Saints away 7th December

[wixfjord]

Big Dev has been very physical today! Looks pissed!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I think there was a very dodgy clearout from Dev in the build up there...

[tingman]

Thats just brilliant - clinical stuff with such limited possession last 10-15 mins.

[Serb]

Northampton camped in our 22, never even a hint of getting near the try line. One opportunity and we have another try.

Gap between these teams is massive.

[Dave Cahill]

Least surprising man of the match winner ever!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

We were well able to tear them apart from deep in the first half but look at the Ruddock, Porter, Healy, and Luke tries...just patient close in carrying. That's what won the game.

[tingman]

This is a huge result for us. What a team.

[Dave Cahill]

I just hope we've done enough to win some respect from the English teams, considering our skills deficit and all

[Hippo]

Ryan brilliant again. He's so boringly consistent that you could almost stop noticing him.

Exactly, he's ridiculously good

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Once we cut out the sloppy errors we were oustanding and we did still play a lot of great rugby early on too. Super performance, looking forward to watching that again.

Johnny's injury is the one real downside. I wonder what the chances are of Ross missing out on Japan but starting in the 6n? Johnny could be out for a while, haven't heard about a return date for Joey, and Carty isn't exactly owning the ten jersey at Connacht right now.

[FLIP]

Once we cut out the sloppy errors we were oustanding and we did still play a lot of great rugby early on too. Super performance, looking forward to watching that again.

Johnny's injury is the one real downside. I wonder what the chances are of Ross missing out on Japan but starting in the 6n? Johnny could be out for a while, haven't heard about a return date for Joey, and Carty isn't exactly owning the ten jersey at Connacht right now.

Johnny was walking around after the game no bother

[wixfjord]

JVDF, Ryan, Doris, Larmour our top performers imo.

Henshaw had a good game too. Lowe always dangerous but just forces things a wee bit.

JGP good in the main and should be our starting 9 at the minute. Albeit might see rotation there next week.

Our lineout is a bit of a worry. I think Kelleher, for all the brilliant parts to his game is a bit iffy there.

Think we got our tactics a bit wrong in first half. Played into their hands too much by making silly offloads and trying to force things.

They're very very dangerous but don't have the pack to match us.

Might see a bit of rotation next week.

[wixfjord]

BTW Doris ability to pick and go from behind a ruck is some skill. No idea how he does it, but constantly gets a half break at least.

[riocard911]

I just hope we've done enough to win some respect from the English teams, considering our skills deficit and all

Quip of the day! Top marks, Dave!!!

[Keith]

I questioned starting Larmour before the game but he was absoultley brilliant, back to his best. Cullen's faith in Doris is paying dividend, we really are lucky to have such a great coaching ticket.

[Ruckedtobits]

Excellent performance and result. Now, let's focus from tomoorow, on the same again with no slip ups!

[Ruckedtobits]

I just hope we've done enough to win some respect from the English teams, considering our skills deficit and all

Yeh, we've certainly got ground to make up on Marler, Lawes, and some of those front-line southerners. But sure, we'll just have to do our best and keep working at it!

[Blueberry]

Hard to be critical of much there today, a serious performance and a marker for all others. Again we looked a better coached, fitter and more focused team. Northampton throwing punches all game but bar one try and two dodgy penalties got nothing. In the second half they resorted to 'give the ball to the big guy' for their entire attacking strategy and left scratching their heads.

Delighted......where we are ATM.

VDF is a robot......phenomenal performance.

[wixfjord]

I think Saints are better than you give them credit for.
Their attacking patterns are really good and particularly in the first 30 they cause us problems.

Despite the huge margin, I thought we were error strewn and a bit wasteful for the first half.

We knew we could rely on our defence and ability to be clinical in the second half. Plus we had 4-5 performances that none of their guys could match.

But against the real top sides in a semi or final that first half performance wouldn't be good enough.

In our first three games there have been signs of brilliant stuff mixed with pretty poor periods.

Hopefully moving forward we can get more of the former and less of the latter.

[Twist]

That’s sensational. We edged the shootout in the first half by 3 tries to 1. Then comfortably won the arm wrestle in the second 4-0. Northampton are an exceptional attacking team, so to look that good in defence is really gratifying. Great performance.

Sexton’s injury and Ryan’s HIA are black clouds over it, hopefully Johnny is ok. At least he was ambulatory at the end.

For next week, it’s great that we have the option to bring in players who will resent not starting today; Deegan, R Kearney, Connors.... I’m not saying we need to make any changes in particular, but I’d hope that there’ll be enough bite and competition in training to guard against a repeat of 2013. Northampton made a lot of handling errors today and we can’t count on that being repeated