Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Oghre incident a talking point as Wasps end Northampton run

By PA
Wasps v Northampton Saints – Gallagher Premiership – Coventry Building Society Arena

Wasps brought an end to Northampton’s unbeaten start to the Gallagher Premiership season with a 26-20 victory at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

ADVERTISEMENT

The hosts survived a moment of controversy at 20-10 up in the second half when replacement hooker Gabriel Oghre escaped with a yellow card for a high tackle on Alex Mitchell.

Northampton scored soon after through captain Lewis Ludlam, but the ever-reliable boot of Jimmy Gopperth helped take the game away from the visitors, who had gone into half-time level at 10-10.

Video Spacer

A Clockwork Orange, Islander remedies and Jonny Hill | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 4

Video Spacer

A Clockwork Orange, Islander remedies and Jonny Hill | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 4

Saints dominated the early stages, playing the opening 10 minutes in Wasps territory, and got their reward when Juarno Augustus charged through and offloaded superbly for the onrushing Sam Matavesi to score.

The away side lost Matt Proctor to injury after just 14 minutes, meaning an early introduction for Rory Hutchinson.

And Wasps hit back as Oghre and Dan Robson combined to set Zach Kibirige away down the right for a try on his 50th appearance for the club.

Jacob Umaga converted and the scores were level, despite Wasps having only had one meaningful attack in the opening 20 minutes of the game.

ADVERTISEMENT

Augustus made a huge intervention to stop Wasps scoring again before Dan Biggar slotted a penalty after 26 minutes to put Northampton back in front.

Dan Biggar Northampton Saints
Dan Biggar /PA

Wasps leveled as Umaga converted a scrum penalty before missing a kick on the stroke of half-time.

Northampton were forced to withdraw full-back George Furbank at the break, bringing Frank Lomani into the action and leaving them with no further back-line replacements.

ADVERTISEMENT

Wasps thought they had scored early in the second half, but Vaea Fifita’s effort was ruled out for a forward pass in the build-up.

The home side did go ahead for the first time 10 minutes into the second half as Umaga kicked a penalty earned at the scrum.

Umaga missed with another effort soon after, but Wasps were well on top and their dominance told when Thomas Young offloaded brilliantly for Robson to score.

Umaga converted to make it 20-10 to the hosts, but they lost Oghre to the sin bin for a high hit on Mitchell and Northampton soon scored, with Ludlam rumbling over from a lineout drive.

Wasps v Northampton Saints - Gallagher Premiership - Coventry Building Society Arena

Biggar missed the conversion and Wasps missed a chance of their own at the other end as Umaga sent another effort wide.

Gopperth soon took over kicking duties, landing a penalty that put his team eight points up with 11 minutes to go.

He added another soon after before missing with a third attempt as the Northampton penalty count continued to stack up.

Saints struck at the death as James Fish went over from a lineout drive to earn his side a losing bonus point.

Wasps had done enough to secure victory, but the match ended on a sour note when James Gaskell went down at the end with an apparent ankle injury.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 36 minutes ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

12 Go to comments
F
Flankly 1 hour ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

9 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING New scrumhalf rule among 4 global Law trials as others shot down New scrumhalf rule among 4 global Law trials as others shot down
Search