Northampton Saints beat Castres Olympique 49-41 in a thrilling game of rugby to send the Saints through to the quarterfinals of the Investec Champions Cup.
Two Yellows and Four Tries
The first half was a feisty affair to say the least. Castres took the lead after seven minutes, when Jeremy Fernandez shot down the blind side off a scrum, kicked ahead into space, and winger Christian Ambadiang raced onto it and crashed over the line near the corner. However, Fernandez missed the conversion from out wide. Things went from bad to worse for the Saints, as Castres intercepted a pass, and moved the ball through multiple hands, until Vilimoni Botitu flips the pass back inside to full-back Theo Chabouni ran it in easily. Fernandez converted this one and the score is suddenly 12-0 to Castres after 10 minutes.
Northampton Comeback
The Saints thought they had scored after 13 minutes, but James Ramm’s foot clipped the sideline just before he put the ball down. However, they didn’t have to wait much longer to get on the scoreboard. Archie McParland was hit by a high tackle just short of the try line and Henry Pollock tries to take a quick penalty, and all hell breaks loose. After consulting with the TMO, referee Craig Evans was given no choice but to award a penalty try to the Saints and send Ambadiang to the sin bin on 14 minutes. Three minutes later, Ambadiang was joined by Guillaume Ducat, after he went flying into Pollock at the ruck on the Saints try line.
Castres were down to 13 men for 17 minutes. Despite Fernandez extending their lead with a penalty to make the score 15-7 to Castres, Northampton narrowed the gap to one point on 24 minutes, when Danilo Fischetti couldn’t be stopped from close range after Saints win a line out. Anthony Belleau converted to make the score 14-15 with 16 minutes left. That was the end of the scoring in the first half, and both sets of fans were able to take a breath after that half.
Points Galore
The first half was full of incident, and the second wasn’t going to be any different. Two minutes after the restart, Northampton took the lead for the first time. Castres kicked the ball to Northampton, who whipped the ball to the left. George Furbank found McParland, who misses a couple of defenders when passing back inside, allowing Josh Kemeny to glide over, which is converted by Belleau, which made the score 21-15.
The Saints extended their lead on 50 minutes when Fraser Dingwall’s back-of-the-hand pass finds Furbank, and his pass allows Tommy Freeman the time and space to run in near the corner. Belleau converts from out wide to make it 28-15. Castres weren’t done though, as two minutes later, Archie McParland tries to shovel a pass to his left, but it went straight to Tyler Ardron, who ran in unopposed, but Fernandez missed the conversion yet again, so the gap was now eight points at 28-20.
Castres brought the gap down to one point when Vuate Karawalevu barged through Freeman to score and converted by Herve. The french side then thought they had taken the lead when Karawalevu intercepted and raced clear, but there was a knock-on from the restart by Castres which the ref called advantage, but hadn’t said the advantage was over so the play was brought back for a scrum to the Saints. The Saints lead was extended again to eight points, when George Furbank sped through from the 22 to score, and that man Belleau converted again to make it 35-27.
Try and Try again for Saints
Northampton went further ahead when Archie McParland got the ball back after a lineout, shaped to pass a couple of times, before gliding away and scoring, and again Belleau converted to make the lead 15 points with 20 minutes to go. Again, Castres came back with another try, this time from Vilimoni Botitu crashed over the line and Herve converted to make it 42-34. Surely the scoring would be over now, with 13 minutes to go…how wrong could I be?
With just under 10 minutes to go, Veresa Ramototabua was sent to the sin bin for shoulder to head contact on Archie McParland, and the Saints took advantage of this advantage, when Belleau looped a pass over to Fraser Dingwall, who touched down for the hosts. Belleau’s boot didn’t let him down with yet another conversion and the lead was back to 15 points. Ambadiang collects a cross-field kick on the halfway line and he raced clear, holding the ball Fijian-sevens-style with one hand to go in under the posts, to make the conversion easy for Herve.
Now that was the end of the scoring in an enthralling and exciting game, where 90 points were scored, three yellow cards, and some superb Rugby. Northampton Saints have set up an all-english quarter final tie against either Bath (A) or Saracens (H).
