by Northampton 21 Sale 17
George Furbank put himself in the Six Nations shop window as he guided Northampton to the top of the Premier League and held the golden arm of the captaincy. Furbank helped the Saints, spurred on by Courtney Lawes from the bench, light the blue touch paper in a second half that was part of a first full period of dross.
It was the goalkeeper’s quick thinking that provided the try of the match when he converted from a penalty after 69 minutes with Northampton 17-14 down and dived over the line. The TMO was required to assess the ground as replacement prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour tried to tackle Furbank for offside so referee Matt Carley called the penalty and gave the youngster a yellow card.
Furbank captained Northampton nine times, and won the toss, in the absence of Lewis Ludlam, adding another string to his bow. With a new World Cup cycle under way Furbank, 27, could add to his caps as he could secure a turn at 10 or 15 with Steve Borthwick set to name his squad in mid-January.
“He’s had a taste of England and he hasn’t had many opportunities and he’s obviously frustrated because he’s an ambitious and driven lad who wants to go on and do those things,” Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson said.
“He came with a mindset of not being in that group to almost prove a point. The fact that he is more powerful in pre-season has had an impact on his performance. He is a smart man and the leadership gave him the opportunity to make his mark on the team.”
Furbank’s score capped a resilient performance from Saints who looked down and out as George Ford’s drop goal on 58 minutes, supplementing Luke Cowan-Dickie’s try 10 minutes earlier, put Sale 10 points up. But Lawes, who will not be at the Six Nations, helped spark some spark in the game and Alex Mitchell headed over from short range to end the game on a high note. Sale did however walk away with a bonus point – something they failed to do in the hammerings at Exeter and Harlequins earlier in the season.
Director of rugby Alex Sanderson said: “I thought their attitude and effort was outstanding tonight and you’re not going to lose many games with that kind of attitude. It feels a lot different from a few other losses we’ve had this year when we weren’t at the races. We were in the fight, up for it, and the game would probably have been short and thin if not for some missed tackles and some control.”
The first half was desperate and featured more than 40 kicks – most of them pointless – with little to no attacking rugby until just before the break. So much for selling the game, although there were probably a few conversions after the second half which was a light year from what was on offer earlier in the day.
Scotland and England are eyeing Sale wing trio Tom Roebuck and Arron Reed as well as winger Gus Warr while Northampton winger Fin Smith could be the subject of a tug of war between national coaches Gregor Townsend and Borthwick . But if either pair search the first-half video for any clues to Six Nations selection, they might not be bothered.
Northampton have been the free-flowing side in the Premier League so far this season, but they were pouring balls in left, right and center when they looked to attack with ball in hand and the kick of investigator Alex Mitchell to heads 25 meters away from. Sale summed it up. Sale were no better on the front foot as they put the boot to the ball more often than looking to counter attack. That meant the Saints defenders could hang back and the game slumped into long rounds of kick tennis.
Finally, just as the crowd were ready to witness the first scoreless opening 40 minutes in the series since Gloucester and Leicester met in March, Ford was instrumental in deflating the Northampton defence.
Rob du Preez moved to 12 in the absence of Manu Tuilagi, with his half-backs looping around and putting goalkeeper Joe Carpenter brilliantly with three minutes to go before the break. Thanks to Lawes and Furbank up front things picked up after the break.
Data matching
Scoring sequence (Northampton first): 0-5 Carpenter attempt; 0-7 Ford con (half-time) 0-12 Cowan-Dickie try, 0-14 Ford con, 5-14 Furbank try, 7-14 Smith con, 7-17 Ford goalie, 12-17 Mitchell try, 14 -17 Smith con, 21-17 Northampton penalty try
Northampton: G. Furbank (capt); T.Freeman, B.Odendaal (T.Litchfield 73), R.Hutchinson, O.Sleighholme; F.Smith, A.Mitchell; A.Waller (T.Haffar 56), S.Matavesi (C.Langdon 48), T.Davison (P.Hill 54-75), C.Munga (A.Moon 48), A.Coles, A.Scott- Young (C.Lawes 58), T.Pearson, J.Augustus (S.Graham 70)
Unused replacement: C. Braley
Sale: J.Carpenter; T.Roebuck, S.James, R.Du Preez (R.Ma’asi-White 73), A.Reed (T.Veainu 72); G.Ford, G.Warr (N.Thomas 76); R.Harrison (T.Onasanya 75), L.Cowan-Dickie (T.Taylor 58), N.Schonert (A.Opoku-Fordjour 48), C.Wiese (S.Dugdale 44), J.Hill (J. Beaumont 63), E.Van Rhyn (S.Dugdale 40+3-HT), B.Curry (capt), JL.Du Preez (N.Schonert 73)
Yellow card: Opoku-Fordjour (69) Referee: M Carley (RFU)
Attendance: 15,153
