66 - 10HT -

cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens
Att TBC
Fri 22 Oct 21

Highlights & Report | Northampton Saints 66-10 Warriors

Warriors slumped to a third straight heavy defeat as Northampton ran in ten tries under the Franklin’s Gardens floodlights.

Warriors were only 12-10 after 20 minutes but a burst of three tries in nine first half minutes settled the issue and it was pretty much one-way traffic for much of the second half when Northampton scored 33 unanswered points.

The late withdrawals of Willi Heinz (groin) and Ollie Lawrence (calf) through injury provided some mitigation but it was still another frustrating 80 minutes for Warriors.

Northampton were always going to be dangerous with ball in hand but Warriors made life even more difficult for themselves by conceding some soft tries and turning over hard-won possession at critical stages of the game.

South Africa wing Courtnall Skosan was the chief beneficiary as he marked his Northampton debut with a hat-trick of tries and full-back Tommy Freeman celebrated his England call-up with a brace as did scrum-half Alex Mitchell.

All Warriors had to show for an evening of hard graft was a try from Will Chudley from a charge-down and a conversion and penalty from Fin Smith.

Warriors went behind to an opportunist try after nine minutes when they were penalised at a five metres lineout and Dan Biggar celebrated his 50th appearance for Northampton by taking a quick tap penalty and powering over.

Chudley levelled almost from the re-start when he charged down an attempted clearance and followed up to score his second try for Warriors. Smith’s conversion gave Warriors the lead, but only for four minutes.

While Duhan van der Merwe was in the sin bin for lifting an opponent out of a ruck, Mitchell went over from the base of a scrum and Biggar added the extras.

Smith reduced the deficit with a well-struck penalty midway through the second-half but Warriors’ hopes were quickly extinguished with three tries in nine minutes at the end of the first half

Lock Api Ratuniyarawa crashed over to round off a period of sustained pressure, Skosan scored a scrappy try after he was played on-side by a loose ball which deflected off a Warriors defender. That gave Northampton the Gallagher Premiership’s fastest bonus point try of the season and Northampton’s quickest ever.

Worse was to follow for Warriors as, from the re-start, centre Rory Hutchinson intercepted a stray pass and raced over from long range.

The less said about the second half, the better. Skosan got his second after 46 minutes, Freeman went over with a powerful run from his own half and Skosan wrapped up his hat-trick after 58 minutes.

Warriors did well to deny Northampton a further score until the 76th minute when Mitchell got his second with Freeman crossing from the final play of the match when Saints were down to 14 men as they had run out of replacements.

Warriors | 15 Jamie Shillcock, 14 Harri Doel, 13 Oli Morris, 12 Francois Venter (C) (Butler 79), 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Fin Smith (Heward 66), 9 Will Chudley (Simpson 54), 1 Rory Sutherland (Waller 72), 2 Niall Annett, 3 Christian Judge (Owlett 60-66), 4 Andrew Kitchener, 5 Graham Kitchener (Batley 60), 6 Kyle Hatherell, 7 Sam Lewis (Vailanu 56), 8 Matt Kvesic.

Replacements | 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Jack Owlett, 19 Joe Batley, 20 Sione Vailanu, 21 Gareth Simpson, 22 Will Butler, 23 Noah Heward.

Timeline
9m | Biggar try 5-0
11m | Chudley try 5-5
12m | Smith con 5-7
15m | Mitchell try 10-7
16m | Biggar con 12-7
19m | Smith pen 12-10
22m | Ratuniyarawa try 17-10
23m | Biggar con 19-10
29m | Skosan try 24-10
30m | Biggar con 26-10
31m | Hutchinson try 31-10
32m | Biggar con 33-10
46m | Skosan try 38-10
47m | Biggar con 40-10
53m | Freeman try 45-10
58m | Skosan try 50-10
59m | Francis con 52-10
76m | Mitchell try 57-10
77m | Biggar con 59-10
80m | Freeman try 64-10
80m | Biggar con 66-10

Competition: Gallagher Premiership
Venue: cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens
Referee:
Game Type:
Fixture Round:
Attendance:

Squads

To be announced…

SIGN UP TO THE WARRIORS WEEKLY NEWSLETTER