Alex Dombrandt stars as Harlequins return to winning ways by beating Northampton
Harlequins returned to winning ways to reclaim third place in the Gallagher Premiership table with Alex Dombrandt influential in a 37-19 victory over Northampton.
Quins’ four-match winning streak ended with a narrow defeat at Newcastle last weekend but the rampaging Dombrandt was among the standout performers as Saints fell at Twickenham Stoop.
Alongside Exeter’s Sam Simmonds, Dombrandt has been repeatedly overlooked by England head coach Eddie Jones despite stringing together a series of powerful performances at number eight.
Tyrone Greene, Stephan Lewies and Mike Brown crossed for tries to help build a 27-12 interval lead and while the second half was controlled by Northampton, their execution in the final third was dismal.
Quins were down to 13 players in the closing stages after Dombrandt and Jack Kenningham had been sent to the sin-bin when the lead was 30-19, but error-prone Saints could not exploit the extra space and they even coughed up the bonus point to Brett Herron with 20 seconds left.
A lively opening 10 minutes fought out by two of the Premiership’s form teams produced tries at both ends.
Northampton were the first to strike with a clinically executed line-out move that saw centre Fraser Dingwall take the ball from Sam Matavesi and supply the scoring pass to Tom Collins.
But pressure by Andre Esterhuizen on Rory Hutchinson forced a mistake and Quins pounced on the error with Danny Care grubber kicking ahead for Green to score.
Northampton Saints – Gallagher Premiership – Twickenham Stoop” />
And the high-octane pace continued as captain Lewies reached out to touch down as the home side pressed once again, Care brilliantly orchestrating play at scrum-half as a 17-5 lead was opened up.
But Saints hit back with a jinking Hutchinson capitalising on a hole in midfield opened up by George Furbank’s well-timed pass to send Tom James over.
Following James’ try, Quins camped themselves in enemy territory and at times were guilty of forcing play as they closed down on the whitewash on two separate occasions.
But they would be denied just after the half-hour mark when a big carry by Dombrandt from the base of a scrum began a series of thrusts that ended when Brown raced onto the ball and over the line.
Saints were fired up for the second half as they relentlessly battered away at the home whitewash, but they were almost undone when they were stripped of the ball by the outstanding Dombrandt.
The turnover launched a dashing counter-attack that eventually broke down through Green’s ill-advised pass, and from there Northampton struck as Ollie Sleightholme grabbed the ball, chipped ahead and scored.
A third penalty by Smith meant Quins were still well in front and the 22-year-old fly-half appeared to have scored a breakaway try but a forward pass was spotted by the TMO.
Play was held up for several minutes as wing Aaron Morris received treatment before being carried from the pitch on a stretcher after his head caught Hutchinson’s hip during a tackle.
With Kenningham and Dombrandt shown yellow cards, Quins were up against it but they were helped by Harry Mallinder failing to find touch with a penalty and Taqele Naiyaravoro knocking on.
They held out and when the sin-binned duo returned, they claimed the bonus point when Herron crossed in an audacious move.
Comments on RugbyPass
This game was always going to be close, Canada have such a dominant pack and the Black Ferns have come unstuck in that area against teams like France and England in the past.
2 Go to commentsA distinct discomfort with the officiating they were probably selected from the local IRA narcos branch along with the commentators bloody fly tippers.
1 Go to commentsWow, never thought I would read that
2 Go to commentsExcellent match. Great to see Keenan and Ryan back for Leinster. Super result for Ulster. Season is turning around.
1 Go to comments“We need eight or nine new players, who are hard-wearing and durable and experienced Premiership performers”. So why are they scouting a retired fullback who himself admits that his “body is broken”?
1 Go to commentsBrumbies hand, knocked a Crusaders hand. Therefore, knock on in goal. Crusaders, goal line drop out should’ve been awarded. most likely after that 24 each at full time, so extra time would’ve been the right an entertaining outcome. Act Jim
1 Go to commentsSpeell cehck
1 Go to commentsColeman is gaawwwwnnn.
1 Go to commentsnext SA head coach?
3 Go to commentsGreat try by van Poortvliet.
1 Go to commentsThey have been cruelled by injuries but almost nobody (Sevu Reece and Fletcher Newell big exceptions) has played above himself which regularly happened before. Surely Scott Robertson had maintained the recruitment programme and it looks like a reasonable squad. Last in this competition will stall a lot of careers. Penny seems likeable. But it’s not enough even though this was better. We haven’t been good enough and it’s not helped by the “it’s been 15 years since… “etc “after nearly every match. Seems somehow a soft gifting of something once valuable. Kieran Read giving comments last week almost choked describing the easy surrender of possession by the forwards. I’d love to think that the senior players some of whom are back can show enough pride in the jersey to test the Blues next week.
3 Go to commentsWho will Joe select for the back three with so many in form candidates? Just hope he doesn’t get shafted like Dave Rennie and to a lesser extent Deans.
8 Go to commentsAlways reluctant to blame a coach when losses rack up, but Penney must go. The backline is dysfunctional and the coach must carry the can. No cohesion, no idea and in many cases, minimal skill. The trains out of Roma St depart faster than the ball from Crusaders’ set pieces. Wouldn’t be surprised if the forwards went on strike.
3 Go to commentsAdding to earlier comment. Cullen Grace has been playing great at no6. Lio-Willie , who was on fire a few weeks ago, had a bad game. I think Cullen should have been moved to 8 earlier, Dominic Gardiner on earlier. Feel for Quinten Strange , put in a big shift .
8 Go to commentsWe dominated the scrums Ben Curry was all over pitch again .Surely James Harper got to be one of best English tightheads
1 Go to commentsRoos is a better option at 6 than 8 for the boks. Needs to work on his windgat though.
1 Go to commentsThe Sharks’ 2nd team maybe?
1 Go to comments‘radical’
1 Go to commentsCome back to Christchurch Robbie, please!
1 Go to commentsI think there is zero chance Sam Cane will be selected for another Test. There is simply no point except sentimentality. Razor is not sentimental- ask Wyatt Crocket. Razor is a ruthless selector
5 Go to comments