The likelihood of London Welsh denying Northampton Saints the points they needed to finish top of the Premiership for the first time, and so ensure themselves a home semi-final for the second successive year, was always going to be minimal.
Sure enough, the match was more intense, and therefore valuable to the Saints, than a tough training session, but frankly, not much.
“Games like that can be frustrating, because you want to score every time you get the ball, but they defended well in the first half,” said Jim Mallinder, the Saints director of rugby.
“We were confident gaps would appear in the second half, though, and they did. We were professional, we did what we had to do, all 23 players had game time, and there were no injuries,” he said.
The opportunity to go into the final game away to a buoyant Leicester with the pressure off – before probably playing their East Midlands rivals again the following week in the play-offs – was sufficient for Mallinder to name the same 23 which beat Saracens in front of 27,000 at Milton Keynes a fortnight ago, though Lee Dickson started at scrum-half for Kahn Fotuali’i, and props Alex Waller and Gareth Denman for Alex Corbisiero and Salesi Ma’afu.
And talking of attendances, it is worth noting Saints have sold out every home game they have played this season.
An aspect of London Welsh that will not be missed by the Premiership next season is their shocking pink away strip, but it was hard not to feel sorry for those clad in it.
The first 15 minutes were spent almost exclusively in the visitors’ 22, and it was simply a matter of time before Saints’ manifest superiority in the pack was converted into points on the board. Courtney Lawes was the man who emerged with the ball when the latest in a series of short-range drives took the ruck over the line, but Andrew Small, the referee, pronounced Dickson to have been the man to ground it first.
A sinuously elusive and penetrative kick return by Ken Pisi, where he made up 60 yards, set up the next score for Ahsee Tuala, the Samoan full-back benefiting from tracking the right-winger’s run.
There followed the sole period of Welsh territorial pressure in the entire match, comfortably repulsed, before Myler’s penalty completed the first-half scoring.
A wide break following a lineout steal early in the second half ended with Ken Pisi again making the final pass, this time for Dickson.
The bonus point try, from a crash ball five yards out, was scored by Luther Burrell, who picked up a second a few minutes later, shortly before being replaced.
Asked whether he would rest players for next week’s game at Welford Road, Mallinder smiled.
“Any game against Leicester is intense, we’ve seen that over the years, but we’ll sit down over the next 48 hours and think about it.
“We’re a professional side and we’ll do what we have to do to go into the play-offs in the best possible condition.”
London Welsh may be exploring the possibility of switching to the Celtic Pro12 League, but in the meantime Rowland Phillips, their head coach, is planning for an immediate return from the Championship.
“We didn’t roll over, we’ve developed a mentality to fight to the last second, but for us the big picture is we had 19 guys involved who will be with London Welsh next season. We will find positives in this for the club,” he insisted.
