League leaders Northampton Saints produced the performance of the season against a sorry Gloucester side which capitulated for the loss of more than a dozen tries; Maro Itoje scored a brace in Saracens' victory over Bristol Bears and Exeter Chiefs bagged an impressive win over Harlequins
Saturday 11 May 2024 20:07, UK
Northampton broke numerous records as they battered Gloucester 90-0 in the Gallagher Premiership.
Saints scored 14 tries at Franklin's Gardens as they stretched their lead at the top of the league with a demolition job on Gloucester to inflict the visitors' worst-ever league defeat.
Northampton also set a new record for most points in a home game and biggest-ever winning margin for a home team in a league game, whose scoreline is only topped in Premiership history by the 106-12 victory Richmond racked up against Bedford in 1999.
Winger Ollie Sleightholme scored a hat-trick as the Saints ran in 14 tries in total against a Cherry and Whites side showing 12 changes to their European Challenge Cup semi-final win against Benetton last week.
Their lack of cohesion was ruthlessly exploited by the hosts.
An early indication this game was going to go to form came when George Hendy flew though a wide gap in Gloucester's defences and he timed his ball outside to send George Furbank clear with 48 seconds played.
It was not too long until the Saints were over again when Fraser Dingwall was able to weave his way through after being found in plenty of space by Alex Mitchell.
The one-way traffic continued as the hosts scored their third try in the 21st minute when Fin Smith's superb floated pass out to the left, following a quickly-taken penalty, gave Sleightholme a comfortable finish.
Northampton looked to have bagged the bonus point when Angus Scott-Young went over after a Mitchell pass went to ground, but the TMO found the Australian had knocked on before picking up the ball.
But they were not to be denied for long as hooker Curtis Langdon barged his way over from a few metres out after a tapped penalty leaked by Gloucester's creaking scrum.
Langdon then scored his second when he again proved unstoppable close to the line before Dingwall and Furbank combined to send Mitchell under the posts, with Smith's fifth conversion taking the score to 40-0 at the break.
Northampton's first score of the second half was a popular one among the home support as loosehead Alex Waller, who is retiring at the end of the season, got in on the act.
Sam Matavesi was brought on for Langdon and the Fiji international's first act was to get the ball down off the back of a driving maul, which brought up the half-century for the Saints.
Another replacement got on the scoresheet as Emmanuel Iyogun went over from Tommy Freeman's off-load, with Gloucester's Jake Morris being sin binned for a deliberate knock-on in the build-up.
Sleightholme then sprinted clear down the right to score his second before Alex Moon barged over to ensure this would be a record-breaking day for the hosts.
And they were still not finished, with Sleightholme completing his hat trick in the 65th minute before another breakaway and a driving maul, respectively, led to Tom James and Matavesi completing the rout.
Saracens clinched an end-of-season play-off with a 41-20 bonus-point victory over Bristol in a compelling contest at Ashton Gate, with the result confirmed later in the day following a defeat for Harlequins.
The visitors overcame an early 10-0 deficit and yellow cards for Maro Itoje and Ben Earl to run out convincing winners and put Bristol's chances of progressing beyond the regular season in serious jeopardy.
Itoje scored two of their tries while Romiti Segun and Juan-Martin Gonzalez were also on the try-scoring sheet, with man-of-the-match Elliot Daly converting two and kicking four penalties. Owen Farrell added a penalty and a conversion.
Joe Batley and Harry Thacker scored Bristol's tries with A.J. MacGinty kicking two penalties and a conversion. James Williams also added a conversion.
Bristol began strongly to take a fifth-minute lead. Saracens conceded two penalties in quick succession to give the hosts an attacking platform from where Harry Randall made a dart for the line with Batley on hand to pick up and score.
MacGinty converted and added a penalty after Earl was penalised for a deliberate knock-on but Saracens soon responded with a penalty from Farrell as Bristol's Siva Naulago was yellow-carded for another deliberate knock-on.
It was debatable whether a penalty try should have been awarded but referee Karl Dickson and his supporting officials thought otherwise.
Despite Naulago's absence, Bears were next on the scoreboard with a second straightforward penalty from MacGinty.
Naulago was still in the sin bin when Saracens reduced the arrears. Bristol prop Ellis Genge dropped the ball in his 22 and was made to pay for his error when Itoje and Gonzalez combined neatly to create a try for the former.
Farrell converted before Daly added a penalty to bring the scores level after 27 minutes.
Four minutes later, Saracens took the lead for the first time. A superb touch-finder from Farrell gained his side a position in the opposition 22, with Itoje taking advantage by forcing his way over from close range for his second try.
Daly converted and then kicked a penalty to earn the visitors a 23-13 interval lead.
Bears badly needed the first score of the second half and they began it in impressive style to pin the Londoners in their own 22 for a sustained period of pressure.
The home side turned down three kickable penalties in favour of more attacking options but somehow Saracens kept their line intact and broke up to get the next score through a third penalty from Daly.
Bristol's woes continued when MacGinty left the field to fail an HIA but they received a huge boost when both Itoje and Earl were sin-binned in quick succession. Itoje went for a high shot on Steven Luatua and Earl for a deliberate offside.
Bears brought on Thacker and the hooker's first task was to finish off a driving line-out, but their opponents remarkably replied with a penalty from Daly despite playing with only 13.
Itoje did not return with Theo McFarland coming on to bring his side up to 14 and in time to see Segun finish off some excellent ball-retention.
Earl returned to see Saracens seal victory with the best try of the afternoon when Daly and Lucio Cinti tore Bristol's defence to shreds before Gonzalez was provided with the scoring pass.
England winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso scored two tries as Exeter kept their play-off hopes alive with a superb 58-26 victory over Champions Cup semi-finalists Harlequins.
It was a big dent to Quins' own top-four ambitions, but a last-minute try by Louis Lynagh earned them a four-try bonus point that could yet prove crucial come 5pm next Saturday afternoon.
Exeter trailed 21-14 after 36 minutes but hit back in spectacular fashion with. 44 unanswered points - before Lynagh's late try - to leapfrog Harlequins into fifth place in the table. Chiefs now travel to Leicester on the final day of the season sitting two points behind fourth-spot Sale, with Quins at home to Bristol the same day.
Quins made a blistering start, scoring a try after only 100 seconds with a fantastic show-and-go and sidestep by England fly-half Marcus Smith taking him through the Exeter defence and in beside the posts, converting himself.
The Chiefs responded superbly to that early setback, but it took them until the midway point of the first half to turn their pressure into points due to some fine Quins defence.
Exeter finally got on the scoreboard when they worked the ball to the left where Smith's international team-mate Henry Slade got over in the corner before adding the extras.
After wasting a couple of chances close to the try line, Quins finally carved out an opportunity for Jarrod Evans to put full-back Tyrone Green over for their second touchdown of the game, converted again by Smith.
Smith then turned from hero to villain when he finished another sizzling run with a wild one-handed pass which was picked up off the deck by Feyi-Waboso, who crossed next to the posts, allowing Slade the simple task of converting to level it all up at 14-14.
Harlequins hit back almost straight away when number eight Alex Dombrandt broke off the back of a driving maul to brush aside Exeter scrum-half Tom Cairns' weak tackle.
However, the pendulum swung back towards the hosts with the last play of a breathless first half when an excellent handling move saw young full-back Dan John get his second try in two weeks to leave it 21-21 at the break.
The Chiefs came firing out of the blocks at the start of the second half, and fly-half Harvey Skinner put them in front for the first time with their bonus-point try in the corner.
The home side lost South African flanker Jacques Vermeulen to a yellow card for killing the ball at a Quins break, but instead of the visitors capitalising on their extra man, it was instead Exeter who stretched their lead to 13 points with two Slade penalties, and he added another after Exeter were back up to full complement.
With Quins showing signs of tiring after their short turnaround following their European semi-final defeat to Toulouse, Feyi-Waboso added his second try of the game, quickly followed by a second from Skinner and a seventh for the team from skipper Dafydd Jenkins, with Slade making it nine out of nine with his boot for a personal 21-point haul.
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