Wasps had never before won the first four matches of a Premiership campaign and it will take Northampton more than Monday’s review to work out how they lost a match they dominated from the moment they scored a try through George North with their first attack. The great entertainers turned grinders.
The last time North had scored a try for Northampton here was 18 months ago, against Wasps. He was knocked out by the boot of Nathan Hughes after touching down and since his return from what was his third concussion of the campaign Wales have urged him to roam the field to search for the ball rather than stay on his wing. North has preferred to stay put, but there was no containing him after his try.
While Wasps defended Northampton’s driving maul stoutly and were organised from set-pieces, North’s marauding unsettled them, but Saints, who have lost three of their first matches, were too sloppy to exploit the ground he made. His try was well worked, coming after Northampton surprised Wasps by not driving a lineout 40 metres out but quickly moving the ball.
Ken Pisi stormed the gainline and when Kieran Brookes flattened Elliot Daly, the quick hands of Stephen Myler, Harry Mallinder and Ben Foden gave North a 30m run to the line. Wasps, looking for an East Midlands double after winning at Leicester two rounds before, took play through a few phases without getting anywhere and, for a period, it looked as if Northampton’s muscular advantage would prove the difference, especially when they established superiority up front.
They did not, initially, take their opportunities. Pisi was held up near the line and when Northampton kicked a penalty to touch, five metres from the Wasps line, they lost the throw and then made nothing of a scrum.
Wasps were looking lost at sea, but in Danny Cipriani they had a lifeboat: the outside-half left the field injured after 44 minutes having taken some hefty knocks, but he had made an indelible mark on the match and the season.
When Cipriani received the ball from a scrum he was standing just in front of his own line on the blindside. His only option seemed to be to quickly kick the ball away, but he kept it in hand, scenting opportunity. He chipped ahead with his right foot and retrieved the ball on the other side of his 22, despite being barged by Louis Picamoles.
Guy Thompson, who again stood out at flanker with one second-half charge more than enough to make the watching England coach Steve Borthwick take a few notes, was in support and having read Cipriani’s intention passed almost in one movement to Jimmy Gopperth outside him. There was only space in front of the centre as he set off from halfway and although he had North in pursuit he changed pace and direction to win the race to the line, converting his own try to give Wasps an unlikely lead.
Northampton thought they had regained the lead three minutes later, when Pisi picked up a loose ball 30m out and took advantage of a surprising amount of space. But when Daly complained he had been taken out off the ball, the referee, Luke Pearce, called in the television match official, who ruled that Alex Waller – the prop whose trip to the sin-bin at Saracens the previous week had proved costly for his side – had body-checked the centre and prevented him from challenging Pisi.
A Gopperth penalty gave Wasps a 10-5 lead at the interval and the centre extended the advantage to eight points with a 40m kick in the second half, but they had by then lost Cipriani, who was making his 100th appearance for the club he rejoined the summer. The pair had been penalised for saying too much to him and when Gopperth opened his mouth too wide and wasted an attacking position, Northampton rallied.
Daly had by then missed a long-range penalty after Foden took out Christian Wade in the air and Josh Bassett was tackled into touch just short of the line. Wasps started to concede penalties wilfully and when Nathan Hughes was sent to the sin-bin seven minutes from the end for collapsing a maul, Waller created the space for Tom Kessell to score from close range.
It was now a one-point game and a one-man advantage for Northampton. They created an overlap on the left, but instead of passing long to North Myler fed Courtney Lawes, who knocked on. When Michael Paterson’s hands let him down one minute later, Dan Robson scurried away and chipped to the line. He was tripped by Pisi, who marked his 100th appearance for Saints by finishing it in the sin-bin, but Bassett beat Mallinder to the ball over the line and Myler’s late penalty was worth only a bonus point, despite his side’s territorial domination.
