Northampton Saints blank Newcastle Falcons

Northampton Saints managed to keep a clean sheet in defence when they beat Newcastle Falcons 18-0 at Franklin’s Gardens.

Despite constant pressure on the visiting rearguard, two Stephen Myler penalties was all Saints had to show for their efforts in the first period.

However, they had more success after the break with James Wilson and Luther Burrell touching down to seal the win.

Following Northampton’s outstanding start to the campaign and Newcastle struggling near the bottom, the hosts started this game with confidence. Tom Collins went close early on before a succession of penalties gave the Saints ample opportunity to attack.

But instead of going for the posts, they chose to kick to touch and the Falcons bravely resisted wave after wave of attacks.

The Northerners then had their own opportunities to score as Noah Cato went close twice, but the pressure eventually told when Carlo Del Fava was sin-binned for persistent team infringements.

Myler finally kicked the resultant opportunity as the Saints went into a 3-0 lead after 30 minutes. The stand-off added a second penalty soon after as their territorial dominance was rewarded with a 6-0 advantage at the interval.

Unsurprisingly, the start of the second period was reminiscent of the first with Jim Mallinder’s men regularly testing Newcastle’s defence.

However, they failed to add to the score until the deadlock was broken when Jamie Elliott found a gap and off-loaded to Wilson who went over.

Burrell then touched down after good work from the forwards, where they demolished the visiting scrum, to give Northampton their sixth win of the Premiership campaign.

Final Score Northampton 18 (6) Newcastle Falcons 0(0)

Scorers

Northampton
Tries: Wilson, Burrell
Con: Myler
Pens: Myler 2

Newcastle
Yellow Card: Del Fava

Match Officials
Referee: Dean Richards (59th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Kevin Stewart and Ashley Rowden.
TMO: Rowan Kitt.

Teams

Northampton Saints: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Jamie Elliott, 13 James Wilson, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 Tom Collins, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Sam Dickinson, 7 Phil Dowson, 6 Calum Clark, 5 Christian Day, 4 Courtney Lawes, 3 Salesi Ma’afu, 2 Mikey Haywood, 1 Alex Waller,

Replacements: 16 Ross McMillan, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Tom Mercey, 19 GJ van Velze, 20 Ben Nutley, 21 Alex Day, 22 Glenn Dickson, 23 Dom Waldouck.

Newcastle Falcons

15 Alex Tait, 14 Noah Cato, 13 Danny Barnes, 12 Adam Powell, 11 Ryan Shortland, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair, 1 Rob Vickers, 2 Scott Lawson, 3 Oliver Tomaszczyk, 4 Carlo del Fava, 5 Fraser McKenzie, 6 Richard Mayhew, 7 Will Welch (c), 8 Ally Hogg.

Replacements: 16 George McGuigan, 17 Grant Shiells, 18 Scott Wilson, 19 Scott MacLeod, 20 Chris York, 21 Warren Fury, 22 Rory Clegg, 23 James Fitzpatrick