The Times match report

[Heathen]

Gamble pays off as 13-man Northampton snatch win from Wasps with late try

Wasps 31 Northampton 35
John Westerby
The Times 6 Jan

When an 18-point lead has been relinquished and you have been reduced to 13 men, there are plenty of teams who would struggle to summon the spirit for one final push. There are plenty of teams who would gladly jump at the chance to kick a penalty goal that could salvage a draw away from home, especially when your goalkicker, Dan Biggar, has slotted his previous 21 efforts between the sticks.

Whenever possible, though, this Northampton Saints team commit to taking the positive option and so, despite the fact that they were two men down, trailing a resurgent Wasps 31-28 with three minutes remaining, they eschewed the kick at goal that would have earned a draw after winning a penalty near the Wasps line and opted instead for a scrum.

In the Saints’ coaches box, there had been feverish debate. Having led 28-10 early in the second half, only to concede three tries in 14 minutes to gift Wasps the lead, should they have taken the safe option, the kick at goal that would have seen them leave the Ricoh Arena with the draw? “That would have been psychological defeat for me,” Chris Boyd, the Saints director of rugby, said. “I was prepared to roll the dice.”

They still had a full complement of forwards on the field, but, behind the scrum, they had only five of their seven backs. Tom Collins had been shown a red card in the 66th minute for a dangerous aerial challenge on Jacob Umaga, then Cobus Reinach was sent to the sin-bin four minutes later for a deliberate knock-on, punished with the penalty try that edged Wasps into the lead.

One of those remaining backs was Taqele Naiyaravoro, the 6ft 5in, 20st 8lb former Australia wing and he was Saints’ weapon of choice from short range from that dramatic final scrum. First he was launched from the back of the set piece, but stopped short of the line. Lock Courtney Lawes followed up and inched slightly closer.

Then Henry Taylor, the replacement scrum half brought on to cover for Reinach’s absence, flung a low pass to the left to Naiyaravoro, who stooped to cling on and plunged over the line, taking several Wasps players with him, prompting delirium among the visiting Saints supporters.

Biggar, inevitably, converted his 22nd consecutive shot at goal and Northampton, remarkably, had snatched a victory that keeps them in second place in the Gallagher Premiership table, justifying that one final roll of the dice. “The decision we had made was pretty solid,” Boyd said.

Wasps, for their part, could barely believe they had failed to close out a game in which they had already staged a stirring fightback of their own. From 28-10 down in the 52nd minute, when Reinach burrowed over for his second try of the game, the home side were revived when Jimmy Gopperth barged over in the 56th minute and Matteo Minozzi capitalised on smart work from Marcus Watson and Dan Robson to score under the posts.

Suddenly, from nowhere, Wasps were back within four points and their hopes were raised further after Collins overran his pursuit of a high ball and caused Umaga to fall on to his back. Saints were down to 14 men and, once Reinach had slapped down a potential scoring pass from Tom Cruse, they were two men down with ten minutes remaining and, with the penalty try, Wasps were now 31-28 ahead. “If we’d got hold of the ball then, we’d have seen it out,” Dai Young, the Wasps director of rugby, said.

But a positive mindset infuses everything this Northampton team does, epitomised in the inventive playmaking and slick handling that had created first-half scores for Reinach and Teimana Harrison. Since his arrival at Saints last season, Boyd has sought to sow seeds of greater of belief in his squad. In that final, bold decision to go for broke, he was reaping the rewards.

Match Stats — Team Stats

    Tries
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        4   44.4%55.6%   5
    Passes
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        123   39.4%60.6%   189

    Tackles
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        203   61%39%   130

    Conversions
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        3/3 (100%)   50%50%   5/5 (100%)
    Penalty Goals
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        1/1 (100%)   100%0%   0/0 (0%)
    Drop Goal
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        0/0 (0%)   50%50%   0/1 (0%)

    Lineouts Won (%)
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        100%   56.7%43.3%   76.5%
    Scrums Won (%)
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        100%   50%50%   100%

    Red Cards
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        0   0%100%   1
    Yellow Cards
        Wasps   Comparison   Northampton
        0   0%100%   1


Scorers: Wasps: Tries Watson (29min), Gopperth (56), Minozzi (61), penalty (70). Conversions Umaga 3. Penalty goal: Umaga (23). Northampton Saints: Tries Reinach 2 (16, 52), Harrison (36), Wood (41), Naiyaravoro (77). Conversions Biggar 5.

Scoring sequence (Wasps first): 0-7, 3-7, 10-7, 10-14, (half-time) 10-21, 10-28, 17-28, 24-28, 31-28, 31-35.

Wasps M Minozzi; Z Kibirige, M Fekitoa, M le Bourgeois (J Gopperth, 49), M Watson; J Umaga (J de Jongh 65), D Robson; T West, T Taylor (T Cruse 49), K Brookes (J Toomaga-Allen 55), T Flament, C Matthews, J Willis, T Young, N Carr (S Vailanu 55).

Northampton G Furbank; A Tuala (T Naiyaravoro 63), R Hutchinson, P Francis (M Proctor 55; H Taylor 73), T Collins (sent off 66); D Biggar, C Reinach (sin-bin 70); A Waller (F van Wyk 55), M Haywood (S Matavesi 57), P Hill (O Franks 55), A Moon (A Ratuniyarawa 62), D Ribbans, C Lawes, T Wood (L Ludlam 57), T Harrison.

[Rossm]

Thanks for posting.