1
Northampton’s Phil Dowson reacts to record thrashing of Gloucester
By PA
Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson admitted to having some sympathy for Gloucester after the league leaders’ record-breaking 90-0 victory secured a home semi-final in the Gallagher Premiership.
Ninth-placed Gloucester showed where their priorities lie by making 12 changes to the team who defeated Benetton in the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup last week, and their makeshift line-up was torn to shreds.
Northampton ran in 14 tries to rack up their biggest Premiership win, the highest points total by a home team in the competition’s history and its second-widest margin of victory.
Dowson said: “I know (Gloucester head coach) George Skivington pretty well – I obviously worked with him during the Six Nations – and there’s clearly different priorities going on.
“We had to do something today in order to guarantee a home semi, George is building towards a European final and also next season, so there were different motivating factors today.
“It’s never nice to be on the end of a 90-0 humping but, at the same time, we had a job to do.
“I wanted to push the players to stay really focused on what that was and not get too distracted by the scoreline.
“So you’ve got to take that and we’ve all been there. We’ve all been on the end of those sort of games and you find out a lot about yourself and a lot about your team.
“I’m sure George, Dom Waldouck and all those good lads at Gloucester will take that on moving forward.”
Ollie Sleightholme scored a hat-trick for Northampton, whose other tries came from George Furbank, Fraser Dingwall, Curtis Langdon (2), Alex Mitchell, Alex Waller, Sam Matavesi (2), Emmanuel Iyogun, Alex Moon and Tom James.
Their extraordinary scoreline is only surpassed in the Premiership by Richmond’s 106-12 rout of Bedford in May 1999.
Gloucester head coach Skivington said: “I thought there might be a heavy scoreline today when I saw the team they selected.
“I knew momentum would go against us at some point and it would be hard to recover, but that was extremely painful.
“I thought Saints were absolutely ruthless. I thought they were brilliant today and our young lads just couldn’t find traction, couldn’t find their way out of it, couldn’t get anything going in the game.
“And Saints’ defence, whenever we did get a little bit of momentum, turned the ball over and took it off us.
“It was always going to be a tough day but we came with the approach we came with. I can’t moan too much about it, albeit we won’t be brushing this off either.
“I thought there were some lads who really did show what they could do and there were a few who showed they’re well off the pace in the Premiership.”
Trending on RugbyPass
2
South Africa vs England player ratings | 2024 Autumn Nations Series
3
All Blacks player ratings vs France
4
Netherlands serve up Tier 2 shock as another World Cup side slayed
5
Latest Comments
Gotta love a coach who'll throw his players under the bus instead of taking the loss on his chin. No wonder his team lacks confidence with a bellend like him in charge.
Go to commentsI agree re-Barrett, he would be an excellent 6. Vaai he called him the squads Terminator! No use in shutting out other specialist 6s though like Frizell and Finau.
I don't think the Saders want Darry tbh, already have so much locking talent in Strange, Cahill, Hannah, and Barrett, with Gallagher returning after a spell at the Canes.
As for your ideas on SRP, I was thinking more expansion into the islands. Why just a Fijian team? Why not a Samoan and Tongan team as well? I think adding Japan could be cool, since they are in roughly the same timezone so not much jet lag. Only issue is that their seasons are reversed! Same with USA.
I think the best option is to keep to ourselves, with AUS, NZ, SAM, FIJ, and TNG. 5 teams for Australia (Brumbies, Reds, Tahs, Force, Rebels), 5 for NZ (Saders, Canes, Blues, Chiefs, Landers), and 4 for the PIs (Moana Pasifika, Drua, Tongan team, Samoan team).
If we expand into the PIs, we cut off a source of talent and entertainment from the Northern competitions like Top 14, and open a whole new market of people. Increase advertisment in Japan as well, since their in the same timezone, and we could be on track for a very good competition.
Plus, we would get gamedays like in America, one game queued up after another. Makes it a whole lot easier if you can just flick on the telly and BOOM theres the games. No need to plan out when things are, just get your mates around, flick it on in the background and chill with a cold beverage.
Go to comments