Northampton Saints Steamroll Gloucester in Historic Premiership Rout
Northampton Saints secured a record-breaking 90-0 victory over a heavily rotated Gloucester side, cementing their place in the Gallagher Premiership semi-finals. The dominant display at Franklin’s Gardens saw the league leaders run in an astonishing 14 tries, the highest points total by a home team in the competition’s history.
Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson, acknowledged the disparity in priorities between the two teams, with Gloucester focusing on the upcoming European Challenge Cup final.
“George Skivington (Gloucester head coach) is building towards a European final and next season, so there were different motivating factors,” Dowson explained. “It’s never nice to be on the end of a 90-0 humping, but we had a job to do.”
The Saints were relentless, with winger Ollie Sleightholme scoring a hat-trick. Tries from George Furbank, Fraser Dingwall, Curtis Langdon (2), Alex Mitchell, Alex Waller, Sam Matavesi (2), Emmanuel Iyogun, Alex Moon, and Tom James completed the rout.
Gloucester’s Skivington conceded that his side had struggled to recover after Northampton’s early onslaught.
“I knew momentum would go against us at some point and it would be hard to recover, but that was extremely painful,” he said.
The result secured a home semi-final for the league-leading Northampton Saints, while Gloucester’s focus shifts to their upcoming European Challenge Cup final.
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