Following Northampton Saints’ 22-20 win over Saracens in the Premiership semi-final, here are our five takeaways from the match at Franklin’s Gardens.
Top Line
This semi-final had it all – artist versus craftsman, Dick Dastardly versus Penelope Pitstop, champions versus newcomers – and the drama continued right up until the final moments when Northampton Saints, at their third attempt in the last four seasons, finally reached the Premiership final after a magnificent effort that did Saracens proud.
It was an eventful game dominated by strong, and at times quite phenomenal, defence, and it took two moments of individual brilliance from George Furbank and Owen Farrell to threaten a shutout victory.
The commitment of the game was breathtaking, the physicality was bone-jarring and the run of play was downright spectacular, but justice goes to Northampton, who finished in style at the top of the Premier League and through to next week’s final.
Best margins
To say the game was close would be an understatement – defending and collisions prevailed over handling and running, and the margin was incredibly narrow, but Saints can look back and honestly say they beat Saracens at their best.
The first 20 minutes were dominated by the visitors. With a penalty count of 8-2 in the first quarter, it was clear that the Saints were holding their own. But gradually, the Saints’ main players got into the game. Courtney Lawes inevitably made some ace keeps and as he began to dominate in the air and on the court, the Saints started to get on the offensive.
With Sarries on the back foot, some link-up play along the touchline brought the ball back infield where the excellent Alex Mitchell fed Farbank, and with Nick Tompkins overcommitting and doglegging his own line, the England full-back produced a superb offload to Burger Odendaal who sent a pass under the posts.
Mitchell was superb at times and did his best in the second half to secure Saints’ second try with a backdoor offload to Fraser Dingwall and then a looping pass back to Mitchell, but for some superhuman defending from Juan Martin Gonzalez in the corner the game might have been over.
The game didn’t end there. A moment of confusion in the wide channels found Farrell in space and, true to form, his final big performance in a Saracens shirt was a magnificent dummy followed by a grubber run across the floor for Alex Lewington to score a try and leave Saracens with one final play to seal the game. But at the restart, Saints held off the visitors and, as Christophe Ridley blew the whistle, Franklin’s Gardens erupted.
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Important showdown
Leading up to this game, there was a lot of talk about how many great players would be playing against each other. There was a lot of world class matchups at 15-1, not to mention the influence of the bench. The fact that the Saints won almost every one of those individual matches except for the seventh game shows how they get through it. Ben Earl once again shone like a world class player.
The big difference was at full-back, where Elliot Daly was absolutely shocking and Furbank shone as he scored a killer try and looked far safer. The front-row battle went in Saints’ favour and the bench was surprisingly influential.
But it was the nines who made the biggest difference, with Mitchell producing a performance that truly demonstrated his credentials as one of the top nines in world rugby. Luther Burell commented on Planet Rugby that the nine who combined best with the ten would win and, with both Farrell and Finn Smith playing memorable matches, Mitchell was the game-changer.
Test match physicality
For 80 minutes, watching these two great teams trade attack after attack on the gain line, you can see both defences reaching near test match levels of intensity.
This time the Saints were stifled by the aggression and organisation of a well-organised Sarries attack. Playing 13-2, the visitors managed to maintain width and deny the Saints the ball into the hands of their wide runners. Double-team play at passing points was the order of the day, with both Earl and Billy Vunipola providing absolute defensive wall-to-wall trouble.
Referee Ridley was very strict at the breakdown and any inaccuracies were heavily punished, giving Saracens the upper hand for the first 20 minutes and leaving Saints struggling to get a foothold in the match.
But despite the visitors’ excellent defending, the Saints countered them almost blow for blow. Led by Tom Pearson and Lawes, the Saints showed clever and intelligent play in disrupting final passes, stalling or isolating their opponents, and then landing powerful strikes at the point of the pass to close down any width that Saracens were trying to create.
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Goodbye
Four giants of Saints rugby – Rose, Lewis Ludlum, Alex Moon and Alex Waller – walked off the pitch at the Gardens for the last time and while it is almost impossible to summarise their contributions to the green, gold and black, in Rose’s case he left the pitch as arguably the greatest Saint of all time.
They will live to fight again and next week at Twickenham will be their final stage of celebration, one that will win the hearts of neutral fans and everyone else in the sporting world.
Saracens lose four of the best players in the club’s history, arguably their best Sally, the intelligent and brilliant attacking force Farrell, and with Billy and Mako Vunipola (and Sean Maitland, who didn’t play tonight) also gone, Saracens have a big hole, but this club is regenerative like no other and they will come back.
It was a bittersweet evening for fans of both teams – either disappointment or joy depending on their loyalty, but above all it was a celebration of six or seven of the greatest players in the history of the Premier League, made all the better by their presence.
read more: Finn Smith scores 17 points as Northampton Saints beat Saracens in Premiership semi-final
