A month ago Leicester took this fixture apart at Welford Road, 41-17, and called it a statement in the title race. Northampton spent four weeks carrying it. On Friday night they handed it back with interest.
Seven tries to five, 45-31, and a place in the final. The Gardens was deafening from the first whistle, Luke Pearce let a ferocious game run, and the side humbled in May was nowhere to be seen. Three years ago Leicester won the semi-final between these two 27-14 at Welford Road and went on to lift the title. The venue flipped, and so did everything else.
Call it the greatest East Midlands derby if you like – it certainly made a case for it and after 80 minutes of this, few in the ground would put up much of a fight.
Litchfield’s record hat-trick
Tom Litchfield came in as Saints‘ player of the year and went off a record-holder, the fifth man ever to score a first-half hat-trick in a Premiership play-off. The three tries told you how the half went. The first came inside two minutes, Henry Pollock breaking out of defence and the move finished at pace.
The second was carnage: Rory Hutchinson hung a kick in behind, Freddie Steward and Billy Searle ran into each other going for it, and the ball dropped for Litchfield to scoop up and score. The third was a close-range scramble, shoved over from a yard out.
Leicester made him work for the headline. Hanro Liebenberg went over from a five-metre scrum, and the Tigers led 12-7 when Curtis Langdon mouthed off at Pearce over a scrum call, gave away the penalty for dissent, and watched Steward finish in the corner from the territory it cost. Curtis Langdon’s lip was worth seven points to Leicester. Litchfield’s hat-trick was worth a 26-19 lead at the break, and Saints went in looking like the better side, not the luckier one.
Smith’s kicking won it
Everyone knows Northampton for the catch-pass. What beat Leicester was the boot. The Tigers kept setting up with two men in the backfield and trusting their line speed, and Saints picked them off for it all night.
Fin Smith was the architect and the Player of the Match. He kicked at full pace, onto the right foot, the grubber and the chip used to attack rather than to clear. His kick through the empty Tigers backfield put Tommy Freeman over for the try that took him past Chris Ashton’s single-season club record, his 17th of the campaign. Hutchinson’s kick for Litchfield’s second came from the same playbook. 24 passes, a try assist, four defenders beaten: Smith ran the game at 10 and never looked hurried doing it. The warning to the rest is plain. Leave space behind the line against this Northampton and they will find it with a kick as quickly as with hands.
Pollock and the back-row took over
One number does the job. Pollock carried 23 times, more than anyone on the pitch. He made 122 metres, and nobody else passed 60. He beat eight defenders, twice the next man. He won a turnover and made the break for the first try, his pass out of the tackle better than anything the specialist centres managed. Smith got the award. Pollock pushed him all the way.
He was not alone. Tom Pearson and Josh Kemeny gave Saints a back-row that fed off quick ball, and the ball was quick because Leicester could not live with the tempo at the breakdown. The numbers spell out the gap. Every one of the top five for metres was a Northampton player, and so was every one of the top five for defenders beaten, with the Tigers’ tackle rate down around 71 per cent. Archie McParland, flagged at half-time as the difference between the sides, made 52 metres from nine and scored himself, the payoff for dragging Leicester forwards in and opening up the men outside him.
Furbank’s farewell
George Furbank leaves for Harlequins this summer, and this was his last game at Franklin’s Gardens in Saints colours. He signed off with two tries and a full-back’s performance of total control. The first came from a tap penalty, Pollock to the line and Hutchinson flicking out a chicken-wing offload for the captain to power over. The second, on 75 minutes, came off a Smith special and a superbly timed arc onto the ball.
A captain scoring twice on his last night at home in a semi-final does not need dressing up. Furbank gave the crowd the send-off they came for, and reminded them what Saints lose when he goes. They will want one more game out of him in the final.
Martin and a brave Leicester
Nothing about the scoreline should diminish Leicester. They scored five tries, never stopped coming, and made Northampton earn all 45 points. George Martin led it, enormous in contact, his 13 carries the most of any Tiger, every hit landing with intent.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
The leaders went down swinging with him. Ollie Chessum captained from the front, and Liebenberg, off at the end of the season, said his own goodbye with a match-high 19 tackles and a try. Tommy Reffell topped the game for turnovers with two and never stopped grafting. When Leicester found a way back it came through Searle’s boot, his cross-field kicks setting up both of Ollie Hassell-Collins’s tries, with Orlando Bailey crossing off a charge of forward carries. On most nights that earns a final. Not against this.
Two departing captains, Furbank and Liebenberg, walked off a derby that deserved both of them, played at Test-match pace from the first minute to the last. Northampton go to the final a different team to the one beaten a month ago. Leicester go home with their heads up and little else.
READ MORE: Northampton Saints v Leicester Tigers: Result, match stats, scorers, line-ups