Last-gasp Myler penalty helps Saints overcome Montpellier
AN added time penalty from Steve Myler clinched the scrappiest of victories for Saints who, save the first five and last five minutes, seemed to spend most of the game grimly hanging on.
It was a priceless gutsy win for Saints after a patchy start to the season and the departure in midweek of backs coach Alex King who appears to have been held responsibe for Saints lack of spark behind the scrum. In all honesty nothing much changed in that respect but the simple act of winning always adds lustre to a performance.
For Montpellier, this was a game they should have won twice over and Aussie scrum-half Nic White will be devastated that his two missed touches at the death led directly to two late penalty shots for Saints. Harry Mallinder missed the first but the dependable Myler made no mistake from 35m with the second.
Saints made the most encouraging of starts with Mallinder striding into space before finding Louis Picamoles out on the left with an over the top pass. The Frenchman then produced a peach of an inside offload to send Callum Clark striding over.
Myler landed the conversion, at the second attempt, after Nigel Owens had ordered a restart following an early charge from Frans Steyn who also shouted ‘miss’. A costly moment in the final reckoning.
The heavyweight Montpellier pack then went to work but somehow Saints held out and then struck a massive psychological blow when Owens reversed a penalty 45m out from the Montpellier line with Myler taking advantage.
It was still Montpellier who were dominating territorially and gradually they worked their way back into the game. Benjamin Fall butchered a try when he ignored an overlap and a series of three consecutive Saints scrum penalties close to their should have resulted in a saints yellow card.
There was a stone cold penalty try when Tom Wood and Clark both came around offside to disrupt a mighty forward rumble that was heading towards the tryline. In the end Montpellier had to settle for a simple Botica penalty before they did finally score a cracking try.
Joffrey Michel had come on for the injured Benjamin Fall and on the half hour he combined brilliantly with big Nemani Nadolo after Steyn had fired out a long pass to the left wing. Nadolo off-loaded superbly and Michel received the ball and stepped all in an instant before flying up the wing and passing inside to Steyn to score.
Inspired by Picamoles, who was everywhere, Saints upped their intensity after the break and took the fight to the Montpellier pack. That pressure earning a short range penalty for Myler after Ben Botica, having been warned during the previous scrum, stepped up offside at the next in his anxiety to defend his channel from Picamoles.
Montpellier hit back as the game became ragged and although Steyn was mixing the good with poor a brace of penalties saw Montpellier creep into the lead with 15 minutes to go. They should have won from there but Saints dug deep for the morale boosting win they so badly needed.