Investec Champions Cup: Oh when the Saints go marching in …
Northampton Saints’ 37-34 win against Leinster in the Investec Champions Cup semi-final in Dublin was an ode to Louis Armstrong’s belief that anything is possible. This is what makes rugby so magical, writes Mark Keohane.
There is nothing better than the Investec Champions Cup. It is the World Cup for club rugby. Anything can happen … and it so often does happen.
I had Leinster to win 50-20 in Dublin. No one goes to Dublin and beats this Leinster team this year. That was my voice.
Leinster had destroyed Glasgow’s Warriors 52-0 in the quarter-final.
Jordie Barrett, New Zealand’s most potent back and the player of the match against Glasgow, started on the bench in the semi-final. It is a policy for the Irish Rugby Union that no Irish Test player is benched because of a foreigner who does not play for Ireland in the biggest games. Barrett entered the semi-final in the 49th minute. How ridiculous.
The Saints led 27-15 at halftime and 37-27 on 69 minutes. Then the New Zealand born, raised and former Maori All Blacks Ireland winger James Lowe scored in the 70th minute. The conversion was good. Game on at 37-34, but for the final 10 minutes the Saints kept marching in.
In 2013 the Saints did the unthinkable and beat Leinster.
No-one, outside of the Saints squad and players, would have called this one.
WOW.
Isn’t this sport just so beautiful?
Leinster, alongside French giants Toulouse, are the most potent squad in Europe.
What a victory for the Saints, who are not even in the top eight of the Premiership.
‘A couple of pundits were saying they’re going to win by 20-30 points and that Saints won’t score a point,’ Saints and England scrum-half Mitchell told RTE.
‘We showed up today and were a bit more fearless this time around. Last year, we were waiting to see what Leinster were going to do. In the first 20 minutes, we punched them in the face. They weren’t really expecting that. Credit to the boys, we got the result.’
Leinster, the four time champions, had lost the final three times in succession in the last three years, all to French opposition. They were expected to smash the Saints.
For the Saints, hat trick winger Tommy Freeman, flanker Henry Pollock and flyhalf Fin Smith auditioned for British & Irish Lions selection.
Saints Director of Rugby Phil Dowson was a squad player when the Saints beat Leinster in 2013 and 12 years later he revelled in his finest moment as Director of Rugby.
‘Lots of people wrote us off and we understood we were underdogs but the belief within the group was outstanding,’ Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton.
‘I would hate to think what my blood pressure was doing at the end but the last defensive set spoke volumes about our group, about the lads coming on and their impact. We got the turnover, killed the clock and cue the wild scenes in the coaching box.
‘We have had experience before of playing into a press defence. We had practised playing through it and we revisited those principles. There were more opportunities we could’ve taken but we took enough to get on the scoresheet.’
The Saints beat 35 defenders to Leinster’s 23 and made 171 tackles to Leinster’s 98. But they missed just 23 tackles in that effort, compared to Leinster’s 36 missed tackles, which is a stunning return, in the reverse, given former World Cup-winning coach Jacques Nienaber’s miserly defensive structures.
The Saints also conceded 14 penalties to Leinster’s eight and lost 25 percent of their line outs. This was not a win fashioned on the perfect rugby performance and a statistical dream. This was one done the old way, from within, with the heart pumping in the red zone. This is why this sport is so beautiful.
Former Stormers No 8 Juarno ‘Trokkie’ Augustus started for the Saints.
The greatest teams can be beaten if marginally off their game emotionally. Leinster, for whatever reason, were not at the races. The Saints, with Louis Armstrong belting out the chorus, were always leading in this race.
*In the EPCR Challenge Cup, Johann van Graan’s Bath went to Edinburgh and won 39-24. Bath, with 13 wins in 15 matches in the Premiership, led 12010 at half time and scored six tries to three for a resounding thumping.
** Sunday’s action sees Lyon play Racing 92 in the EPCR Challenge Cup semi-final and the giants Toulouse visit Bordeaux in the Investec Champions Cup semi-final.
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