Saints win spiteful encounter to keep England interests alive in Europe
MATCH REPORT: Northampton Saints kept English interest in Europe’s Champions Cup alive with a dominant win over French rivals Castres Olympique at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.
Leading just 20-13 after a competitive first half, the Premiership outfit dominated a spiteful second half and eventually recorded a 51-16 win.
As the only remaining English side, they now head to Dublin for a semifinal face-off with tournament favourites Leinster – a second semifinal in as many years for Saints.
It is also a repeat of last year’s last four encounter between the teams.
The second half, apart from four scintillating Saints tries, saw three players sent to the sin-bin after an all-in scrap in the 54th minute.
Castres wing Rémy Baget sparked the melee when he charged with a pointed shoulder into the ribs of Saints flank Henry Pollock.
Castres prop Lois Guerois-Galisson and Saints lock Temo Mayanavanua joined him for their part in a scuffle that went beyond the usual shirt pulling and shoving.
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Match Summary
A fast start for the hosts under the Northampton sun saw them go over before the seven-minute mark.
Tommy Freeman danced down the wing before offloading to a freshly introduced George Furbank. Freeman then tucked in behind, picking the ball back up to fittingly finish off a stunning move himself for his 10th try in his last eight outings.
Feeling Castres breathing down their neck with a penalty in the meantime, Saints wanted more.
Furbank was to add another key contribution to his collection for the match when his kick bobbled into the path of hooker Curtis Langdon, who gladly grabbed the five points.
Castres struggled against a dominant Saints for the ensuing phases of play, but the French side warmed into the tie as the half grew older.
And they had something to write home about on 25 minutes when Jeremy Fernandez, last week’s comeback hero, added another to his Champions Cup collection when he battled the ball into touch following a tense ruck.
This seemed to provide all the motivation Saints needed to put their foot well and truly back on the accelerator though.
A matter of seconds after a Leone Nakarawa yellow card, the English side made the most and Alex Coles bundled it through some scrambling Castres hands to double the deficit between the two.
A late Castres penalty brought the French side to within a converted try of the hosts – 20-13 at the break.
An early second-half penalty brought Castres to within four, but it also served as a kick-start to the Saints attacks.
Furbank eventually finished a lengthy ruck-after-ruck move shortly after when he bruised his way over under the posts to restore the hosts’ 10-points-plus lead.
Things weren’t over for the Saints as Pollock added another soon after. Bursting through the Castres defensive line before dropping the shoulder to find space, Alex Mitchell did most of the heavy lifting before Pollock collected with just metres to cover.
And it was the Mitchell-Pollock partnership that prevailed once again just past the hour mark. Some dizzying hands from Mitchell had the Castres’ defence in bits before Pollock walked it home.
The scores weren’t over for Saints despite the distance between the two sides, and Tom Pearson made the most of some tired Castres legs at the death.
The scorers
For Northampton Saints
Tries: Freeman, Langdon, Coles, Furbank, Pollock 2, Pearson
Cons: Smith 5
Pens: Smith 2
For Castres Olympique
Try: Fernandez
Con: Fernandez
Pens: Fernandez 3
Yellow cards: Leone Nakarawa (Castres Olympique, 32 – repeated infringements, not releasing in the tackle), Rémy Baget (Castres Olympique, 54 – foul play, charged into ruck with tucked arm), Lois Guerois-Galisson (Castres Olympique, 54 – foul play, fighting), Temo Mayanavanua (Northampton Saints, 54 – foul play, fighting)
Teams
Northampton Saints: 15 James Ramm, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Burger Odendaal, 12 Fraser Dingwall (captain), 11 George Hendy, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Henry Pollock, 6 Josh Kemeny, 5 Alex Coles, 4 Temo Mayanavanua, 3 Trevor Davison, 2 Curtis Langdon, 1 Emmanuel Iyogun.
Replacements: 16 Henry Walker, 17 Tom West, 18 Elliot Millar-Mills, 19 Tom Lockett, 20 Tom Pearson, 21 Tom James, 22 Rory Hutchinson, 23 George Furbank.
Castres Olympique: 15 Theo Chabouni, 14 Geoffrey Palis, 13 Vilimoni Botitu, 12 Jack Goodhue, 11 Rémy Baget, 10 Louis le Brun, 9 Jeremy Fernandez, 8 Abraham Papalii, 7 Baptiste Delaporte, 6 Mathieu Babillot, 5 Leone Nakarawa, 4 Gauthier Maravat, 3 Will Collier, 2 Gaetan Barlot, 1 Quentin Walker.
Replacements: 16 Loris Zarantonello, 17 Lois Guerois-Galisson, 18 Aurelien Azar, 19 Simon Meka, 20 Romain Macurdy, 21 Baptiste Cope, 22 Santiago Arata, 23 Julien Dumora.
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy), Morné Ferreira (South Africa)
TMO: Stefano Roscini (Italy)
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