Harlequins Pressure Too Much for Northampton Saints

Harlequins were victorious at Twickenham Stoop in Round 4 of the Gallagher Premiership despite Northampton Saints’ valiant attempt at a late comeback.

First half tries from Jack Musk, Lennox Anyanwu, and Luke Northmore for Quins and Lewis Ludlam for Saints left the hosts in the lead 21-10 at the break.

Improved handling and accuracy from Saints bagged them three tries in the second half from Tommy Freeman, George Furbank, and Tom James.

Quins furthered their lead with a second try from Musk, and a final from Cadan Murley, taking the final score to 35-29.

Both teams were on the losing side in their games last week, with Saints losing to local rivals Leicester Tigers and Quins narrowly missing out on the win in a 12-try thriller against Exeter Chiefs.

The last time the two teams met a one-point margin saw Saints, the home side on the day, taking the 32-31 victory.

Today’s final score of 35-29 to Quins showed the difference between the two teams remains narrow.

With the Autumn Nations Series looming and the World Cup a year away, competition for places on the England squad is growing ever stronger, not least for the scrum halves.

In his most recent training squad Eddie Jones has selected Northampton’s Alex Mitchell while Quins’ Danny Care, a feature in England’s series win over Australia this summer, misses out.

Cadan Murley, who’s scored 5 tries in 4 Premiership games so far this season, and centre Joe Marchant, were also surprise omissions from Jone’s training squad this week, but they certainly provided food for thought with their performances today.

It was to be expected that this game would be closely fought, and the unusually dry and humid October weather provided the perfect conditions to suit both teams’ free-flowing styles of play.

The sold-out Stoop crowd were given a game to remember, and spectators were shown the strength that the Gallagher Premiership has to offer once more.

Although they had most of the possession in the first half, Saints trailed for the entirety of the game. Despite this, they commendably managed to score two tries in the final 15 minutes to pull the score up from 35-15.

Towards the end of the game Saints turned up the intensity, with the final few minutes thoroughly testing the Quins’ defence, coming close to taking the win.

Quins head coach, Tabai Matson, commended his team’s defence during the closing stages.

“Both teams were really positive, they had opportunities to win the game as we did. Probably the most pleasing thing for me was that five minutes of defence at the end. That’s probably something we’re going to highlight on Tuesday,” he said.

Quins’ first try came four minutes into the game, with hooker Musk delivering from a robust rolling maul. Within minutes, Marchant grabbed an intercept, and his subsequent offload released Anyanwu to race 50 metres down the wing to score.

Within ten minutes of kick-off, Quins had taken the lead 14-0.

They continually piled on the pressure, and Saints handling errors saw them fall short in the red zone multiple times.

Eventually, Saints earned some points from their time in the Quins half, with Biggar slotting a penalty to take the score line to 14-3.

Quins bounced back quickly, with Northmore scoring on his 50th appearance for the club, darting down the left wing and scoring following a slick series of passes from his teammates.

Saints finally managed to convert their pressure into points just before half-time, with captain Ludlum reaching out and scoring under the posts.

At half-time, Quins looked in control of the game, and Saints’ failure to capitalise on possession combined with handling errors cost them multiple chances at scoring, with the home side leading 21-10.

A yellow card for Saints’ Lukhan Salakaia-Lota for a high challenge reduced them to 14 men, and Quins made the most of their one-man advantage.

Musk’s second try of the game from Quins came once more from a rolling maul, securing his team a try bonus point in the process.

A quick tap and go from Care and a pass to Murley allowed the winger to expose the gap in Saints’ defence, with a remarkable photo finish in the corner.

Saints managed to improve their accuracy in many places in the second half and were rewarded with tries from George Furbank and Tom James.

Despite it being one of his first appearances in the Gallagher Premiership,  Anyanwu looked more than comfortable alongside many stalwarts of English rugby. He deservedly was awarded player of the match and was praised by head coach Matson.

“Lenny (Anyanwu) filling in for Andre (Estherhuizen) has been exceptional this month. For a guy who’s playing his first games in the Prem, he doesn’t look out of place,” Matson commented.

Teams:

Harlequins: 1. Joe Marler (c) 2. Jack Musk 3. Wilco Louw 4. Dino Lamb 5. Irne Herbst 6. Jack Kennigham 7. Will Evans 8. Archie White 9. Danny Care 10. Marcus Smith 11. Cadan Murley 12. Lennox Anyanwu 13. Luke Northmore 14. Joe Marchant 15. Tyrone Green
16. Sam Riley 17. Santiago Garcia Botta 18. Simon Kerrod 19. George Hammond 20. Matas Jurevicius 21. Lewis Gjaltema 22. Tommy Allan 23. Nick David

Northampton Saints: 1. Emmanuel Iyogun 2. Sam Matavesi 3. Alfie Petch 4. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto 5. Alex Coles 6. Angus Scott-Young 7. Lewis Ludlam (c) 8. Juarno Augustus 9. Alex Mitchell 10. Dan Biggar 11. Tom Collins 12. Rory Hutchinson 13. Fraser Dingwall 14. Tommy Freeman 15. George Furbank
16. Mike Haywood 17. Oisín Heffernan 18. Paul Hill 19. Alex Moon 20. Sam Graham 21. Tom James 22. Matt Proctor 23. Ollie Sleightholme

Referee: Tom Foley