HC: Overmach Parma 21 - 68 Saints - Match Report

Yes Italy, home to fine food, fine wine and fine art, elegant, tasteful and stylish. Unfortunately there was little in terms of elegance, style or artistry from the hosts who allowed the back row trio of Fox, Browne and Easter to run riot around the park.

Not even the Gladiatorial ancestry of the Roman Empire could halt the gold, black and green tide from flooding this northern Italian town. That is until the 60^th minute when Parma staged a very brief revival thanks to the introduction of the floodlights and the enforced departure of Pat Barnard for 10 minutes.

From the first minute the Saints looked to slip the opposition and Lamont’s opening run nearly the full length of the field signalled the intent, but it was Spencer who opened the scoring on 5 minutes, doting down between the posts.

Despite a lovely interception try from Ezio Galon only moments later it was clear that only one result was possible. From a Saintly point of view only an injury or two would dampen the proceedings, and sure enough fortune was more than willing to oblige as Sean Myler was supported from the field with an ominous looking limp.

The seamless introduction of Robinson at 9 with Vass moving to 10 didn’t disrupt the flow of quick passing and huge miss-passes that the Saints served up, like large shells from an ack-ack gun raining across the field. Diggin, Wyles and then the pack profited as the referee awarded a penalty and bonus point try. The Parma pack disintegrating under immense pressure from the tight five. Barely 30 minutes gone.

A super blindside break from Robinson saw further woe for Parma as Sego Nadridri the Parama number 12 was sent from the field for 10 minutes. Thompson was driven over from the resulting penalty and lineout. Still Saints had time for a 6^th as Robinson tracked a lovely break from Carlos Spencer and went in under the posts.

The second half saw a stiffer and much improved Parma defence plus the usual disruption from a continuous flow of substitutes. Parma exposed a loose Saints defence halfway through the second half with a try from winger Ghidini Giovanni and a great break by substitute Marco Neethling that saw him run in unopposed.

The recovery was brief and was sandwiched between four second half tries from Northampton. Dan Browne who had a great afternoon opened proceedings and was closely followed by Lamont with his first.

Diggin secured his brace on 70 minutes before Lamont’s final burst to the line right at the death. Spencer happily slotted most of the conversions away on what was a relatively easy day at the office - the tee carrier was rarely in his seat.

On the downside some lineout shenanigans saw an injury to one of the Parma locks who had to be strechered from the field and the incident may not go unnoticed by the authorities.

In reality this week and next will tell us little about what remains of the season, if you had to be picky the Saints occasionally lacked accuracy in a game played at rip roaring pace where imprecision went unpunished. If only it could be afforded at Premiership level.