Northampton's defensive masterclass denies Harlequins

Last week they showed what they could do in the way of whipping up a storm; this week Northampton showed how well they could contain one. Questions might be asked of their first-up defence, but never fault their desire, nor their refusal to accept a breach in that defence until the ball is dotted down over the line. They were up against attackers who on their day are among the most lethal. Harlequins, in the second half, were slicing Saints up virtually every time they got their hands on the ball, which by that stage was a lot. Nick Evans, the maestro, and his two young sidekicks in midfield, Jordan Turner-Hall and George Lowe, turned the Saints inside and out; Chris Robshaw was a bristling ball of physicality, pace and off-loads; up front the Quins ball-carriers took quite some stopping. And, of course, there is always Danny Care, who was as impish as ever. His break paved the way for Quins' only try of the game, scored by Lowe midway through the second period, the whole passage of play a dazzling concert of off-loads, darts and killer passes. Then, with zero seconds on the clock, it was Care who seemed, for the umpteenth time, to be about to win the game for Harlequins, but he lost the ball forward in another last-gasp tackle, and Saints had won the day. That followed immediately on from young Joe Marler, a ball-carrier to be reckoned with, being held up over the line somehow by Ben Foden, which followed on from Lowe being stopped inches short, which followed on from a magnificent cover tackle by Roger Wilson on Tom Williams, who seemed certain to score. It is some tribute to Northampton, who had a hoodoo to shake off having not beaten Quins here for six years, that they managed not only to withstand such punching but to deliver some timely blows of their own to keep them in a position where they had something to defend. Quins had not been quite so rampant in the first period, coming inches close to scoring only twice, when Care's quick tap was thwarted on the line to the video referee's satisfaction and when Evans's flat-looking ball, which resulted a couple of passes later in his trotting under the posts, had been adjudged to have gone forward. Northampton scored the only try of that period, when Quins' latest attack broke down, and Chris Ashton won the 70-metre kick and chase to earn the Saints a 13-3 lead at the break. Quins upped things even higher upon the resumption and had the lead at 16-13 with that Lowe try, before a deadly burst of off-loading among Bruce Reihana, Dylan Hartley and Soane Tonga'uiha put Hartley over for the try that was to prove the last score of the game. Quins then managed to pack into the game's remaining 10 minutes as many try-scoring chances as some teams might see in a month. It was not poor finishing that foiled the home team either. It was just extraordinary defence, the kind that reminds you that scoring tries is not the only way to entertain a rugby audience.