An early penalty saw Quins take play into the Saints half.  From the lineout the ball came to Masson whose excellent break and passing of the ball left saw Charlie Amesbury just held up as he reached the line. Continuous Quins’ pressure saw the ball retained and then passed right.  The long miss pass was almost intercepted by Spencer who just got a finger tip to the ball helping it into the path of Seb Stegman
Who juggled, held and crossed to touch down.  Jewell’s kick from the right touchline just skewed wide but after only seven minutes Quins led 0 – 5.

For the second time in two matches, Seb Jewell came off second best in a collision with an opponent, which was more of a shoulder charge with a leading elbow than a tackle.  He appeared to have been rendered unconscious and after only 10 minutes was replaced by Mike Brown with Tom Williams moving up to fly half.

Northampton began to get more into the game and a penalty conceded by Danny Care allowed Barry Everitt to kick deep into the left corner to provide the home side with an attacking lineout.  Good defence prevented Saints from capitalising on their position until, at a scrum, Care was able to steal the ball from Vass and a penalty in Quins’ favour relieved the situation.

Everitt missed a penalty kick from 25 metres and Quins maintained their slender lead.
But it was not for long as a free kick for an offence at a scrum inside the Quins’ twenty-two saw Vass put Diggin clear round the mass of players still sorting themselves out from the scrum, the winger touching down from about ten metres.  Everitt’s kick again went wide and the scores were level after 25 minutes.

This brought an immediate response from Harlequins and from the restart Ambrose again went close before the ball came quickly right through three pairs of hands to find an overlap on the right and for Stegman to score his second try.  Mike Brown missed with his conversion attempt.  Twenty-seven minutes gone and Quins led
5 – 10.

Northampton redoubled their efforts and a five-metre lineout was followed by a series of pick and drives that threatened the Quins’ line but ended with a knock-on.  Then Percival with Robshaw in support, ran back a poor kick from Vass and a simple pass put Mike Brown over for the try.  Danny Care converted and as the halfdrew to a close Quins led by 5 – 17. Quins had played good rugby with excellent handling and committed defence.

The second half saw Paul Volley replace George Robson and, surprisingly, the return of Seb Jewell with Mike Brown returning to the bench.  On the Northampton side Mark Robinson replaced Ian Vass.  For some minutes the game drifted in midfield with neither side having any real advantage.  Northampton began to show more attack. Then Carlos Spencer woke up and started to show the rugby that made him one of New Zealand’s finest players.  Receiving quick ball he made yards before passing to Clarke whose pass right found Diggin on the overlap on the right wing to score his second try.  Everitt again failed with the conversion. 10 – 17.

Another good break by Spencer some five minutes later took play into the Quins twenty-two and from one of the resultant rucks the ball came to Everitt who darted over under the posts from five metres and converted his try to level the scores at 17 all at the end of the third quarter.   Lambert and Inglis had replaced Nebbett and Percival and shortly afterwards Brooks replaced Croall and Academy scrum-half Matt Rhodes replaced Danny Care.

Now Quins’ scrum was under pressure and began to go backwards under the weight of the Northampton effort.  An overthrow at the lineout put Saints on the attack and a yellow card for Tom Williams for a deliberate knock-on reduced Quins to fourteen men for the majority of the remainder of the game.

It took Saints only five minutes to score again with Diggin again the beneficiary of a two-man overlap from another attack started by Spencer and once again Everitt’s kick went astray.   From the restart Ugo Monye chased, caught and collided with a Northampton player causing an injury that necessitated his replacement by Mike Brown.  It was Spencer who, with a smooth chip over the oncoming defence duly collected the ball and passed to Clarke who put Diggin away again for his fourth try.  This time the conversion was good and the lead was now 29 – 17.

Quins tried to come back with only five minutes to play but back to full strength with the release of Williams from the sin-bin.  The ball was taken into the Saints’ twenty-two and a series of pick and drives and rucks saw the ball come loose from a mess of players for Charlie Amesbury tio pick up and dodge his way over for a try.   Jewell missed narrowly with his conversion attempt and the final whistle went with the score 29 – 22

After the match Dean Richards seemed not too disappointed with the result.  He pointed out the substantial injury list and that they had picked a young team and the replacements were, in some cases even younger.  The fist half had not been bad but there was a lack of experience that told in the second half.

For connoisseurs of the game the display of Carlos Spencer in the second half was a joy to watch.  National Division One will have something to look forward to.  And nobody even mentioned Ben Cohen.

Teams:
NORTHAMPTON: 15 Carlos Spencer, 14 Paul Diggin, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 Robbie Kydd, 11 Bruce Reihana, 10 Barry Everitt, 9 Ian Vass, 1 Simon Emms, 2 Paul Shields, 3 Barry Stewart, 4 Damien Browne, 5 Alex Rae, 6 Karl Rudzki, 7 Darren Fox, 8 Mark Easter.
Replacements: 16 Dave Ward, 17 Terry Sigley, 18 Christian Short, 19, Paul Tupai, 20 Mark Robinson, 21, James Downey, 22 Will Harries, 23 Jon Vickers.

HARLEQUINS: 15 Tom Williams, 14 Charlie Amesbury, 13 Ugo Monye, 12, Tosh Masson, 11 Seb Stegmann, 10, Seb Jewell, 9 Danny Care, 1 Aston Croall, 2 Chris Brooker, 3 Ricky Nebbett, 4 James Percival, 5 Nicolas Spanghero, 6 George Robson, 7 Chris Robshaw, 8 Phil Davies.
Replacements: 16 John Brooks, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 James Inglis 19 Jim Evans 20 Paul Volley 21 Matt Rhodes 22 Ryan Manyika, 23 Mike Brown.

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