Mark Mapletoft scored all 21 points for London Irish as Northampton slumped to
their seventh successive Zurich Premiership defeat, a club record.
Mapletoft, with his fourth club, marked his 100th Premiership appearance with
two tries, three penalties and a conversion.
The haul took his points tally to 58 from his last three games, including the
European Challenge Cup victory over French club Auch, in which he has landed 17
out of his 19 kicks.
Northampton replied with five penalties from fly-half Paul Grayson and finally
managed a try when left-wing Wylie Human raced clear and dived over in the
corner seven minutes into injury time.
But Shane Drahm, who had replaced Grayson, narrowly missed the difficult
conversion attempt from the touchline to leave Irish victors by one point.
Ultimately, Northampton had only themselves to blame for their unwanted
record.
Their lineout was a comedy of horrors in the first half as they lost their
first five throws to Irish second row giants Nick Kennedy and Bob Casey.
Then when Irish hooker David Paice overthrew, Saints' South African skipper
Corne Crige squandered the opportunity by spilling the ball.
Northampton, also guilty of basic handling errors and over-elaboration, were
reduced to risking one-man lineouts and throws to the front of the line and when
they finally capitalised on a lineout and surged over the London Irish line at
the start of the second half they were unable to ground the ball.
Even London Irish's first-half try resulted from an uncharacteristic mistake
by Grayson.
The former England fly-half's kick charged down by Irish flanker Paul Gustard,
fly-half Mike Catt kicked ahead and got the luck of the bounce to send centre
Mapletoft in.
Northampton produced a vastly improved second half which saw right wing John
Rudd tackled into touch just short of the line by Irish scrum half Paul Hodgson
who damaged his arm making the last-ditch tackle and retired hurt.
Saints spent much of the second period in the Irish half but all they had to
show for their efforts were Grayson's penalties and Human's late try.
Irish struck again when replacement Nils Mordt set up Mapletoft's second try
in the 77th minute but finally Mapletoft missed with the conversion.
Northampton suffered another blow when centre Chris Hyndman was carried off on
a stretcher, with his neck in a brace, after being injured in a tackle on
opposite number Scott Staniforth.
The delay while he received treatment, resulted in 17 minutes of injury time
when Northampton's final surge was repelled by a full-stretched Irish defence.
Teams:
Northampton: Reihana, Rudd, Stcherbina, Hyndman, Human,
Grayson, Robinson, Kempson, Richmond, Budgen, Seely, Browne,
Blowers, Krige, Soden.
Replacements: Vilk for Hyndman (67), Drahm for Grayson (80),
Howard for Robinson (61), van Wyk for Richmond (73),
Sturgess for Budgen (80), O'Donoghue for Soden (40).
Not Used: McNamee.
Tries: Human.
Pens: Grayson 5.
London Irish: Horak, Armitage, Staniforth, Mapletoft, Bishop,
Catt, Hodgson, Hatley, Paice, Hardwick, Kennedy, Casey,
Gustard, Danaher, Murphy.
Replacements: Mordt for Horak (61), Everitt for Mapletoft (80),
Edwards for Hodgson (46), van der Walt for Paice (71),
Wheatley for Hardwick (80), Strudwick for Casey (76).
Not Used: Roche.
Tries: Mapletoft 2.
Cons: Mapletoft.
Pens: Mapletoft 3.
Att: 11,749
Ref: Tony Spreadbury (Bristol).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook