Northampton showed evidence of how their game is evolving under their New Zealand director of rugby, Chris Boyd, more fluid and ambitious, but it was the result that mattered as they moved into the top half of the table to leave Worcester facing the prospect of slumping to the bottom of the table by the end of the weekend. The Saints were as competent as the Warriors were abject.
Northampton’s two tries came from interceptions in their own 22 in the second half. The first, scored by their scrum-half Cobus Reinach, by some distance the outstanding player on a night when the ordinary prevailed, summed up a crucial difference between the sides.
Worcester, despite an impressive recent home record, dithered throughout, unassertive and tentative. They struggled to secure quick ball at the breakdown, in contrast to Northampton, and the start came to sum up their performance when Duncan Weir put the kick-off straight into touch.
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The Saints had a try after five minutes ruled out when the wing Taqele Naiyaravoro was found on review to have put a foot in touch before scoring having been tackled by Bryce Heem, but for the rest of the first half used the boot of Dan Biggar to turn possession into points while Weir missed two out of three penalties for the home side.
Worcester’s only advantage lay up front where they won four scrum penalties, but with the England centre Ben Te’o watching from the stand, a lack of training time rather than fitness explaining his omission, they lacked a focal point for their attacks and struggled to cross the gainline. Yet when Weir kicked a penalty three minutes into the second period to cut Northampton’s lead to six points, they were in a contest in which they had been outplayed, even more so when Biggar and Tom Wood left the field for head injury assessments with only the former returning after 10 minutes.
By the time Biggar was back, his half-back partner Reinach had all but sealed the match. First he swept across the field to tackle Heem as the wing looked certain to score after Worcester, for the first time, beat a narrow defence to get the ball wide and into space. The Warriors then had an attacking scrum which they used to take play through a couple of phases, but they were slow to secure possession and, when their scrum-half Francois Hougaard looked to switch to the blind side, he did not pass instantly after picking up the ball. Reinach, standing close to his own line, took advantage of the delay by getting into his stride so that when he intercepted the ball, he was away and he had enough pace to make the 85-metre run to the line unimpeded. “If we had scored, it would have been 13-12 and a different game,” said Worcester’s director of rugby, Alan Solomons. “One little incident had a major consequence.”
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Worcester fell apart after Reinach’s try, Biggar kicking two penalties to give him 20 points on the night before Luther Burrell intercepted Weir’s pass on the Northampton 22 to condemn the Warriors to their heaviest home defeat since Leicester won here last March and the scoreline reflected the pattern of the game.
Boyd’s approach, as he knew it would, is taking time to mature. The intent was there from Northampton, playing at pace and prepared to run from anywhere, but decision-making was at times suspect and skills melted under pressure. When the new becomes natural they will re-establish themselves as top four contenders.
The scrum was the only area they struggled in. They dominated the line-out, stealing five throws, and were unfortunate that the rain that started falling in the second half hampered their running game. “The win was an early Christmas present and takes the pressure off us,” said Boyd, who kept Dylan Hartley on the field for 75 minutes until the outcome was certain. “We put pressure on the senior players to deliver tonight and they contributed across the board.”