Leaking players to England effecting Leicester's 'consistency'
Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson praised his squad for adapting to having so many players absent following their 19-18 victory over East Midlands rivals Leicester.
Saints were without five players on international duty with England, the injured Courtney Lawes and suspended Fraser Dingwall and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto for the match at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
They had also previously not won an away game in the Gallagher Premiership this season, but Dowson’s patched-up side showed a great deal of resilience in coming from behind to move up to third in the table.
Dowson said: “The more successful the club are generally, the more players they lose in the international window, plus injuries plus discipline issues from last week.
“The key is having guys in the squad who have a clear understanding of the game plan and what you want to do and also have a clear understanding of what their role is within that.
“I thought the guys that stepped in this week have been absolutely outstanding to make sure the training level, to make sure our application to the plan and to make sure that performance that goes out on the pitch is outstanding.
“We’ve not been good away from home. In this league, where it’s really competitive, you’re not going to blow sides away, so what you need to do is be really full-on in what you’re doing defensively.
“Then you don’t have to really force anything and, when a bit of space opens up, you have to trust your quality.”
Leicester struck after eight minutes through Harry Potter’s try, but three penalties from George Furbank reduced their lead to 10-9 at half-time.
After Furbank’s fourth penalty, Potter’s second try restored the Tigers’ advantage, but Ollie Sleightholme’s superbly-taken score after 50 minutes ultimately decided a tight contest.
Leicester head coach Richard Wigglesworth said: “We made too many errors and let them into the game off the back of that.
“To be consistent, you need to have a consistent team and we haven’t had that. We had some guys back today who will be better for the game time, but had a lot taken away from us this week.
“We’ve now got a block with the same group, so we’ll make sure that we work on that consistency.
“Maybe (the players were trying to force it late on), it happens when you’re behind in a full-blooded game.
“We flew out of the blocks and we didn’t quite get the rewards on the back, so it made the game close and they took their opportunities.
“The lads have got a week off, so we’ll try to get a few battered bodies feeling a bit better. We’ll pick them up a week on Monday.”
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Spot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in time… he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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