Saints victory proves in vain
By Ben Blackmore
Last Updated: 29/03/24 11:00am
Northampton beat London Irish 27-22 but were relegated following Worcester's victory.
Northampton Saints lost their Guinness Premiership status despite a 27-22 win over London Irish as Worcester beat Saracens to condemn them to relegation.
Saints always knew that their destiny was out of their own hands and so it proved as a hard-fought triumph over The Exiles counted for nothing.
Bruce Reihana, Sean Lamont and Mark Robinson all touched down for the hosts who performed admirably given their bruising European defeat to Wasps just six days ago, but it was very much a hollow victory as the final whistle at Franklin's Gardens ushered in the reality of relegation.
Irish entered the game knowing that they would finish sixth regardless of the result, but any doubts over their determination and motivation were dispelled as early as the sixth minute as Topsy Ojo ran in a fine individual score - albeit aided by some poor home tackling.
Fly-half Riki Flutely fed Ojo, but he still had plenty to do as he received the ball on the ten-metre line, but he broke a string of tackles to power over the whitewash and Nils Mordt's successful conversion opened a 7-0 advantage.
Shaken by their poor start, saints took time to settle but recovered their composure to draw level on the quarter hour mark as Reihana touched down.
The score was very much made in New Zealand as Carlos Spencer broke the line and looked up before floating out a long pass to Reihana who produced a side-step to finish smartly.
The captain converted the try and then slotted a penalty to edge his side ahead, but Irish reclaimed the lead with a superb try on 21 minutes.
The move was started inside his own 22 by Sailosi Tagicakibau with some inventive running but it was Justin Bishop who did the real damage with a clever dummy and pass which allowed Seilala Mapusua to coast over in the corner.
Mordt could not add the extras, but the Exiles still went in at the interval 12-10 to the good.
The impending threat of relegation did sting Northampton into action after the interval and they got their noses in front again five minutes into the second half as a period of sustained pressure close to the Irish line finally told.
The ball was eventually worked across the back-line and Lamont found the perfect angled run to hold off a couple of would-be tacklers and dive over.
Reihana again converted and then notched his second penalty of the afternoon just four minutes later.
Mordt responded with a penalty of his own, but Saints ran in a third try as Robinson charged over from close range just past the hour mark to give his side some real breathing space at 27-15.
However, as the hosts strengthened their grip on the game, their grip on Premiership survival began to slip as news of Worcester's increasing advantage filtered in.
Indeed, as the final whistle approached a sense of gloomy inevitability had already enveloped the ground and a miserable afternoon for Saints was compounded as Mapusua had the last word for Iris, steaming over to claim his second try of the afternoon in injury time.