We were denied the consummation of another comeback from the dead, but we were treated to the usual entertainment all the same. Northampton’s struggles continue, here surrendering a 17-match unbeaten run at home. Gloucester, though, after an exhilarating opening 40 minutes move ever closer to the playoff zone with a win high on charisma and grit.
Rory Hutchinson missed a late penalty for the Saints, which would have earned them a bonus point, but the champions could not recover from the boundless energy with which Gloucester ran them ragged in the first half. Both sides chucked the ball around with abandon, often to their own players, but quite often to the opposition. It just added to the breathlessness.
If there were multiple turnovers in the rugby, so, too, were there in the personnel early on. Had someone of a mind to spoil the game chosen three players to remove they could not have picked much more cynically than Fin Smith, Ollie Thorley and George Hendy, all of whom had to be replaced in the first half.
Smith went after his instrumented mouthguard triggered a warning. Word was that he passed the head injury assessment, but the process breached the time limit, so he was not allowed to return. He looked as confused and frustrated as the rest of Franklin’s Gardens.
Not that Gloucester minded. By the time Smith left they had scored one try; by the time they lost Thorley midway through the half, they had scored two; and by the time Hendy was withdrawn a few minutes before the break, it was three. What tries they were.
Zach Mercer is back on the island and showing why that is good news for everyone, including Steve Borthwick. He was everywhere, as was young Freddie Thomas, newly capped by Wales, as was Val Rapava-Ruskin and his new mate in the front row, Afo Fasogbon, mighty in the tight and loose with a pleasing swagger to boot.
Then there is one Christian Wade. His battle with Ollie Sleightholme was delicious throughout, each taking turns to twist the other inside and out. Wade was in the ascendancy in the first half, supplying Santi Carreras with a scoring pass in the third minute. The Argentinian could not convert the first of his brace.
George Furbank stepped up to replace Smith at fly-half and responded immediately with a solo try, chipping and gathering smartly. But that was that as far as Northampton and points scoring went in the first half.
Gloucester were rampant, picking off passes, offloading extravagantly. Thomas nicked one pass from Northampton and galloped away before sending Mercer to the posts on the switch. Then Wade turned Sleightholme after another interception and put Carreras over again.
- Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.
- If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.
- In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
- Turn on sport notifications.
The latter thought he had a hat-trick just before the break, after more breathless approach work, but the television match official spotted a knock-on in the buildup. Still, Fasogbon and Jack Clement between them forced a penalty, which Carreras converted to take Gloucester into half-time 22-7 up.
We know enough about this competition to expect, as night follows day, the trailing team to come back. Sure enough, the second half was all Northampton’s. Three times they thought they had scored; three times they were denied by the TMO, twice when Sleightholme failed narrowly to ground the ball during the most outrageous of dives for the corner, once when Alex Mitchell, returning from injury, flicked a pass out of the back of his hand slightly forward.
Juarno Augustus did score for Saints a few minutes into the second half, powering over after a couple of tapped penalties. But those denied tries meant they would not score again till the 73rd minute, when Hutchinson kicked a penalty to bring the home side to within a score.
Gloucester were forced to play the final minutes down to 14, Mercer hobbling from the field with all substitutes deployed. Carreras landed his second penalty with two minutes remaining to take Gloucester clear again they stayed.
