UK Edition
Harlequins 50 Northampton 21: Quins bag seven tries against sorry Saints
Alan Gaffney must wonder just what he has let himself in for. The 71 year-old Australian officially takes charge as Northampton Saints’s interim director of rugby on Monday and this humiliating defeat by Harlequins at Twickenham laid bare all of the glaring weaknesses of his new side.
This game was billed as ‘Big Game 10’ but in truth the first Premiership match to be broadcast live on terrestrial television proved little more of a glorified training run for Quins, who completely outplayed a hapless Northampton side who have now lost 11 consecutive games in major competitions and are in danger of being sucked into the relegation battle.
The sacking of Jim Mallinder has done nothing to halt the demise of the 2014 champions, who were a shambolic shadow of their former selves.
Quins, who had gone into the game on the back of three defeats, ran in a total of seven tries, with Marcus Smith, their 18 year-old fly-half, stealing the show in front of England head coach Eddie Jones.
Smith had a hand in five tries and kicked 15 points in a mesmeric display but in truth it was hard to judge the true quality of the performance given the paucity of Northampton’s defence.
The victory moves Harlequins up to seventh place in the table, with Northampton stuck in 10th place, above Worcester and London Irish.
Such was Harlequins’s dominance that John Kingston’s side had already sealed their four-try bonus point just after the half-hour mark after tries by man-of-the-match Dave Ward, Charlie Walker, Tim Visser and Danny Care.
“We spoke all week about starting fast and getting under their skin and blowing them away in the first 20 and I think we did that today,” said Smith. “It was a massive win for us. We spoke all week about our disappointment at Newcastle. We wanted to get a big result here in front of our own fans and I think we set ourselves up nicely for the rest of the season.”
Northampton trailed 31-0 at the break and although they managed some resistance in the second half with tries by Rob Horne and Nic Groom while James Chisholm was in the sin bin, and a third by Mikey Haywood, it did nothing to mask their miserable afternoon.
Dylan Hartley, the England captain, missed five tackles, including a hand-off by Care for his first half-try, Harry Mallinder had an afternoon to forget while George North, on as a replacement for the injured Ashsee Tuala, picked up a knee injury on his first game back for 11 weeks.
“George just got a bang to his knee again which is frustrating from his point of view having just come back from injury so I hope it is not too bad and he is back next week,” said Alan Dickens, Northampton’s interim head coach.
“We have got to stick together, it is quite easy to splinter and go off in our own directions but ultimately we have got to work through it together and hopefully come through it together.
“It takes a win and if we get that win I am sure it will kick off. The players’ pride will be hurt and they will come back on New Year’s Day and we need to look after them.”
The most impressive aspect of the Quins’ display was their ability to take complete control of the contest in lightning speed, with Smith, Care and Mike Brown tormenting the Northampton backline with Ward and Kyle Sinckler standing out in the forward collisions.
The fallability of Northampton’s defence was exposed when Ward was able to round Mallinder in the middle of the field from a simple move before a moment of magic by Smith, who gathered his own chip ahead before Walker finished in the corner.
By the time Ward had ripped possession from a Northampton attack, allowing Care to break before Smith found Visser for Quins’ third try, it felt like the contest was already over.
The fourth try confirmed as much as Care took full advantage of some shambolic Northampton defence by handing off Hartley to scamper under the posts and Quins continued their utter dominance after the break when Visser crossed for his second try after a beautifully-executed floated pass by Smith which left Mallinder cruelly exposed as the Quins winger was able to collect the ball beyond the Northampton full-back.
Northampton briefly rallied when Chisholm was sent to the bin for a deliberate knock-on but it was appropriately left to the magnificent Care to allow Quins to dominance the final moments, crossing for his second try before Mat Luamanu completed the rout.
John Kingston, the Quins director of rugby, later attempted to play down the hype over Smith’s display before meets up with England for a two-day training camp on Sunday.
“I am a great believer that you come into an international set-up when you are good enough to play 50 times for your country, not get one game and thrown back because it was not the right thing,” said Kingston. “Let’s just calm down and let him progress the way he is.”
Match details
Scoring sequence: 5-0, Ward try, 7-0, Smith con; 10-0, 15-0, Walker try, 17-0, Smith , con; 22-0, Visser try, 24-0, Smith con; 29-0 Care try, 31-0, Smith con; 36-0, Visser try; 36-5, Horne try, 38-7, Myler con, 38-12, Groom try, 38-14 Myler con; 41-14, Care try; 43-14, Smith con; 48-14, Luamanu try, 50-14 con Smith; 50-19 Haywood try, 50-21, Myler con.
Harlequins: M Brown; C Walker, Alofa (Cheeseman 63) J Roberts, T Visser (Lang 71),; M Smith, D Care (Kitto 63); J Marler (Boyce 59), J Ward (Elia 71), K Sinckler (Swinston 65), G Merrick (Matthews 59), B Glynn, J Chisholm, C Robshaw (Wallace 74), M Luamanu.
Yellow card: J Chisholm.
Northampton Saints: H Mallinder; A Tuala (North 23, Reinach 64), R Horne, L Burrell, B Foden; P Francis (Myler 37), N Groom; C Ma'afu, D Hartley (M Haywood 58), J Ford-Robinson (Hill 68), A Ratuniyarawa (Ribbans 64), C Lawes, T Wood, J Gibson, T Harrison (Nutley 58).
Referee: JP Doyle (RFU).