Andy give Saints a Goode kicking

By Tigerchick
October 16 2006

Tigers edged victory from the “neighbours” Northampton in a gritty local derby that was simmering with an undercurrent of hostility from the start.

From the outset it was clear that Tigers desperately wanted the win and Northampton were going to throw everything at them to avoid defeat at home.

Saints without the brilliant kicker Bruce Rehana and the influential Carlos Spencer, out-scored Tigers by two tries to nil but it was the precision of Andy Goode’s boot that brought a hard-fought away victory to the Tigers.

Tigers opened the scoring with a long-range precision penalty by Andy Goode and led by 9-0 after 16 minutes. The home team opened their score just 3 minutes later when Mark Robinson charged down a botched clearance attempt by Scott Bemand and pounced on the ball to score. Luckily for Tigers, the conversion went the same way as previous attempts at goal by Kydd. The Tigers pack didn’t let the try knock them off their stride and referee White penalised Saints for killing the ball in the 27th minute, to give Andy Goode his fourth successful kick at goal of the afternoon.

Both sides lacked fluency and consistency and the boot of Goode seemed to be the only real threat to the Saints defence.

The visitors leading at the break as Saints pulled off a brilliant move for their second.

The visitors were 12-5 ahead as Saints pulled off a brilliant move for their second try. It began from deep with Ben Cohen with Going, Quinlan and Kydd all involved in putting Tupai over the line. Saints were now within two points of Tigers with the conversion to come. But luckily for the visitors, ex-Tiger Myring missed from within 10 metres and a short time later missed a penalty that would have given Saints the lead.

Tigers retained the majority of the possession and replacement Lloyd failed to make use of a two-man overlap in what would surely have been a try. Other failed attempts echo the poor performance by the visitors. Tigers dug deep to hold on to their narrow advantage for the last ten minutes, with their only points of the half coming from a 69th minute penalty by Goode.

Tigers will no doubt spend their post-match analysis session pondering on the question of how they failed to turn possession and several try-scoring opportunities into points.



Northampton: R Kydd; J Howard (R Laird 76min), V Going (C Wyles 75min), D Quinlan (capt), B Cohen; L Myring, M Robinson (I Vass 70min); T Smith, D Hartley, P Barnard (C Budgen 74min), Damien Browne, C Short (D Gerard 52min), P Tupai (M Easter 71min), Daniel Browne, D Fox.

Leicester: S Vesty; G Murphy, O Smith, D Hipkiss (P Burke 66min), J Murphy (L Lloyd 39min); A Goode, S Bemand; M Ayerza, G Chuter, M Holford, L Cullen, B Kay, L Deacon, M Corry (capt), L Moody (S Jennings 60min).

Yellow cards: Northampton: Going (8min) Leicester: Hipkiss (48min) +

Tries: Robinson 19, Tupai 51

Penalties: Goode (5)

Referee: C White (RFU)