarding a penalty try.

Quins appeared to ride the storm of being a man down as Iyogun was held up and Sleightholme was denied once more. Just as David was limbering up to come back onto the field of play, Saints’ forwards bludgeoned the door open and Graham was on hand to dart over from close range. 

Cries of Shoe Army rung out from around the Gardens until they were replaced by roars of appreciation as a divine George Furbank break was followed by a deft offload for Sleightholme to finish off the move. The conversion was missed as Saints took an 11-point lead into the final quarter-of-an-hour.

There was to be no cruise to the finishing line as Porter scooped up an opportunistic offload to scamper in and cut the deficit to four. 

But Phil Dowson’s side held their nerve and possession in the final passages to secure maximum points in front of a capacity crowd heading into next weekend’s East Midlands Derby against Leicester Tigers at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

LINE-UPS:

Saints: Furbank (c), Freeman, Dingwall, Hutchinson, Sleightholme, F Smith, James; Iyogun, Langdon, Davison, Munga, Coles, Kemeny, Pearson, Graham. 
Replacements: R Smith, West, Green, Mayanavanua, Pollock, McParland, Seabrook, Ramm.

Harlequins: Smith, David, Joseph, Anyanwu, Beard, Evans, Care; Baxter, Walker, Lamositele, Herbst, Lewies (c), Kenningham, Evans, Cunningham-South.
Replacements: Jibulu, Els, Kerrod, Lamb, Chisholm, Porter, Bradley, Anderson.