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The ‘really unacceptable’ things Northampton are looking to fix

By Liam Heagney
Northampton walk off at The Rec following their loss to Bath (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Northampton Saints sound like they are on a round two mission to greatly improve their discipline following last weekend’s campaign opening loss at Bath. The defending champions conceded 14 penalties at The Rec and they also had a yellow card brandished to new signing Josh Kemeny towards the end of their 16-38 defeat.

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Seven of the 10 Gallagher Premiership teams that returned to action last weekend had double-figure penalty counts against them – with Northampton third on the list behind worst offenders Bristol, who gave up 17, and Exeter on 15.

Ahead of hosting the Chiefs at Franklin’s Gardens this Saturday, director of rugby Phil Dowson has put the heat on his team’s behaviour in the hope that it can keep them in the fight for an entire match, rather than slip away in the final quarter as happened at Bath after Fin Smith closed the margin to 16-21 with a 61st-minute penalty kick.

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Asked what he made of the array of penalties his team conceded, Dowson explained: “The Dupont rule, we got caught twice on and that is something from a coaching point of view, from my point of view, we need to be better. We have been going hard at it at training but clearly not hard enough. So that’s disappointing, but there is some clear understanding around that.

“The things that are done that are really frustrating are we pushed somebody into touch when it was our lineout in their half, we slammed down on somebody when he was prone and they get an easy exit when we are on the ascendency and are on the front foot. We talked back to the ref, things that are really unacceptable because they let the pressure off a team.

Penalties

8
Penalties Conceded
14
0
Yellow Cards
1
0
Red Cards
0

“At 60 minutes I felt like we were we were on the front foot and we had some momentum but we didn’t convert that because of those more unacceptable ones.

“There is always going to be penalties. We don’t want to be bottom of the chart in terms of the penalties given away because we don’t want to be too clinical, we want to get in amongst the fight. But at the same time, we don’t want to be the team at the very top giving away the dumb ones.”

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Gallagher Premiership round one penalties conceded
17: Bristol
15: Exeter (+1YC)
14: Northampton (+1YC)
13: Leicester (+1RC, 1YC), Sale
11: Gloucester
10: Harlequins
9: Saracens
8: Bath
7: Newcastle

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Watch the highly acclaimed five-part documentary Chasing the Sun 2, chronicling the journey of the Springboks as they strive to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup, free on RugbyPass TV (*unavailable in Africa)

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T
TT 1 hour ago
How the All Blacks are enduring pain now in readiness for 2027 RWC crusade

Off topic 1st, Crusader’s ’24 SR shocked everyone. But the failure carried on all SR. I assume Penny got back in by the skin of his teeth.

 

Back on ABs.

 

Plummer - Sorry, but Plummer orchestrated the SR Blues championship.

 

Hotham didn’t play for the All Black?? It was actually V Fiji. & a shocker, as was the test of his ’24 SR. I remember his errors stood out. A boy among men. Club standard at best. Every SR  halfback, & the replacement, is a mile ahead of him. I mean it, I hope I’m dead wrong. https://www.allblacks.com/news/all-blacks-team-named-to-play-fiji-in-san-diego

 

Fainganuku – forgot him? He’d be 1st pick every time. 1 of best in world. BUT he’s not there / available! It’s pathetic & disrespectful for Razor to talk about him while not even giving current new ABs even a run.

 

Fihaki – his SR pretty lame but no need to call in while Narawa and Proctor a mile ahead, so again, pathetic & disrespectful for Razor to talk about him they not even run. So much for Mr Team man, Razor.

 

Nth tour – ABs play rank 1 (Irel), 4(France) & 5(England) + 8 (Italy).  All at home grounds obviously. Hardest ranked tour in AB history. The ABs & a full squad of back ups should have run multiple times by now to even be warmed up to a hope of winning?? France will also likely field a B team. Why?! Your source? They have a point to prove after another failed RWC. & their own! The RW Champions of Choking.

 

I agree Mounga got a rough deal under both Hansen & Foster. But most new ABs did. Hansen & Foster were the worse new AB developers in history hence their failure in the end. They were just given high quality teams.

 

Razor choose to be AB coach. In afft behind Foster’s back. Like Foster, there's no training in period. That’s done at there endless camps. He's meant develop new ABs asap & get results. He’s so far failing worst in history. Yep hope he’s got a ‘cunning plan’, but that does not excuse failing to develop new ABs & get results, eg against 10th ranked Wallabies, especially more than just the 1st 15min, the next 65min wilted (again) & lost.

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