Baby it was cold outside at Big Game 7

Harlequins 25 – 30 Northampton Saints

Northampton Saints left a chilly, packed Twickenham with a victory which put them back on top of the Aviva Premiership with tries from Samu Manoa, George North and Kahn Fotuali’I as well as 15 points from Stephen Myler.

Despite the defeat in the Big Game 7 in front of 82,000 fans Harlequins director of rugby Conor O’Shea was proud of this side’s performance and believes he saw his old Quins back.

“That was a massive statement, we wanted the guys to go out and play and they did. I thought the mentality and strength to come back when we conceded and still be going at the end was magnificent.”

He added “We had ten minutes when we were really under the pump but defended our line magnificently and then kept on going. We know we have got an enormous mountain to climb in the league.

“But if we play like that we will win a lot of games of rugby and the belief will start flowing back. I am much happier than I have been on many, many occasions.”

It was all Quins in the opening five minutes as they applied pressure on the Saints defence, which finally cracked as the ball went wide to George Lowe and the inside centre scored in the far right corner unfortunately Tim Swiel was unable to add the conversions.

Swiel was able to redeem himself by scoring a penalty, then two minutes later Myler got Northampton’s first points of the game with a penalty of his own.

A rolling maul was the undoing for the hosts on 18 minutes as Manoa grounded the ball to draw the scores level and the visitors took the lead with Myler's conversion.

Saints went down to 14 men with only six minutes to go before half time as Salesi Ma’afu was sin binned for a high tackle but Myler was able to extend their lead to five points as Northampton went into the interval leading 13 – 8.

Half – Time – Harlequins 8 – 13 Northampton Saints

The second half started like the first with Quins beginning the brightest but Swiel was unable to close the gap as his penalty missed which was punished by the champs when the fly halves kick was charged down by Manoa.

The number eight was able to collect the ball and offload to North and the winger scored with Myler adding the extras then both fly halves swapped penalties with the score 11 – 23 on 56 minutes.

On the hour mark Harlequins got back into the game after a lot of pressure and despite getting close to the try line they were still unable to break the Saints defence until the ball went wide to Jack Clifford and the flanker touched down and when Swiel added the conversion the lead was reduced to just five points.

Inside the final 10 minutes the Midlands club was able to get some breathing room as replacement scrum half Fotuali’I was able to utilize the pressure from the attack as the Samoan crossed the whitewash after a good rolling maul and few phases but it seemed he injured himself whilst scoring.

On 76 minutes Danny Care pulled of a brilliant piece of individual skill and after a few phases the ball got to Sam Twomey, who scored his first Premiership try and even when Swiel added the conversion it was a sense of being too little too late for Quins.

Scorecard

5 mins – Lowe (Try) – 5 – 0

9 mins – Swiel (Pen) – 8 – 0

11 mins – Myler (Pen) – 8 – 3

18 mins – Manoa (Try) – 8 – 8

19 mins – Myler (Con) – 8 – 10

37 mins – Myler (Pen) – 8 – 13

HT – Quins 8 – 13 Saints

42 mins – North (Try) – 8 – 18

43 mins – Myler (Con) – 8 – 20

52 mins – Swiel (Pen) – 11 – 20

54 mins – Myler (Pen) – 11 – 23

59 mins – Clifford (Try) – 16 – 23

60 mins – Swiel (Con) – 18 – 23

71 mins – Fotuali’I (Try) – 18 – 28

72 mins – Myler (Con) – 18 – 30

76 mins – Twomey (Try) – 23 – 30

77 mins – Swiel (Con) – 25 – 30

FT – Quins 25 – 30 Saints