Northampton Saints broke a few records last night as they secured a spot in the Gallagher PREM playoffs with a 94-33 win over fifth place Bristol Bears.
Records broken
It was a night for records to be broken. The total of 127 points beat the previous highest of 118, when Richmond beat Bedford 106-12 in 1999. Ut was the highest amount of points that Bristol had conceded ever in a PREM game, and it was also the most Northampton had scored, beating the 90 points they scored against Gloucester in 2024, and they also equalled the number of tries scored with 14.
The scoreline would suggest it was more like a basketball game, end to end stuff. But it was more one way than that. Northampton were heavily beaten by Leicester Tigers 41-17 last week, and they were not happy about it. George Hendy went over in the third minute, and Fin Smith scored the first of his 11 conversions to make it 7-0. Harry Thacker and the conversion from James Williams tied things up at 7-7.
Saints scored their second, with Rory Hutchinson, and third try, with Callum Chick, by the 10 minute mark, and Fin Smith converted one of those to make it 19-7. Louis Rees-Zammit went over in the 13th minute and James Williams converted again to bring the score back to 19-14.
Turning point
The game turned on it head when, on 21 minutes, Kalaveti Ravouvou was sin binned for a deliberate knock on. Saints seized upon the one man advantage and scored three tries in that 10 minute spell. First, Alex Coles scored, then Archie McParland and then George Furbank, all converted by Fin Smith. Suddenly, Saints are 40-14 ahead with just over 10 minutes to go in the first half.
Bonus point secured, but the Saints weren’t satisfied with just that. With Bristol back to the full complement, Hutchinson scored his second, Josh Kemeny and George Hendy got his second of the night, two more conversions for Fin Smith and one for Rory Hutchinson made the half-time score 61-14.
Nine tries and nine conversions for Saints. That 61 points is a record first-half points total scored by any team in the PREM. To make things worse than they already were for the Bears, Joe Batley was sin binned for a shoulder charge.
The carnage continued
The second half started the same way as the first half ended. Saints were in the ascendancy, and with a man advantage. Henry Pollock scored just after the restart, converted by Smith to make it 68-14. Harry Randall went over for the Bears, converted by Williams to make it 68-21.
However, that resurgence didn’t last long as Archie McParland scored his second of the night, but Smith missed this conversion. Just as the Bears got back to 15 men, George Hendy went over for his third, and Saints 12th try of the night on the 51st minute.
Ed Prowse was sin binned for a succession of penalties on 55 minutes. Luka Ivanishvili dived in over a ruck for the bonus point try just after the yellow card. Noah Heward made it five tries for Bristol on 70 minutes to make it 80-33 after the conversion by Smith.
Matias Moroni became the third Bears player to be sin binned on 75 minutes, this time for holding Pollock, and Saints were not done with the scoring. Sam Graham and a fourth for George Hendy, both converted by Smith, ended the scoring and the match at 94-33.
