Sunday 5 October 2014

London Irish Review: Saints lead the league once again.

Saints lead the league once again with a 19-12 victory over London Irish. 

Saints strong defence stopped Irish from scoring any tries, although accurate kicked penalties by London Irish nearly cost Northampton the victory. Myler and Burrell being the crucial men in the win.

Team mates in the past, Myler
 and Gerahty battled it out with their kicking accuracy. However, Myler outshone the ex-Saint.
Geraghty did in fact get a total of four penalties, who kicked Irish to a win over Leicester just last week. 

Saints kicked off with a fast tempo style of play, which won them a penalty at the first scrum, setting high authority over Irish. Quickly, another penalty given, but this time a miss because of an awkward right kick.

Saints were dominating in the scrum although missing two key England players, Dylan Hartley and Alex Corbisiero. Irish began to crumble under the pressure which gave Saints important penalties for point opportunities. Irish were determined not to give up, soon they were putting their own points onto the board too.

A worrying change for the Saints side came early. Lee Dickson, scrum half and Captain, was forced off with a shoulder injury. He was replaced by Kahn Fotuali'i just 15 minutes into the game. 

Irish slowly put pressure onto Saints but George Pisi did one of his hard-hitting and powerful tackles on London Irish's key man, Shane Geraghty. The Samoan international replicated a simular tackle on Geraghty which happened when the sides met back in April of last season.
They used this tackle well, brother to George, Ken Pisi sprung into action. The ball was picked up by Burrell, who powered through Geraghty to slip over the tryline.
Saints had another chance to score just before half time but Ken Pisi ended up being bundled into touch. 


Half time score was 10-0 to Saints. 

Irish came out storming and determinated for the win. Geraghty's long kick for post, soon closed the points gap. Not soon after, another penalty for Irish who were putting pressure onto Saints defence. 

Myler soon stretched the lead futher by the ref handing a Saints penalty at the scrum. 

A few more penalties by either side took the score to 19-12 to Saints, Irish had only two minutes to save the game but a vital tackle by George Pisi secured the win for Saints. 

A penalty filled game but Saints came on top with the victory. 

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