by Exeter Chiefs 36 Northampton Saints 42
In top form for ages, Northampton Saints mounted a scintillating second-half comeback to claim a last-gasp victory at the Chiefs stronghold in an 11-try thriller. Titles aren’t won in January, but given the way Phil Dowson’s side bounced back from 26-0 down, they can dare to dream.
Ollie Sleighholme was the star of the show for Northampton. For all their attack, the Chiefs struggled to contain the Saints’ big ball threat throughout, and his hat-trick inspired the visitors to a dramatic comeback win summit of the Prime Minister.
The winger feed will naturally grab the headlines, but Saints’ personnel from the bench injected energy that was badly lacking in the visitors in the first half, when they conceded four attempts within half an hour.
But they more than made up for it after the break, with Rory Hutchinson’s last-gasp score condemning Exeter to their first home league win since October 2022. – we want to know where we are,” said Dowson. “We talked about the stain when we went behind, but we stayed with it.”
The Chiefs, who dropped points when they lost Dafydd Jenkins and Henry Slade to yellow cards either side of the break, looked to have preserved their impressive 23-match home winning streak when Rusi Tuima tried to after an unloading master sequence was involved. Greg Fisilau, Ethan Roots and Tom Cairns. But to show indifference, a hungry Saints team wanted it more.
After storming into the Saints early doors, the Chiefs rue to throw away such a large lead. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Exeter’s 21-year-old wonder boy of a winger at the center of an England-Wales tug of war, continued to sprinkle his star duct around the pitch with another strong performance to add another layer of intrigue to the where it will be. pledge of his international allegiance.
The Cardiff-born speedster scored the pick of four first-half tries for the hosts as Burger Odendaal spilled the ball as the visitors tried to clear their lines. Henry Slade pounced on the handling error and slipped the ball out of the back to Harvey Skinner sharply, before sending a peach of a bounce to the waiting Feyi-Waboso. The medical undergraduate did not need a second invitation to end up aerially in the corner.
Remarkably, it took the Saints 25 minutes to make their first inroads in the Chiefs’ 22 after the hosts broke them with a quartet of scores. Until then, the league leaders looked like a flock of lost sheep, but they flipped a switch after making their first real attack.
Jenkins, the Exeter captain, was sent to the bin after going high on George Furbank as the Saints full-back weaved his way through the Exeter defense like a time-travelling tardis, and with the extra man the visitors hit Callum Braley before they reduced the deficit. later through Sleightholme.
With the Six Nations just around the corner, Alex Mitchell was in demand to be England’s leading scorer after injecting fresh energy into the Saints off the bench, slotting through a gap to set up Sleightholme for his second. The visitors’ power play was aided by tries from Tom Pearson and Tommy Freeman, although they took the lead for the first time on the visitors’ mark, Chiefs were unable to get on their heels.
As the game became more fragmented, the hosts had a goal disallowed when Ross Vintcent ran through to score after Hutchinson was illegally pulled down on Tommy Wyatt from a ruck, sparking a scuffle off the ball . Baxter was reluctant to criticize Anthony Woodthorpe’s decision to award his side a penalty – which Slade put down – describing the call as “outrageous”.
The Chiefs director of rugby, however, was pleased with the overall performance of his young side, which he claimed Steve Borthwick had jinxed after name-checking a number of his top-flight players during the week – including Feyi-Waboso, Slade and Roots – who could be in contention for a call-up to their Six Nations squad.
“When someone starts talking nice about you, things like this happen,” Baxter said, with a smile. “I’ve been sitting there this week, people are starting to say nice things about us and this is a recipe for disaster. But it’s great. The players showed great spirit today – they got things wrong, they got things right – and that’s how rugby games are.”
Data matching
Scores: 5-0 Vermeulen try, 7-0 Slade con, 12-0 Feyi-Waboso try, 17-0 Townsend try, 19-0 Slade con, 24-0 Vermeulen try, 26-0 Slade con, 26-5 Braley try, 26-7 Smith con, 26-12 Sleightholme attempt, 26-14 Smith con, 26-19 Furbank attempt, 26-21 Smith con, 26-26 Sleightholme attempt, 26-28 Smith con, 29-28 Slade pen, 29- 33 Sleightholme try, 29-35 Smith con, 34-35 Tuima try, 36-35 Slade con, 36-40 Hutchinson try, 36-42 Smith con.
Exeter Leaders: T Wyatt; I Feyi-Waboso, H Slade, J Hawkins (O Devoto 58), B Hammersley (Z Wimbush 58); H Skinner, S Townsend (T Cairns 56); N Abuladze (A Hepburn 49), J Yeandle (M Norey 49), J Iosefa-Scott (E Painter 49), L Pearson, D Jenkins (R Tuima 50), E Roots, J Vermeulen (R Vintcent 58), G Fisilau.
Yellow card: Jenkins, Slade.
St Northampton: G Furbank; O Sleightholme, B Odendaal (F Dingwall 45), R Hutchinson, T Litchfield (T Freeman 50); F Smith, C Braley (A Mitchell 50); T Haffar (E Iyogun 50), S Matavesi (C Langdon 50), T Davison (E Millar Mills 57), A Moon, C Munga (T Mayanavanua 75), A Coles, A Scott-Young (T Pearson 57), S Graham.
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe
Attendance: 14,091
