Scrum just too strong
They may have conquered Paris, but Harlequins couldn't take Northampton.
Dean Richards' side earned stacks of plaudits for back-to-back Heineken Cup wins against French powerhouses Stade Francais, especially for winning in front of 78,000 Parisians.
But the noise couldn't have been much louder than that generated by a virtual Franklin's Gardens sell-out as Saints came from behind in the second half to deservedly make it 25 games unbeaten at home.
Richards complained his side looked jaded after their heroics in Europe and questioned whether he should have rested more than just England's Danny Care and winger Tom Williams.
He should have, but perhaps Richards doesn't have the squad to do that.
Saints may well have been 13-6 behind at the break, but they looked the more likely throughout a cagey first half.
Neither side created much, but Saints were winning the territory battle and getting the better of the breakdown contest.
And, though the stats don't show it, Saints were bossing the scrum.
Euan Murray was revitalised after a week off and made enough mincemeat of Mike Ross to make a year's supply of cottage pie.
The Scottish behemoth squeezed several useful penalties out of Ross.
Going into the game Saints knew their defence had to be at its best against the top try-scorers in the Premiership.
The one slip in the first half saw Ugo Monye stroll through a very large gap, while the Saints front row were distracted by some argy-bargy with their counterparts.
As is often the case these days Dylan Hartley came in for plenty of extra attention, but the new controlled hooker didn't rise to it and in the most part kept his eye on the game and himself on the field.
The niggles even extended to off the pitch with Saints' head of performance Nick Johnston seen in a heated debate with his Harlequins counterparts during the first half.
The stakes were high. Saints may be doing well in the cup, but they desperately needed to taste victory in the Premiership, something they hadn't done since the home win over Wasps on September 20.
And Quins may have been getting frustrated as they failed to get their attacking game going. Saints slowed them up continually and reduced former All Black Nick Evans to plenty of kicking.
Still, in the first half Saints weren't getting much change out of the Quins defence that so expertly fended off Stade in Paris despite a great looping, off-loading run from Lee Dickson that almost put Soane Tonga'uiha in.
Saints only had two Stephen Myler penalties to show for the first half, with another 48m kick hitting the crossbar.
But a minute after the break a lovely flat pass from Myler sent Scott Gray through a gaping gap on halfway.
As he was closed down Gray flung a big pass to Bruce Reihana on the wing, who off-loaded for Jon Clarke to score his third try in three games since returning from injury.
Myler drew Saints level with the touchline conversion.
Clarke's partnership with James Downey was a major plus in promotion last season and Saints fans will have been delighted to see it back together again after Clarke's 11-week spell injured.
The pair are superb in defence, with Clarke often getting as many turnovers as his back-row team-mates on Saturday.
And they combined for Saints' second try after stealing a lineout 30m out.
Downey straightened for Myler to send him through a hole and he played a one-two with Clarke to dive over.
That score came while Quins were down to 14 men after Andy Gomarsall took out Reihana as he chased his own kick.
He came back on 56 minutes, but a scintillating 60m move started by Sean Lamont in his 22 that must have contained six or seven off-loads saw Quins commit a host of penalties to keep the home side out on their line and hooker Tani Fuga passed Gomarsall on the way off to the sin-bin after a blatant offside under his posts.
Myler landed the easy penalty. Quins tried to come back and were helped by Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe's yellow card for killing the ball.
But Evans, who scuffed an easy drop goal and was well short with a 40m penalty, missed two penalties to grab a bonus point in the last 10 minutes and Saints held on for a cracking win.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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