Northampton Saints 27 (17) – (7) 19 Leicester Tigers
Attendance – 13,498
Soane Tonga’uiha ran in two tries as Northampton Saints
began the new Aviva Premiership season with a 27-19 victory over defending
champions Leicester Tigers in the East Midlands Derby at Franklin’s Gardens.
Tonga’uiha put the Saints ahead on three minutes after
powering over from close range. The hosts had driven up field to within
striking distance of the Tigers try line, but were unable to penetrate the wall
of defenders. That was until Tonga’uiha picked up the ball from the base of the
ruck and dived over, shrugging off would-be tacklers Craig Newby and Dan
Hipkiss.
Referee Dave Pearson needed to consult the Television Match
Official before awarding the try, but there was no doubt about the second two
minutes later when the rampaging prop collected Lee Dickson’s offload and raced
through a gap in the defence to score behind the posts. Stephen Myler duly
converted, as he had done with the first.
Some last ditch defending from Jon Clarke and Dickson then
denied Scott Hamilton a try in the corner 13 minutes in. A penalty for offside
by the hosts was kicked deep into Saints territory by Toby Flood, and from the
resulting line-out Leicester moved the ball quickly across the park to winger
Hamilton. He dived in, but was adjudged to have been held up over the line
after the video ref was again called upon.
Saints were able to clear their lines from the resulting
five metre scrum as the pressure briefly abated, but three minutes later they
were indebted to Ben Foden after he put in a crunching tackle on Alesana
Tuilagi that forced him into touch when he looked certain to score. Flood then
missed a chance to put some points on the board for the visitors when he put a
penalty from 30 metres out wide.
Myler also missed one from an angled kick over 45 metres
away on 21 minutes, although he made amends four minutes later from just inside
the Leicester 22. However, the Tigers did finally get going as the half headed
into the final quarter of an hour when Tuilagi sprinted through the home
defence for a converted try after some neat interplay between half back duo
Flood and Ben Youngs.
Three further missed penalties from rugby league convert
Myler meant the hosts were unable to extend their advantage before the break,
while there was a blow for Leicester and England after Flood limped off with
two minutes left in the half, with replacement Jeremy Staunton missing a drop
goal attempt just before the interval.
Staunton was also having problems with his place kicking,
missing two attempts during the first ten minutes after the restart. Myler’s
luck did not improve either, putting wide a fifth penalty attempt and then
fluffing a drop goal effort in quick succession.
His afternoon was brought to an end on 55 minutes when Shane
Geraghty came off the replacements bench and it was him who started the move
that finished with Brian Mujati out-pacing the Leicester defence to touch down
in the corner six minutes later, after being put through from Phil Dowson’s
offload. Just to top it off, the blonde haired magician kicked the extras from
out wide.
Only some resilient defending from the Tigers kept
Northampton from going over again, but Geraghty did add three more points on 67
minutes when George Chuter was penalised for a ruck infringement just metres
out in front of the posts. Mr Pearson’s yellow card followed as well and the
visitors found themselves temporarily a man down.
Saints would also play out the majority of the final minutes
with 14 men after Dylan Hartley was also sin binned for persistent foul play.
Then with nine minutes to go Hamilton got on the score sheet with a try out
wide which Staunton converted.
The winger grabbed his second of the afternoon after Tigers
skipper Geordan Murphy sucked in the defenders, leaving Hamilton with room to
run in unopposed from nearly 25 metres out, although this time his try went
unconverted.
Line-Ups
Northampton Saints – Foden; Ashton, Clarke (Ansbro 69),
Downey, Reihana; Myler (Geraghty 55), Dickson (Powell 69); Tonga’uiha (Dreyer
69), Hartley (captain), Mujati (Mercey 71), Lawes (Easter 76), Day, Dowson
(Sharman 69-79), Wood, Wilson (Clark 69)
Leicester Tigers – Murphy (captain); Hamilton, Hipkiss (M.
Tuilagi 61), Allen, A. Tuilagi; Flood (Staunton 38), Youngs (Grindall 76);
Ayerza (Stankovich 64), Chuter, Castrogiovanni (Cole 55), Green (Slater 64),
Skivington, Newby (Duffey 70), Woods, Waldrom
Replacement Not Used – Pienaar
Referee – Dave Pearson (Northumberland)
