Alex Dombrandt stars as Harlequins return to winning ways by beating Northampton
Harlequins returned to winning ways to reclaim third place in the Gallagher Premiership table with Alex Dombrandt influential in a 37-19 victory over Northampton.
Quins’ four-match winning streak ended with a narrow defeat at Newcastle last weekend but the rampaging Dombrandt was among the standout performers as Saints fell at Twickenham Stoop.
Alongside Exeter’s Sam Simmonds, Dombrandt has been repeatedly overlooked by England head coach Eddie Jones despite stringing together a series of powerful performances at number eight.
Tyrone Greene, Stephan Lewies and Mike Brown crossed for tries to help build a 27-12 interval lead and while the second half was controlled by Northampton, their execution in the final third was dismal.
Quins were down to 13 players in the closing stages after Dombrandt and Jack Kenningham had been sent to the sin-bin when the lead was 30-19, but error-prone Saints could not exploit the extra space and they even coughed up the bonus point to Brett Herron with 20 seconds left.
A lively opening 10 minutes fought out by two of the Premiership’s form teams produced tries at both ends.
Northampton were the first to strike with a clinically executed line-out move that saw centre Fraser Dingwall take the ball from Sam Matavesi and supply the scoring pass to Tom Collins.
But pressure by Andre Esterhuizen on Rory Hutchinson forced a mistake and Quins pounced on the error with Danny Care grubber kicking ahead for Green to score.
Northampton Saints – Gallagher Premiership – Twickenham Stoop” />
And the high-octane pace continued as captain Lewies reached out to touch down as the home side pressed once again, Care brilliantly orchestrating play at scrum-half as a 17-5 lead was opened up.
But Saints hit back with a jinking Hutchinson capitalising on a hole in midfield opened up by George Furbank’s well-timed pass to send Tom James over.
Following James’ try, Quins camped themselves in enemy territory and at times were guilty of forcing play as they closed down on the whitewash on two separate occasions.
But they would be denied just after the half-hour mark when a big carry by Dombrandt from the base of a scrum began a series of thrusts that ended when Brown raced onto the ball and over the line.
Saints were fired up for the second half as they relentlessly battered away at the home whitewash, but they were almost undone when they were stripped of the ball by the outstanding Dombrandt.
The turnover launched a dashing counter-attack that eventually broke down through Green’s ill-advised pass, and from there Northampton struck as Ollie Sleightholme grabbed the ball, chipped ahead and scored.
A third penalty by Smith meant Quins were still well in front and the 22-year-old fly-half appeared to have scored a breakaway try but a forward pass was spotted by the TMO.
Play was held up for several minutes as wing Aaron Morris received treatment before being carried from the pitch on a stretcher after his head caught Hutchinson’s hip during a tackle.
With Kenningham and Dombrandt shown yellow cards, Quins were up against it but they were helped by Harry Mallinder failing to find touch with a penalty and Taqele Naiyaravoro knocking on.
They held out and when the sin-binned duo returned, they claimed the bonus point when Herron crossed in an audacious move.
Comments on RugbyPass
The rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
65 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
1 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
9 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
9 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
9 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
9 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
9 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
41 Go to commentsThanks, Nick. We (Seanny Maloney, Brett and I) just discussed Charlie as a potential Wallaby No 8, and wondered if he has truly realised how big he is in contact (and whether he can add 5 kg w/o slowing down). Your scouting report confirms our suspicions he has the materiel. No one knows if he has the mentality (as Johann van Graan said this week about CJ, Duane and Alfie B) to carry 10-15 times a game.
57 Go to commentsHe would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
2 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
3 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to comments