Match action - starts
PLAYING their first match since Boxing Day and not looking too clever in the first half, Northampton suddenly found their game after the break for a morale-boosting bonus point win on the road.
Strangely – or perhaps not – it was playing into a strong second-half wind which had made a 90 degree change of direction during the break that sparked them into action. Ball in hand and continuity is invariably the way forward playing into the elements and that is Saints’ natural game under Chris Boyd, the game they rather lost during a difficult start to the season.
Orchestrating that was Dan Biggar who will be in Six Nations action for Wales this week and Rory Hutchinson of Scotland who won’t. Hutchinson seems out of favour with Gregor Townsend at present, something of a mystery on this showing.
Gloucester, meanwhile, are lacking grunt up front and inspiration behind. More than any team they seem to feel the lack of fans at home. The normally riotous Kingsholm ground looks more forlorn than any Premiership stadia right now.
With Willi Heinz back after five months out injured and looking good, Glos made a decent fist of it during the first half and actually led 19-11 before Northampton upped their game.
Gloucester had edged a physical but patchy first half 12-11 courtesy of four short range penalty goals from Billy Twelvetrees and possibly should have been further ahead. A long range Lewis Ludlow intercept when he connected with Ollie Thorley was well thwarted by the excellent Matt Proctor but Gloucester should still have done better from the recycled ball.
Northampton weren’t pulling up any trees either, but after an early penalty from Biggar did serve notice of better things ahead. It came with a wellconstructed try from Alex Mitchell, Biggar and Hutchinson whose slick hands resulted in Taqele Naiyaravoro walking the ball gently over the line.
Biggar added another penalty before the break but when the teams reemerged it was Gloucester who briefly gave reason to cheer their absent fans with a scorching break from Thorley setting up a well-taken try by the everpresent Heinz. Surely they would kick on?
Not a bit of it. Saints took this as their cue to go to work with an exhilarating 20 minutes of classy rugby which featured three tries and won the game.
Hutchinson scored the first after good continuity work from big men Nick Isiekwe and Api Ratuniyarawa in midfield. Biggar converted and Hutchinson was again heavily involved moments later when he sensed a lot of space out to his left and dinked a perfectly weighted right footed kick for the impressive Shaun Adendorff to run onto. Adendorff is no fresh faced youth but you can see how he made South Africa’s Junior World Cup winning squad in 2012 and scored two tries against England in a pool game.
He arrived at Saints from Aurillac in ProD2 and looks like a clever acquisition.
Adendorff clinched the bonus point and closed out the win with a second try after a length of the field attack although Gloucester did score late through Matias Alemanno to ensure a losing point at least.