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Northampton Saints travel to face Glasgow Warriors knowing only a bonus point victory in Scotland will give them any chance of keeping their hopes of a Heineken Cup quarter-final place alive. - 17/01/2013 13:45
Northampton Saints travel to face Glasgow Warriors knowing only a bonus point victory in Scotland will give them any chance of keeping their hopes of a Heineken Cup quarter-final place alive.
The Saints, who lifted the Heineken Cup back in 2000, will have their sights set on one of the best two runners-up places in the last eight of the tournament but they have to come away with the spoils from Scotstoun Stadium.
But the Premiership outfit’s destiny in Europe is not in their hands even if they get what they want against Glasgow.
The English side, who were beaten finalists in 2011, do face the prospect of failing to reach the last eight of European rugby’s premier tournament for the second successive season.
But they did manage a narrow 18-12 victory over Castres Olympique at Franklin's Gardens and after their win over Pool winners Ulster in Round 4 they have found some form with Dylan Hartley on song at finding his targets at line-out time.
Glasgow, who are second in the PRO12, have not won a game in Europe during this campaign and will want to transfer their domestic campaign to the Heineken Cup and sign off in style.
The Warriors will also be buoyed by the fact that Scott Johnson, the interim Scotland coach, has named 19 of their players in his 35-man training squad for the forthcoming Six Nations.
Match Facts
- Glasgow have slipped to seven successive Heineken Cup defeats – their worst run since 2005.
- Glasgow’s last seven matches against English opponents have all been won by the home side on the day.
- Northampton have won their last nine encounters against Scottish opponents.
- The two clubs have met on five previous occasions with Glasgow winning just once – 31-27 at Firhill in January 2002.
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Dylan Hartley, the Saints hooker, has 57 successful lineout throws to his name this season, more than any other player in the tournament.
Northampton Saints were bundled out of European club rugby's 18th Heineken Cup at Scotstoun Stadium as Glasgow Warriors notched up their first win of the campaign and ended any faint Saints hopes of ongoing interest. - 19/01/2013 15:58
Northampton Saints were bundled out of European club rugby’s 18th Heineken Cup at Scotstoun Stadium as Glasgow Warriors notched up their first win of the campaign and ended any faint Saints hopes of ongoing interest.
The Warriors clinched a 27-20 win at the death through replacement Peter Horne, leaving Ulster Rugby as the clear group winners and ensuring 15 points will not be enough to keep the Saints in the mix for one of the two best runners-up spots.
And their tally of just nine tries could rule them out of going through to the Amlin Challenge Cup quarters to boot.
With the sides feeling each other out in the opening quarter, home outside-half Ruaridh Jackson edged the Warriors ahead with penalty goals in the first and 11th minutes, Steve Myler on target for the Saints soon after to get them off the mark.
Wing Jamie Elliott had his effort to open the try scoring ruled out by the TMO and the Warriors briefly lost influential lock Al Kellock for some running repairs before the try the game was crying out for came in the 30th minute.
Inside centre Dom Waldouck bulldozed his way through to cross the home line and Myler added the conversion to put the 2000 Heineken Cup Champions in front for the first time.
Scott Wight, who had come on for Jackson, was off target with a penalty chance to enable the Saints, who were beginning to dominate and were 24-15 winners in Round 1, to go into the break with a narrow four-point advantage.
But it was the Warriors who struck first in the second half as flanker Josh Strauss breached the Saints defence, with Wight adding the conversion to put them back in front at 13-10 – albeit for just 12 minutes.
That was how long it took for the Saints to see the lead change hands for the fourth time, with George Pisi getting their second of a ding-dong battle that simply went on and on as scrum-half Niko Matawalu went over for Saints to slip behind yet again.
But after 72 minutes it was back to where they had started at all square as Ryan Lamb missed the conversion of Ben Foden’s try to leave it on a knife edge at 20-20.
It was left to midfield replacement Horne to finally end the Saints hopes of any further interest in this season’s tournament in the 80th minute with a fine try he converted himself.
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