Festival rugby from the Warriors A-Team saw Northampton suffer there first competitive defeat of the season and Warriors close the gap at the top of the Guinness A-League, Northern Conference to only three points.
Despite the bitter cold weather, Warriors A were in inspiration form from the off, with captain James Collins leading from the front throughout the fixture.
But it could have started so badly, if it were not for Northampton winger David Smith missing a 40 metre penalty after only two minutes. Instead his miss acted as a catalyst and sent Warriors into overdrive, with Oduoza crossing the whitewash only two minutes later. The try came after an unforced error from winger John Brake, led to a Warrior lineout, drive and quick ball through Nick Runiciman and Shane Drahm out to the wing for a simple score. Unfortunately the resulting difficult kick narrowly missed from Drahm.
After being awarded a penalty on the nine minute mark, Northampton foolishly back-chatted towards the referee, resulting in their penalty being reversed, and Warriors marched forward ten metres, leaving a comfortable kick for Drahm to convert ensuring us a 8 – 0 lead with only 10 minutes on the clock.
The Wanderers were posing a defensive test through the deadly pace of their backs in particular centre pairing of Cambridge University Graduate Joe Ansbro and 18 year old Grant Anderson. But some inspired tackling from Paul Wheatcroft and James Collins prevented them from getting points on the board. Northampton’s only other chance being another forty metre penalty missed by Smith, who seemed not to have the distance on this cold January evening.
Shane Drahm looked to control the pace of the first half with precision kicking from hand pinning Northampton back, leaving them the only option of clearing their lines for some defensive respite. Many of their kicks been caught by Wheatcroft, who appeared to be everywhere on the park.
The first half also witnessed dynamo Paula Havea acting as a battering ram for Warriors and setting up the majority of our attacks, even finding himself running for a certain try on the 23rd minute for it to be called back for a forward pass.
Northampton were putting their bodies on the line and holding out been extremely strong in defence but lacking a cutting edge in attack with slight errors of judgement costing them dearly. In the 34th minute Warriors broke the deadlock when Drahm kicked to touch and the resultant lineout recovered by the Wanderers was turned over for Havili to spread the play to Oduoza, who beat two men for the try. Drahm also converted.
The second half saw more of the same from Drahm controlling the game with his boot and Warriors backs storming the Wanderers’ lines. Greg King notably breaking through, but for a fantastic covering tackle from Ansbro.
Ansbro proving to be a real threat on the 49th minute, scored a controversial try, which looked to the 1,327 crowd in attendence to be a knock-on. The conversion was however, missed by Smith.
Searching for further tries Warriors bravely opted to kick for touch with penalties, instead of going for the three points only narrowly missing out. On the 57th minute however, changing the tactic with Drahm converting a penalty making it 18 – 5.
Havea carrying on with bulldozing runs was making metres with every possession leading to Aisea Havili running through the defensive crowd for a try, and marking it with his crowd pleasing ritualistic ‘karate kid’ crane celebration on the 62nd minute. Unfortunately the conversion was missed by Drahm, leaving the score at 23-5. This time also signalled a ring of changes with Ryan Powell, Joe Carlisle and Cairan Ruddock entering the encounter.
Joe Carlisle immediately made an impact side stepping the Northampton defence setting up a kick and chase for a resulting try for Abbott. Carlisle kicked the conversion making the score 30-5.
Powerful running from Chris Budgen saw Northampton repeatedly begin again to apply pressure to Warriors A, with young Grant Anderson also being instrumental in this offering a superb range of passing. Frustratingly for the Wanderers, their pace and attacking skill was only lacking in their ability to cross the line.
The biggest cheer of the night came later, when Mark Easter accidentally passed to Tim Collier on the Warriors’ 22 meter line enabling Collier to trot 30 metres down the wing later passing to Ryan Powell who unfortunately knocked the ball on agonizingly close to the try line.
The enthralling encounter was ended with another try on the 87th minute – deep in injury time – when another spat of passing, resulted in a sprint finish from wing wonder Havili. Carlisle wasted no time in converting for the referee to blow the final whistle providing the Warriors A Team with an impressive 37 – 5 victory and the crowd with a warm satisfied glow that would keep them hungry for more.
Timeline:
4min Oduoza t 5 – 0
9min Drahm p 8 – 0
34min Oduoza t Drahm c 15 – 0
49min Ansbro t 15 – 5
57min Drahm p 18 – 5
62min Haviliv t 23 – 5
67min Abbott t Carlisle c 30 – 5
87min Havili t Carlisle c 37 – 5
Warriors: 01 Gilding, 02 Page (Wright 78), 03 Black, 04 Collier, 05 Cox, 06 Abbott (Mullan 82), 07 Collins (C), 08 Havea (Ruddock 63), 09 N. Runciman (R Powell 63), 10 Drahm (Carlisle 63), 11 Havili, 12 King (Thomas 73), 13 Grove, 14 Oduoza, 15 Wheatcroft (Best 53)
Replacements: 16 Wright, 17 Thomas, 18 Ruddock, 19 L Mullan, 20 R Powell, 21 Carlisle, 22 Best