Two-try Mitchell shows England class to lift Saints
Alex Mitchell underlined his status as the form England scrum-half with two tries against London Irish that helped lift Northampton Saints into the Gallagher Premiership play-offs.
It was not a match many defence coaches would enjoy, indeed Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd delivered a withering assessment, but with both teams playing at breakneck speed it was as close a spectacle to Super Rugby as you will find in the northern hemisphere.
Not everyone will deem that a compliment, but this was a showcase of the Saints’ best attacking work and for many of their bright young things, such as Mitchell, who will have an eye on England’s summer international series.
Given the platform by a forceful collective performance by the pack, Mitchell ensured the Saints played at a frighteningly high tempo and ruthlessly attacked any openings – and there were plenty of those on both sides, to Boyd’s frustration.
“I asked the coaching staff what do you think that is out of 10, and we thought it was 6.5 to seven,” Boyd said. “If we play like that against Leicester [next week] we will get murdered.
“Defensively we have to be much more ruthless and much more clinical. We are very disappointed with our defensive effort. Guys who do not normally miss tackles missed tackles. We are very aggrieved
about the number of tackles we dropped off.”
There was also a fascinating individual battle between the tall, rangy Ollie Hassell-collins and the stockier and speedier Ollie Sleightholme. Both are natural try-scorers, but Sleightholme won the head-to-head with two tries to one.
As play started at 100mph and moved from one end to the other in the blink of an eye, London Irish were the first to strike. A bobbling ball in midfield seemed to freeze Northampton’s defenders in their tracks. Nick Phipps took advantage, scooting round David Ribbans and past Fraser Dingwall’s cover tackle.
Northampton responded in kind, sucking in Irish defenders with a
midfield maul. Mitchell attacked the space and gave half-back partner Dan Biggar a two-on-one chance which he executed by passing to Dingwall. Biggar then nudged Saints in front with a penalty.
Irish scored a fabulous first-phase try. A maul inside the 22 made decent ground before they spread the play to Jackson, who gave an inside ball to Terrence Hepetema. Hassell-collins, who had started the move positioned behind Jackson, came steaming in a diagonal line and straight through Piers Francis’s attempted tackle.
Francis did redeem himself, winning the resulting kick-off, and, from that period of pressure, Northampton regained the lead. Mitchell
attacked two dawdling front-five forwards, and although Blair Cowan brought him down, he did not complete the tackle, allowing Mitchell to get up and stretch for the line.
Ben Loader was then sent to the sin-bin from the restart for taking out Nick Isiekwe in the air. After Wayne Barnes ran an inadvertent blocking line, Saints had a midfield scrum and Mitchell knew exactly what he was going to do next. A dummy took him free of Phipps and then he streaked into the space where right-wing Loader would have been. Biggar’s second penalty took Saints 25-14 clear at half-time.
Northampton have had an unfortunate habit of throwing away firsthalf leads and those ghosts
re-emerged when Francis missed another tackle on James Stokes, and Albert Tuisue forced his way over. Nerves were settled as Sleightholme touched down in the corner. What had been a close-fought battle soon became a procession as Saints controlled territory and possession.
Francis scored perhaps the best try of the night, going round Loader after Biggar’s fine pass. Sleightholme then got his second score, outpacing Hassell-collins to touch down Rory Hutchinson’s grubber kick.
Hassell-collins, who beat 10 defenders, gained a measure of revenge as he set up Loader for Irish’s bonus-point score.
“One of those games where possession was king and Northampton had the lion’s share,” Declan Kidney, the London Irish director of rugby, said. “If you don’t have possession in a game like this you are giving the opposition opportunities.”