EDF Energy Cup - : Saints march to league and cup double at Twickenham

Bruce Reihana,Darren Fox and Johnny Howard celebrate Saints success

Saints march to league and cup double at Twickenham

12 April 2008, 2:32 pm

By Staff

Northampton Saints completed the league and cup double on Saturday after a hard fought 24-13 victory over rivals Exeter Chiefs in the EDF Energy National Trophy Final at Twickenham.

The Saints, recently crowned champions of Division One, ensured their season finished on a high by taking the domestic cup crown with two tries and 14 points from the boot of Saints’ favourite full back and skipper Bruce Reihana.

The win completes a perfect season for the Saints who have won 28 out of 28 league matches and five out of five EDF Energy National Trophy clashes. In fact, the Saints’ last defeat in a competitive match was 13-30 to London Wasps in the European Cup semi-final last April.

Skipper Reihana said: “We are delighted with the win. This was a tough game against Exeter. We set our goal to win at Twickenham and we have done that. We are now looking forward to going back into the Premiership after an off season.

“Jim Mallinder and Dorian West are very good coaches. They have helped us along the way and really pulled the team together which is what we needed.”

For Exeter though, who had kept Northampton to a five point deficit at half-time, the defeat will be hard to take. Their lost in the final was their fourth in a Twickenham cup final and ends a season where they have been playing second-fiddle to their league rivals all term. Most recently, the Devon outfit were defeated 18-8 in March and also suffered an 11-25 defeat at Sandy Park in November by the Saints.

Exeter captain Richard Baxter added: “Northampton are a team we aspire to be and after today’s performance we are clearly not too far off it. Now we will go back and keep on improving as we too look to do what Northampton have done and get into the Guinness Premiership.”

Northampton started at a furious pace and were unlucky not to put any points on the board in the first minute of the game. But Exeter defended as furiously and held the Saints out until the 16th minute when centre Joe Ansbro finally broke the duck.

The score came following a nicely taken line-out, catch and drive five metres out from Exeter’s line. The Saints couldn’t push their way over the line though and instead recycled the ball out into the midfield for wing Paul Diggin to set-up Ansbro who found space to dive his way over the line. Reihana added the conversion.

But Saints’ seven point lead was short lived when Exeter caught Northampton napping straight after the restart. Exeter took their opportunities and soon found themselves deep in Saints’ 22 with hooker Sam Blythe going close before flanker Chad Slade touched down. Substitute Tony Yapp added the conversion to draw the scores level before taking the lead for Exeter with a 21st minute penalty.

With Northampton on the back foot, they piled up the pressure before the break and their reward finally came when wing Diggin executed a clever exchange of passes between himself and Chris Ashton before going over in the left corner. Reihana missed the conversion, but added the penalty to hand Northampton the 15-10 lead at the break.

Exeter continued to cause Northampton problems after the restart and in the end it was only the boot of Reihana that kept the Saints ahead. The former All Blacks player stroked over three penalties to take a 24-10 lead.

Exeter pushed the Saints until the end though and even with just minutes remaining on the clock they were camped on Northampton’s line. They were unlucky to have a try held up and in the end they had to settle with Yapp adding a final penalty to make the final score 24-13.

Northampton Saints 24 Exeter Chiefs 13
Northampton Saints
1 Tom Smith, 2 Dylan Hartley, 3 Barry Stewart, 4 Matt Lord, 5 Alex Rae, 6 Mark Easter, 7 Ben Lewitt, 8 Mark Hopley, 9 Johnny Howard, 10 Carlos Spencer, 11 Paul Diggin, 12 James Downey, 13 Joe Ansbro, 14 Chris Ashton, 15 Bruce Reihana.
Replacements: 16 Paul Shields, 17 Soane Tonga’uiha, 18 Euan Murray, 19 Paul Tupai, 20 Darren Fox, 21 Mark Robinson, 22 Stephen Myler,
Tries: Ashbro, Diggin
Conversions: Reihana
Penalties: Reihana (4)

Exeter Chiefs:
1 Dan Parkes, 2 Sam Blythe, 3 Brett Sturgess, 4 Lewis Stevenson, 5 James Hanks, 6 Chad Slade, 7 Andy Miller, 8 Richie Baxter (capt), 9 Clive Stuart Smith, 10 Wade Kelly, 11 Josh Drauninui, 12 Junior Fatialofa, 13 Mark Fatialofa, 14 Jason Luff, 15 Gary Kingdom.
Replacements: 16 Simon Jenkins, 17 Craig Dunlea, 18 Chris Bentley, 19 Tom Johnson, 20 Kevin Barrett, 21 Tony Yapp, 22 Alan Miller
Tries: Slade
Conversions: Yapp
Penalties: Yapp (2)