Northampton toppled from summit by Henry Trinder double for Gloucester

Gloucester continue to confound. Eight days after conceding 57 points to Sale, one of the few teams that finished below them in the table last season, they toppled the league leaders in an oscillating encounter that summed up the opening sequence of matches in the Premiership, full on but flowing.

After coming from behind three times, Gloucester looked to have secured victory 18 minutes from time when Willi Heinz’s individual try from a scrum 40 metres out put them 12 points ahead, but they have been at the wrong end of the table in recent seasons for a reason: too often they play with their heart rather than head.

So when moments after Heinz, picking up the ball earlier than he had intended after it was deflected out of the scrum, had broken the tackle of his opposite number, Cobus Reinach, eluded the grasp of Harry Mallinder and outpaced Stephen Myler, had given Gloucester time to breathe, they found themselves having to come up for air again.

Jason Woodward, who scored Gloucester’s third try early in the second-half after catching Heinz’s cross-kick, received the ball in his 22 and his inclination was to look up and then run. With the defence committed, a long kick would have given his side territory but he chose to pass the ball outside to David Halaifonua who had geared himself for a chase and dropped it at the second attempt.

One penalty and two lineouts later, Northampton, who are playing closer to the gainline this season and operating with more snap and width, had pulled back to within five points when the replacement hooker, Mike Haywood, was at the heart of a driving maul on the Gloucester line. The Cherry and Whites had not beaten Northampton in seven attempts in the league in a run stretching back to 2013 and having lost five of their previous seven league matches, they had to prevent despair turning into panic.

They managed it, just, but it is their facility for turning advantage into deficit in the time it takes to pass along the line that makes them so fickle. Gloucester are nothing if not unpredictable, trading in the unexpected. They have the component parts but struggle to assemble them.

Here, they made a bustling start, fired by indignant fury, hitting rucks hard and getting the ball wide where Henry Purdy needed only the smallest of space. They got on top up front, twice forcing Dylan Hartley to pop out of scrums, and at times resembled a team in the play-off positions rather than one far closer to the bottom of the table.

The home faithful, though, have become used to their side reflecting four seasons in one afternoon. The spring Gloucester started with here was followed by the heat they generated for the opening try, but a falling off then saw them caught cold as the Saints, far too easily, scored in the corner while their second try also came gift-wrapped.

Two minutes before, Gloucester had been camped under Northampton’s posts with options either side of the ruck. The ball came out the other side and the visitors countered quickly, Reinach’s chip to the line looked like it would result in a try only for the ball to bobble out of George North’s reach.

Gloucester make themselves work twice as hard as they need to by doubling up on mistakes. There was a sequence of play in the first-half when they had a lineout in the Northampton 22 that they messed up and then were penalised at the subsequent scrum to find themselves defending again. They did not exert control, and if at outside-half Owen Williams was making his first start for the club and his first for seven months, missing his first four kicks at goal and at times appearing to struggle with the pace of the game, there is little synchronised about their play. They remain stronger individually than they are collectively.

The hosts were fired by desire after the collapse at Sale, epitomised by Henry Trinder whose two first-half tries gave Gloucester a 10-7 interval lead. The first came after he ran on to Billy Twelvetrees’s long pass, accelerating away from the cover after stepping inside and recovering after stumbling five metres out.

His second, after Heinz’s long blindside pass from a ruck, saw him step away from North and through two tackles.

Northampton would have been level at the break if Mallinder, who had converted Jamie Gibson’s try from close to the right touchline after Luther Burrell’s run scattered the defence, had not missed a penalty from in front of the posts, but they were back in front three minutes after the restart through more largesse.

Trinder’s hasty kick gave Ahsee Tuala the time to dismiss the challenges of Purdy and Twelvetrees and send in Mallinder. The lead kept changing hands, six times in all, with Woodward’s try and Mallinder’s penalty followed by Twelvetrees’s try after another Heinz pass that snared a bonus point. Heinz’s try should have ensured victory, but Gloucester find doubt in certainty and they kept their supporters hiding their eyes until the end, this time ensuring there were no tears.