Perfect 10 as Saints run Treviso ragged
Saints 66 Treviso 0
Saints ended their preparations for the Premiership season with a rousing victory over Italian outfit Benetton Treviso.
Northampton ran in 10 tries with plenty of impressive displays and even played the last 10 minutes of the game by testing themselves with just 14 men on the pitch.
After the gloom of the thrashing in Cardiff there was so much to admire from this version of Saints with the opening clash with Worcester just a week away.
It was just like season as Saints cruised in six first-half tries past the visiting Italians. After six minutes the first try arrived and, just like last season, it was Chris Ashton who scored it after a great lineout take from Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe allowed Carlos Spencer to stab a kick with the outside of his boot and the whizzkid winger touched it down.
On 15 minutes a good Saints scrum, which pulverised the Italians all afternoon, saw James Downey take the pass and swerve inside to score under the posts. Scott Gray then got his first try for the club after a 7m Saints lineout went wrong, but the Zimbabwe-born flanker reacted first to scoop up the ball and score. Skipper Bruce Reihana landed the touchline conversion to make it three out of three.
Scrum-half Lee Dickson then got his first try for the club as well when great tackling forced Treviso back into their 22 and from the turnover Spencer kicked crossfield for Lobbe to catch and pass to Ashton, who slipped the former Falcon in and after a roll and a wriggle he touched down to make it 26-0.
Reihana missed his first kick, but he made up for it 11 minutes later when he took a kick on halfway steamed through the centre of the Italians, kicked ahead and a nice deflection made the ball sit up nicely for him to score under the posts with a dive. He converted his own try to make it 33-0.
There was nothing coming from the Italians and the try-fest continued when a superb lineout move saw Spencer flick inside blind for an onrushing Lamont to cut through Treviso and send Downey over for his second try. Reihana converted and the ref blew for half-time with the score at 40-0.
The second half started with a fantastic 60m move that saw Sean Lamont burst free before Saints' back row took over. Saints almost lost the ball but Jon Clarke picked it up and Dickson picked up from a ruck to score his second try.
Ashton got his second try with a glorious move started by a break over halfway by Gray. Lobbe delivered a lovely underarm pass to Ashton who did a one-two with Neil Best to score in the corner and Reihana landed the conversion to make it 57-0.
Straight from the restart a lovely overhead pass from Stephen Myler - on for Spencer - sent Saints off. Ashton lost it 10m from the line, but with the Italians in disarry Alan Dickens picked up for his first try for the club.
And despite having 14-men when Ashton went off Saints added a penalty try with a seven-man scrum in the last minute that Reihana converted.
Att: 6,436
Teams
Saints: Reihana, Ashton, Clarke, Downey, Lamont, Spencer, Dickson, Tonga'uiha, Shields, Murray, Lobbe, Day, Best, Gray, Wilson
Replacements: Gray, Smith, Rae, Hopley, Dickens, Myler, Ansbro, Lawes, Stewart
Treviso: Mulieri, Vilk, De Jager, Waters, Galon, Horak, Brussolo, Muccignat, Intoppa, Di Santo, Labuschagne, Pavanello, Orlano, Gilbride, Kingi
Replacements: Sbaraglini, Allori, Costanzo, Van Zyl, Louw, Picone, Marcato, Candiago
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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