Northampton fold again as Smith shines
AFTER watching this, Alan Gaffney might want to consider turning around at Heathrow and boarding a return flight to Sydney.
Northampton’s interim coach will take over tomorrow and he faces a daunting job with a Saints side who last night suffered their 11th consecutive defeat in major competitions.
For Harlequins, whose apprentice No 10 Marcus Smith delivered a masterly performance, it proved to be a festive turkey shoot.
From the moment Luther Burrell spilt the first carry of the game, Northampton were in pieces. Their defence was slow and narrow, with captain Dylan Hartley missing five from 11 tackles. Their attack, meanwhile, had as much shape as the leftover Christmas pudding.
It took barely 31 minutes for Quins to secure the four-try bonus point, with scores from Dave Ward, Charlie Walker, Tim Visser and Danny Care putting the result beyond doubt.
‘The game was done inside 30 minutes,’ conceded Saints acting head coach Alan Dickens. ‘I put it down to confidence. They go 10-0 up and our heads go down. It was tough to watch and it was a backwards step. Alan Gaffney is a quality coach and I know that he’ll come in and he’ll help us.’
Quins capitalised on Northampton’s mistakes.
Ward sniped through a gaping hole in midfield, Walker scored after an interception, Visser touched down after Saints lost the ball and Care capitalised on a handling error by Harry Mallinder.
Northampton had just 56 per cent tackle completion at half-time as Smith picked them apart with instinctive kicking, backed up by Jamie Roberts and Mike Brown.
‘Marcus was pulling the strings and looked the excellent rugby player he is,’ said Quins coach John Kingston.
Visser added a fifth try early in the second half with Smith, once again, turning provider with a floated pass. There was some respite for the away side when Ross Chisolm was sin binned for straying offside. Rob Horne scored from close range and his try was backed up by a second from Nic Groome.
But it was nothing but false hope. Care scored his second before Christian Luamanu took the scoreline to a 50-point thumping.
The final score went to Saints replacement Mikey Haywood, but it was too late to stop the rot.