Record-breaking Northampton thump Gloucester 90-0
Ollie Sleightholme scored three tries two days after the birth of his daughter Lyra
- Published
Gallagher Premiership
Northampton: (40) 90
Tries: Furbank, Dingwall, Sleightholme 3, Langdon 2, Mitchell, Waller, S Matavesi 2, Iyogun, Moon, James Cons: Smith 8, Furbank 2
Gloucester: (0) 0
Premiership leaders Northampton Saints scored an extraordinary 14 tries to beat a much-changed Gloucester 90-0 and go five points clear at the top the table.
Ollie Sleightholme ran the visiting defence ragged as he scored a hat-trick in a match which broke the league's record home points tally.
George Furbank's try inside the first two minutes was a sign of things to come as the hosts went over six times in the first half, but Saints added another 50 points after the break as they kept up their incredible energy levels.
Fly-half Fin Smith was in fantastic form, putting eight conversions between the posts on his 22nd birthday.
The victory against a Gloucester side who made 12 changes from their European Challenge Cup semi-final win against Benetton confirmed a home play-off semi-final for Saints.
It was the biggest win of the season, surpassing Bristol's 85-14 thumping of bottom side Newcastle in April, but Richmond's 106-12 victory at Bedford in 1999 remains the record score in the Premiership.
Northampton made a lightning start, with George Hendy making space down the left-hand side to float a pass into the hands of full-back Furbank, who crashed over.
Saints looked in the mood to push for a big score as Frazer Dingwall scored after a clever dummy to avoid a tackle.
Sleightholme then caught Gloucester's defence off guard to score for the first time since becoming a father, before Curtis Langdon wrestled the ball over the line to make it 26-0.
That also gave Saints the bonus point they wanted, but their attack remained unstoppable as Langdon found a burst of energy to touch the ball down for his second try.
Northampton did the simple part of the game brilliantly, showing off their well-rehearsed passing routine in a move which Alex Mitchell rounded off to make it 40-0 at half time.
Gloucester heads began to sink as Furbank teased and twisted around their back line to feed veteran Alex Waller and replacement hooker Sam Matavesi was next to crash down to take it to 52-0.
It was difficult for those inside Franklin's Gardens to keep count as Emmanuel Iyogun, Sleightholme and then Alex Moon went over as second-bottom Gloucester capitulated.
Alex Waller is to retire from professional rugby at the end of the season
By the time that Sleightholme raced clear to complete his hat-trick, it was time to check the record books.
Only last month, Bristol put 85 points on Newcastle to run up the previous record home points score.
Two missed conversions by Furbank threatened to keep the record at Ashton Gate, but Tom James soon wriggled free to get the score up to 85.
Matavesi's second try took Northampton to 90 points in a game that will live long in the memory.
'Very, very painful day' for Gloucester
Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton:
"There are two sides today, with two motivations. George [Skivington] has got a cup final in a couple of weeks time.
"We are pushing to try and get a bonus point to finish the season and guarantee us a home [semi-final].
"One of the things we spoke about was keeping it in-house, not worrying about what Gloucester were going to do and make sure that we got over the hangover [of the Champions Cup semi-final loss] of Dublin.
"I thought the players did that exceptionally well."
Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
"I don't think we are going to make any excuses about how good Saints were.
"There are some massive lessons in that game. We weren't good enough.
"We were always going to be up against it. Saints were absolutely ruthless, once they got that momentum, they just kept going.
"The game was fast and furious. We needed to win some collisions, we needed to slow their play up. It's a very, very painful day."
Northampton: Furbank; Hendy, Freeman, Dingwall, Sleightholme; F Smith, Mitchell; Waller, Langdon, Davison; Moon, Coles; Lawes, Scott-Young, Augustus
Replacements: S Matavesi, Iyogun, Millar-Mills, Mayanavanua, Graham, James, Odendaal, Seabrook
Gloucester: Hathaway, Hearle, Hillman-Cooper, Reeves, Morris, Atkinson, Varney; Elrington, Socino, Knight, Clark, Thomas, Tuisue, Ludlow, Clement.
Replacements: Scarfe, Vivas, Balmain, Eite, Nixon, Chapman, Adderly-Jones, Jones
Referee: Ian Tempest