We have seen this before. It is easy to forget, amid all the tries and sunshine, that rugby has a darker side too: a wet, windy, deafening ferocity that not even the most twinkle-toed can transcend. And they practically invented it here.
This is not the first time Leicester have welcomed their beloved neighbours to the lair as champions and disabused them of any notions of grandeur. It took the Tigers 40 minutes to whip themselves into the necessary fervour, but when they did, all else followed: the rocking stadium at capacity, the win, the bonus point, the obliterated opposition.
“The crowd was brilliant,” said Geoff Parling, Leicester’s head coach. “The crowd is outstanding. This stadium is iconic. It’s rustic, I know it is. I’ve said it before. It’s old. But I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
It was not just the 40 minutes of directionless fumbling by the home team, but a mass fracas with a number of those visiting friends, which spilled into the stand, that sparked them into life, pretty much from the moment they re-emerged from the break.
The second-half Tigers showed the first-half version how a lineout and drive is executed, when Jamie Blamire scored their first try within four minutes of the restart. That earned them a one-point lead and normal service was resumed.
Half-time’s highlights analysis probably centred on that, well, we can’t really call them fights these days – this is the age of the camera, after all – but certainly pushing and shoving long after the referee had brought the first half to a close.
There were Alex Coles and Freddie Steward at each other’s throats. On it went, up the steps of the Crumbie Stand, where Henry Pollock, obviously, seemed more interested in tying his shoelace than getting in for an orange. Ollie Chessum and Steward, his England teammates, did not find it funny, shoving him all the way to the changing room.
“These games are going to be hostile,” said Phil Dowson, the Northampton coach. “In the current game, you can’t throw anything. It’s just push and shove and talk crap. That happens every derby. So I don’t think that had any impact. It’s not as if anyone got filled in. Well, you just can’t any more.”
Quick GuideRoundup: Bristol battle past Exeter to climb to third
Show
Bristol moved into third place in the Prem table with a hard-fought 20-7 win over Exeter in appalling conditions at Ashton Gate.
It was their fifth successive league victory over Rob Baxter’s men after an old-style-rugby war of attrition in heavy rain and strong winds.
Bristol took the lead when a long pass by England scrum-half Harry Randall found Gabriel Ibitoye in space on the left wing to cross in the corner.
Centre James Williams slotted an excellent touchline conversion and he was also on target with a 35m penalty three minutes later.
Exeter got back into the game when they kicked a penalty to the corner and Greg Fisilau was driven over in emphatic style. Henry Slade converted to make it 10-7 and the visitors chances to draw level in the last 10 minutes when they turned down two kickable penalties inside the 22. Bristol made sure of victory three minutes from time when Williams kicked his second penalty and Luka Ivanishvili added some gloss when he forced his way over moments later.
On Friday night, Gloucester continued their resurgence to remain at the top of the Prem table with a hard-fought 23-5 victory over Bath at Kingsholm.
The win looked unlikely when Bath dominated for most of the first half, but Gloucester survived for a morale-boosting victory.
For Bath, it was a disappointing night as they fell to their third consecutive defeat and lost both Santiago Carreras and Guy Pepper to injuries. Freddie Thomas and Max Llewellyn scored Gloucester’s tries with George Barton converting both and adding three penalties. A try from Kepueli Tuipulotu was Bath’s sole response.
Christian Wade equalled Chris Ashton’s top-flight try record to inspire Newcastle to their first win of the season in the Prem. Wade made it 101 tries when he sprinted over in the 49th minute as Newcastle recovered from a 3-0 interval deficit to blow Sale away 17-3 in a gale at Kingston Park. It drew the 35-year-old winger, capped once by England, level with former Sale wing Ashton, who was inside the stadium.
The Newcastle captain, George McGuigan, grabbed the other home try with Josh Hodge adding seven points with the boot. There was little to cheer for Sale, who only had a George Ford penalty to show for their visit to the North East. Press Association
Such discord was in keeping with a first half in which neither side could quite find their feet on the slippery turf. Saints seemed more in tune with the kind of rugby that has prevailed before the rains came. Theirs was the only try of the first half, early on, when Finn Smith, with an advantage, chipped in behind, where Billy Searle spilled and James Pater gathered to score.
Leicester could not make anything of a stream of penalties in the first half, sending four of them to the corner in the first quarter and spilling or, often, not even securing the subsequent possession. How that was going to change.
Once Blamire’s try had restored order, the Tigers tore through the Saints at set piece and high ball. The champions deteriorated in the swirling rain.
after newsletter promotion
Cameron Henderson was next to rise to take a lineout, after a ferocious scrum had earned the penalty. Henderson then finished in the corner like a winger, sent away by Gabriel Hamer-Webb. That put Leicester six ahead and five minutes later they were more than a score clear, this time Finn Carnduff finishing after another attacking lineout.
Quick GuideLeicester 28-7 Northampton: teams and scorers
Show
Leicester Steward (Pearson 79); Radwan, Wand (Bailey 73), Kata, Hamer-Webb; Searle, Van Poortvliet (Whiteley 73); Van der Flier (Haffar 73), Blamire (Asiata 79), Heyes (Hurd 73), Henderson (Thompson 79), O Chessum (capt), Wainwright, Carnduff, Cracknell (Moro 73). Tries Blamire, Henderson, Carnduff, Steward. Pens Steward, Searle. Con Searle.
Northampton Pater (Sleightholme 76); Freeman, Hutchinson, Dingwall (capt), Hendy; F Smith, Mitchell (McParland 58); Iyogun (Fischetti 63), Langdon (R Smith 63), Kundiona (Necolai 54), Coles, Prowse (Van der Mescht 63), Kemeny, Pearson (Lockett 58), Pollock (Chick 54). Yellow card Lockett 70. Try Pater. Con F Smith.
Referee Craig Maxwell-Keys.
The bonus point came in the final 10 minutes after one of the more bizarre swings of fortune. Smith’s cross-kick had sent George Hendy away from his own 22, Adam Radwan’s slap-down earned him a yellow card. But way back earlier in the move Tom Lockett’s head had collided with Solomone Kata’s. It was another totally innocent accident, Kata not only changing direction, but rising sharply to clash with the covering Lockett.
Even by rugby’s standards, the yellow card was absurd punishment. But it also meant Radwan’s was rescinded. On he came, off Lockett went, and over strolled Steward for the bonus point from the subsequent lineout.
When it is not your day, it is not your day, Saints must have rued. But when it is your day, especially at this grand stadium in the wet and windy twilight, it really is.
