This competition has seen a few remarkable results over the years but few to match this sweetest of Saints days. Maybe Leinster thought that a fourth successive InvestecChampions Cupfinal appearance was a formality against supposedly outgunned English opposition. If so they were made to pay a heavy price as a triple whammy of tries from Tommy Freeman helped Northampton pull off one of the all-time great knockout heists.
The Irish province, beaten in the final in the last three consecutive seasons, were stunned at the final whistle. But the Saints had led 27-15 at half-time and, even afterLeinsterhad charged back to within three points the visitors came knocking again via a 62ndminute score from James Ramm. The final quarter was frantically tense, settled in contentious fashion after an aghast Leinster had a possible 79th-minute score disallowed.
As well as being a memorable contest in its own right, it was also a heavy-duty final trial for assorted contenders on both sides with Thursday’s British & Irish Lions squad announcement looming. Is Andy Farrell’s mind already made up? If not here was some compelling additional 11th-hour evidence, not least from a couple of Englishmen who played central roles in the throbbing drama.
There was certainly no ignoring – not for the first or last time – the precociously talented England flanker Henry Pollock who contributed a spectacular solo first-half try and a stunning late turn over and again looked wholly unfazed by the lofty company he is keeping. The back-row is already awash with candidates but Pollock could not have done much more.
Ditto Fin Smith, whose duel with Sam Prendergast was an enthralling one for connoisseurs and casual watchers alike. Smith did not have everything his own way but exudes the calm assurance of a veteran number 10. Prendergast is also clearly extremely talented but will Farrell pick both of them with his son Owen, Finn Russell and George Ford also in the fly-half frame? We shall see.
Whoever goes, this was a proper ding dong even without the significant subtext. Preparing to face a full-metal Leinster at the moment is psychologically akin to being strapped to the railway track with a steaming locomotive just round the bend. And that’s when you don’t have the ball. The pressure is just as screeching when Leinster are defending, the blue line erected by Jacques Nienaber so steely that neither of their previous knockout opponents, Harlequins and Glasgow, could muster a single point between them.
It was all the more encouraging for the Saints, then, when they opened the scoring with a daring early score, Smith cutting a sharp line from Ramm’s pass to split the cover and then rolling a perfect chip into the path of his good mate Freeman who, after a brief juggle, did the rest.
Leinster, though, are a mighty hard side to subdue for long and the understanding between Jamison Gibson-Park and Prendergast is sharp enough to take advantage of the smallest opportunity. WithNorthamptonstill digesting the award of a free-kick to the home side, Gibson-Park took the swiftest of taps and Prendergast’s long ball put the lurking Tommy O’Brien over.
Cue Pollock. Even with his side down to 14 players after the sin-binning of Curtis Langdon, he is not the type to shut up shop even 50 metres from the opposing line. Storming on to a short ball from Mitchell he left an aghast Prendergast grasping at thin air on the touchline and raced clear for a striking score at the glass-windowed end of the stadium.
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Little did anyone guess it would be the first of three rat-a-tat Saints tries inside nine minutes. Pollock and Smith were both part of a slick backline attack that gave Freeman another chance to show his pace on the right before the winger secured his third after a box kick fell nicely for the stampeding Juarno Augustus.
The 12-point half-time gap was reminiscent of the famous Cardiff final in 2011 when Leinster overcame a 16-point interval deficit against the same opponents. The hosts, as then, were always going to mount some kind of fightback and duly did so through third quarter tries by Caelan Doris and Josh van der Flier.
With Jordie Barrett now involved off the bench, surely that would be that? Not a bit of it. With Leinster unusually stretched, Saints kept the ball alive and the excellent James Ramm dived over, Smith added the conversion to his earlier penalty and Northampton led by 10 points with 15 minutes left. A yellow card for Josh Kemeny for a high tackle and a converted 69th-minute try for James Lowe provided further twists but when Ross Byrne was denied a late score for a knock-on in the buildup it was the Saints who will now march into this month’s final in Cardiff.