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Northampton boost play-off hopes as Harrison marks his return with a try

By PA
(Photo by Ashley Western/PA Images via Getty Images)

Teimana Harrison scored on his return from injury as Northampton recorded a vital 17-14 victory over Sale that put their Gallagher Premiership play-off hopes back on track. Harrison, who had been out for over two months with hand and groin troubles, grabbed Saints’ only try of the game, to add to four penalties from the boot of James Grayson.

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The hosts repeatedly needed to defend doggedly at Franklin’s Gardens in what was a tight contest and the end result is them moving to within two points of the fourth-placed Sharks in the table. A succession of early penalties allowed Sale to build some early pressure, with Jean-Luc du Preez being tackled just a few metres short of the line after being played in by his twin brother Dan.

It took until just the 10th minute for referee Matthew Carley to lose patience with Northampton’s indiscipline, as he sent Ollie Sleightholme to the sin bin, following the latest infringement. Saints’ defence was just about holding firm, as Jean-Luc du Preez was held up over the line after a succession of pick-and-goes from the Sharks’ forwards.

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Despite being down to 14 men, it was the hosts who opened the scoring in the 19th minute, as Harrison burrowed over after Tommy Freeman had been tackled just short. Grayson slid the conversion wide just as Sleightholme returned to the field, but the fly-half was able to extend Northampton’s lead with a penalty after Sale had illegally sealed off a ruck.

The home side retained their 8-0 advantage into half-time, although they had a scare in the early stages of the second half after Tom James’ kick was charged down by Sale captain Jono Ross. The Sharks’ discipline then let them down as a penalty, given against Lood de Jager at a lineout, was marched 10 metres further forward for backchat, allowing Grayson to add another three points.

AJ MacGinty then missed a chance to get Sale on the board with a penalty of his own and Grayson punished the USA fly-half with a fantastic kick from halfway that extended the gap to 14-0. It was soon narrowed, however, as Jean-Luc de Preez broke away from a powerful driving maul to stretch over, with MacGinty able to add the conversion.

Grayson quickly took Northampton more than a score clear again with his fourth penalty, but just three points separated the sides following South Africa lock Lood de Jager’s converted try off a rolling maul. That set up a breathless finish where the Sharks kept hold of the ball for countless phases off the final play, only for Tom Wood to come up with an interception that led to Henry Taylor belting the ball off the pitch for the win.

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

Even the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.


IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.


Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.


They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.


Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.


This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.

How long are we going to keep blaming All Black failings on Ian Foster.

I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉

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