News:Northampton Saints 24 v 20 London Wasps

The second home game of the Saints’ return to the top flight saw the visit of the Guinness Premiership champions to a warm and sunny (yes, that’s right – warm AND sunny) Franklin’s Gardens, and the outcome was a victory for the champions. Of National League One…

The second home game of the Saints' return to the top flight saw the visit of the Guinness Premiership champions to a warm and sunny (yes, that's right - warm AND sunny) Franklin's Gardens, and the outcome was a victory for the champions.  Of National League One...

The Saints made just one change from the side that tasted defeat against Newcastle last weekend, with Joe Ansbro replacing the injured Jon Clarke.  Wasps had to cope with the absence of their captain Raphael Ibanez due to injury, with Simon Shaw and Tom Rees missing out due to their inclusion in the England Elite squad (and therefore having to be rested for a certain number of weekends).  Former Northampton favourite Mark Robinson made his return to Franklin's Gardens with a place on the Wasps bench.

Wasps kicked off, with the Saints once again playing the right way, and launched an attack immediately.  A kick across was gathered comfortably by Bruce Reihana inside his own 22, and swiftly hoofed ahead.  Bruce chased his own kick, charged down the attempted clearance by Josh Lewsey, gathered the ball and ran across the line to score.  The Saints were 5-0 up, and some people were still in the queue for the pork rolls.  The captain converted his own try, giving the Saints a 7-0 lead with barely two minutes on the clock.

Now, there is a bit of a gap in my notes where I've just written ‘nothing much happens except Chris White blowing his whistle.'  Until, that is, Mr White's whistle awarded Wasps a penalty in a kickable position.  Walder stepped up and duly added the three points, extending Wasps' lead to four.

A fumble by Paul Sackey saw the Saints with a lineout inside the Wasps 22.  The Saints tried attacking through forwards and backs but the Wasps defence held firm, until the whistle intervened and awarded the Saints a penalty.  Bruce attempted the kick from a similar position to his earlier successful conversion but missed.  It may, however, have all been a cunning plan, as the Saints' second try came shortly afterwards.  Dylan Hartley gathered the ball from the Wasps drop-out, and Carlos Spencer launched a high kick that was dropped by Josh Lewsey.  Chris Ashton pounced on the loose ball and fought his way across the line to restore the Saints' lead to 14-11 after Bruce added the extras.

The Saints kicked off the second half and immediately pushed Wasps back, Sean Lamont driving the recipient of the kickoff, Paul Sackey, into touch.  Scott Gray won the resulting lineout, and the Saints were swiftly awarded a penalty.  Bruce opted to kick at the posts, and his decision proved to be the correct one as he put the Saints ahead once more, 17-14, after just a couple of second half minutes.  Almost immediately, however, Wasps were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which they opted, rather unsurprisingly, to kick.  Walder was successful and the scores were level again.

Five minutes later saw Mr White reach for his pocket, with both hookers receiving yellow cards.  As it was Wasps' replacement hooker who had been sin-binned uncontested scrums were announced, so the Saints decided against bringing on Paul Shields for Hartley - Nacho Lobbe took on hooking duties in the scrums, Scott Gray was given the job of lineout thrower.  The Saints had been awarded the penalty that resulted from the sin-binning incident, and Carlos Spencer cleared the ball to halfway.  Scott Gray's first throw went astray, and for the next few minutes the most constant action came from Chris White's arms, windmilling about to keep up with his whistle.

A bone-crunching tackle by Nacho on an unsuspecting Wasp caused a brief break in play (and a sharp intake of breath by everyone in the crowd), but both recovered and played on.  Dave Walder missed another attempt at goal, as did Bruce, and his miss almost resulted in another try for the Saints as Dylan Hartley, fresh from his stint in the sin bin, pounced as the ball bounced behind the try line.  The crowd in the South Stand certainly thought he'd scored but none of the officials were sure, and in the absence of the TMO the referee had little choice but to give Wasps the 22 drop out.

The next 5 minutes saw a rush of substiutions, with Foden, Smith and Stewart coming on for the Saints, swiftly followed by Alex Rae and Stephen Myler.  Mark Robinson received a warm welcome as he replaced Eoin Reddan, but a rather crunching tackle on him a few minutes later was applauded just as warmly.  It would seem sentiment is short lived when you become a Wasp.

Dave Walder put Wasps back into the lead after 25 minutes of the second half, taking the score to 17-20.  Serge Betsen came on a couple of minutes later for his first appearance in a Wasps shirt, but his arrival was somewhat overshadowed by what happened next.  The Saints won a lineout in the Wasps 22 and worked the ball across the backline to Stephen Myler (playing in the centre).  He floated a pass out to the wing where it found the grateful hands of Sean Lamont who took a couple of Wasps across the line as he scored on his 50th appearance for the Saints.  Myler added the two points, and the Saints were ahead 24-20 with, amazingly, over 10 minutes to play (it felt like we'd been playing forever).

A Wasps knock on saw Chris White blow his whistle for the final time, and the Saints celebrated a deserved victory.  Nacho Lobbe was awarded the official man of the match prize, but honourable mention must go to Euan Murray, Bruce Reihana and Neil Best who surely must have been in contention.  If the prize was awarded for workrate, I suspect Chris White's whistle may well have won, however.

Pictures Simon Robinson and Getty