Northampton rout Newcastle to boost play-off hopes

Northampton put the pressure on play-off rivals London Irish as they did a professional demolition job to run in 10 tries at bottom club Newcastle.

Four first-half tries came from scrum-half Alex Mitchell, wing Tom Collins’ brace and forward Juarno Augustus.

Six more then came after the interval, including one for Fin Smith, who kicked eight conversions for a 21-point haul.

Forwards Paul Hill, Sam Graham and David Ribbans, wing Tommy Freeman and a second for Mitchell accounted for Saints’ second-half try scorers.

Having now finished their Premiership programme, Northampton’s 11th win of the season moves them level on points with third-placed Leicester.

More importantly, it also lifts Saints seven points clear of fifth-placed London Irish, the only side who can now deny them a place in the play-offs.

Irish now go to leaders Saracens on Sunday, before their final game on Saturday, 6 May at home to Exeter Chiefs.

Newcastle’s hammering fell short of their 83-10 record loss by Leicester in 2004, but it was their heaviest defeat of the season.

Yet it did not look likely when, with the retiring Alex Tait on the bench, they made a bright start when a neat early passage of play released Radwan, who darted in at the corner.

But Saints responded on eight minutes when Mitchell sidestepped an attempted tackle to breeze through before a 16th-minute interception try from Collins, from which he hacked forward and outpaced the Falcons defence to score in the corner.

Collins went over again on the half-hour mark for his 50th try in 145 appearances, following a Television Match Official review, and Augustus then crossed on the stroke of half-time.

From then on, it was no longer not a case of how, but how many.

Hill powered over for the Saints’ fifth try before Newcastle’s Mateo Carreras was sent to the sin bin for a no-arms tackle three minutes later – and four more tries followed against the 14 men in just 11 minutes.

Smith, Mitchell, Graham and Freeman all went over before Ribbans bulldozed his way in to wrap it up.

Newcastle interim head coach Mark Laycock:

“They were the more physical side and that told, especially in the second half once we were down to 14 men.

“Our basics in attack were not good enough either. We coughed up the ball a lot and it just gave them opportunities.

“When we look back at the first half, we’ve been in their 22 four times and they’ve been in our 22 four times, and the score was 28-5 at half-time. That tells the story of us not quite being clinical enough.”

Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton:

“After the setback of the early Adam Radwan try, we never really looked back and we scored some great tries.

“We worked our tails off to get it back and try to snuff them out, and we were so much more effective than we were against London Irish last week.

“We’ve done all we can control. We’ll now be watching the Saracens-London Irish game on Sunday and, for the first time ever, we’ll be shouting for Saracens.”

Newcastle: Obatoyinbo; Radwan, Moroni, Orlando, Carreras; B Connon, Young; Mulipola, Blamire, Tampin, Peterson, De Chaves, Rubiolo, Lockwood, Chick.

Replacements: Cade, Brocklebank, Kenny, Van Der Walt, Fearns, Stuart, Penny, Tait.

Sin bin: Carreras (51)

Northampton: Furbank; Collins, Dingwall, Hutchinson, Freeman; F Smith, Mitchell; A Waller, S Matavesi, Hill, Ribbans, Moon, Lawes, Ludlam, Augustus.

Replacements: Cruse, E Waller, Prowse, Salakaia-Loto, Scott-Young, Graham, James, Litchfield.

Referee: Wayne Barnes.