Reihana leads way as Saints run riot against Titans
Northampton Saints 73 Rotherham 0
Skipper Bruce Reihana scored a hat-trick as Saints made it 1,000 points for the season with a thrashing of Rotherham.
Saints ran in 11 tries to make it 114 points to nil over the two games this season as the runaway National League One leaders ran riot in their first home game for five weeks.
Rotherham rested five front-line players for next week's more realistically winnable clash with Plymouth Albion.
Whether they would have made any difference to the thrashing the Titans suffered we'll never know.
But with Carlos Spencer back at fly-half after a week off, it seems extremely unlikely as Saints played some scintillating running rugby.
From the kick-off the forwards drove 10m, Joe Ansbro and Euan Murray smashed through the gain line and Spencer then drifted through two defenders to put Alex Rae free. His pass to Reihana looked like a try, but he was stopped on the line.
Spencer then unleashed an outrageously big backhand pass to Paul Tupai on the right wing and he put Neil Starling, in for the injured Chris Ashton, over.
Eight minutes later on his first start Cambridge blue Joe Ansbro got his first Saints try. James Downey sidestepped into the Titans 22 and Spencer took the offload to set up the inside pass to Ansbro to steam over.
Rotherham's pick-and-goes were easy to defend against and when they finally went to their three-quarters they were turned over. Reihana powered into their half to pass to Starling who offloaded for Matt Lord. The lock, who was enjoying a superb game, was within reach of his third try for Saints, when he was hauled down and Reihana dotted down instead. Reihana missed his first conversion to leave the score 19-0.
The bonus point came on 32 minutes when Johnny Howard powered to within a metre of the line and Spencer then delivered a conventional booming 20m pass to the right wing, just over the Titans' wing's head for Reihana to score his second try and after stepping inside Dan Smith to put it under the posts, Reihana converted to make it 26-0.
A fifth try came on half-time when Mark Easter powered through the Titans line to score from 20m out and Reihana's conversion made it 33-0 at the break.
And the torture for the sprinkling of visiting fans continued after the break as a now dominant Saints scrummed marched forward in Titans' 22 and wheeled nicely for Reihana to dart over on the blindside to complete his first hat-trick of the season. Reihana was replaced by Will Harries soon after with Tuesday's clash with Launceston in mind.
Saints could seemingly score at will and try number seven came on 60 minutes when after an initial break from Darren Fox a lovely pass from Spencer saw Starling march through a tackle to score. Spencer kicked the conversion.
Mark Robinson got a big cheer when he came on for Johnny Howard and he delighted them by darting down the left wing, smashing through two tackles to score from 45m out. That made it 50-0 and Spencer converted.
Saints brought up 1,000 points for the season when with a Titans player being treated the home side took advantage as Stephen Myler, on at inside centre for Downey, off-loaded for Harries to touch down for his first try for Saint. Spencer converted to make it 59-0.
Rotherham's James Waterhous was stretched off with what looked like a bad injury and in time added on Joe Ansbro powered over for his second try and after Spencer was denied a deserved try man of the match Tom Smith scored with King Carlos drop-kicking the conversion.
Att: 11,406
Saints: Reihana, Starling, Ansbro, Downey, Diggin, Spencer, Howard, Smith, Hartley, Murray, Lord, Rae, Tupai, Fox, Easter
Replacements: Shields, Stewart, Hoy, Lewitt, Robinson, Myler, Harries.
Rotherham: Claassens, Goneva, Allen, Blackwood, Feeley, Vasey, Chivers, Kilbane, Corrigan, Boulton, McGowan, Smith, Jacobsz, Sutton, Dunlop.
Replacements: Bunting, O'Donnell, Wilford, Waterhouse, Wade, Lennard, Hallam.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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