Saints class shows

Last night saw Northampton Saints take a 36-19 victory at a sold out Kingston Park, but the scoreline doesn't reflect that in my opinion Red Bulls deserved something from the game.

Slow start

From kick off the first exit didn't go to plan after a fumble from Cruz at the base gave him less time to make his clearance. Unfortunately that made him rush his kick inviting pressure on from the attack. Saints scored and then scored again, at that point I feared for Red Bulls. The Northampton backs looked fluid and dangerous attacking and it looked like it could be a long night.

The party gets started at Kingston Park

Red Bulls character

To their credit the players dug in and put a shift in, weathering a Saints storm where they threatened to run away with the game. At this point Red Bulls hadn't really seen much ball, but they dug in and showed exactly the kind of heart and spirit that the north east public expects.

Red Bulls start to play a bit

Northampton got a deserved yellow card for the gargantuan Van Der Mescht, before then one of the main differences in the sides was the fluidity of the Saints attack compared to how stagnant Red Bulls looked. To their credit they did open up and Oli Spencer scored a really well taken try from a cross field kick.

This was followed up by a try for Amanaki Mafi, who I thought had his best game for Red Bulls last night, but more of him later. The half finished 21-12 to Northampton with Freeman scoring just before half-time, this was a bit of a sucker punch.

Old mates George McGuigan and Callum Chick enjoyed going against each other.

Mafi masterclass

As I've said above, I thought last night was his best game in a Red Bulls shirt, especially as he looked injured from the Northampton score at the end of the first half and continued to limp around the pitch for the rest of the game. He carried well and worked hard for the team. Hopefully for Red Bulls, any injury he looked to be carrying isn't too severe.

Twenty minute red

Van Der Mescht was correctly shown a second yellow which meant a twenty minute red card. My views on this are fairly clear, I can't stand it. If it's a red it's the rest of the game off with no replacement. It worked before, the sooner the game goes back to it the better.

Red Bull frustrations

Although they did come back into the game through a Stefan Coetzee try with his first touch in a Red Bulls shirt. I think he looked lively and hungry last night and looks to be another good signing. There were frustrations that Red Bulls couldn't capitalise on the twenty minute red card. There was a try disallowed for a tip tackle in the build up to the try for Red Bulls that had levelled the game. I think Tempest got that right to be fair, as frustrating as it is to have the conversion taken, the game set up well and then for it to be ruled out.

Mitchell masterclass

Alex Mitchell looked dangerous at scrum half for Northampton all game with his sniping around the ruck. He also used his skill set to win Northampton a couple of penalties later in the game by utilising a tired Red Bulls defence. He is a classy operator and I fully expect him to be wearing a starting England shirt in the autumn. Another one who impressed for Northampton was Alex Coles in the second row who scored a well taken try late in the game but worked hard all game.

After Red Bulls thought they'd levelled the game.

Composure

Looking back, I think there will be frustrations as although Saints took the game away late in the game there was chances for Red Bulls to win this game but crucial errors around set piece and knock ons cost them the chance to do this. I think they deserved a point from the game and will be irritated that they didn't get that, which is an improvement from last week at Sale where they didn't look like they deserved anything.

The other frustration I felt in The South Stand was that Red Bulls do have an ability to play and when they play they look good. But all too often the ball is slow and they either box kick or it goes to the backs who at times look surprised they have the ball and there doesn't look to be a plan.

A view from the stand

So Saints fully deserved their victory and ran away with it in the end. From a match experience point of view in The South Stand, there was still space around me yet this week there seemed to be more and more people stood in front of The South Stand to a point where it was single file to get through. The stewards to their credit were doing their best to move adults off the advertising at pitch side.

I know it's still early days but with the Red Bull marketing machine working a treat, they do maybe need to look to accelerate any stadium improvements they can do. I know with planning etc it can't happen overnight but from a fan experience point of view you don't want to start turning it into a negative experience for people.

It was also good to see Ben Stokes in attendance last night and made me think that if there are big signings to announce they could be announced like that in the stadium on a match day. The only thing I would add would be you could hear Andy Sixsmith loud and clear through the speakers in The South Stand but anyone he talks to needs to speak up as I couldn't hear any of them.

I thought Red Bulls gave everything last night and there is definitely some hope with this squad that they can get something from the season. Especially the games at Kingston Park need to be targeted, but you want to see them go to Harlequins next week and have a go at Quins. The next home game is a Prem Cup game against Leicester where I think there will be changes as some bodies will need a rest from the physicality they've gone through in the first few weeks of the season.