Saints stun Red Bulls

Friday night saw Prem Cup action at Kingston Park as Newcastle Red Bulls took on Northampton Saints.

Fast, promising start for Red Bulls

Red Bulls started really well when they stole the kick off from Northampton. They then attacked with speed and assurance. This lead to Harrison Obatoyinbo running a really nice arcing line around his man to score showing his pace. This was converted by Brett Connon and Red Bulls had a promising 7-0 lead early on.

What happened?

As I said it was a really promising start for Red Bulls as they looked dynamic and had their tails up, it all went wrong from there. What was witnessed by the crowd in attendance was an error strewn performance that on occasions showed some good Red Bulls play followed up by an error. This was summed up in the second half when Tom Christie had to catch the ball and he was in for a try, Christie has been excellent since his arrival but it summed up a Red Bulls performance lacking intensity.

Credit to Northampton

Northampton did play some really nice stuff, Belleau controlled the game and when he chose to run he looked dangerous. Northampton scored forty two unanswered points with their trademark free flowing style combined with a lacklustre Red Bulls defence putting the game well out of reach for Red Bulls. They thoroughly deserved their 49-21 victory.

Northampton score in the second half.

Red Bulls finished strongly

The game was gone but Red Bulls did finish strongly scoring two late tries through Richard Palframan and Ollie Fletcher, they do deserve some credit for that. I thought Joe Davis added some real zip and pace into the game when he came on.

Usher stands out

In what was a very flat performance from Red Bulls, Oscar Usher stood out. This has been a breakthrough season for Usher and he's constantly been one of the standout performers for Red Bulls. Unfortunately for him there wasn't that standard of performance in Red Bull shirts last night.

Lots of rumours

Red Bulls fans will be hoping that rumours of players departing and those coaches leaving won't have unsettled the squad. It looks as though by now most of the players will know where they stand for next season, supporters will hope that won't have an impact on this group as there's still a top eight place and in The Gallagher Prem to play for and a Challenge Cup run to be had.

Prem Cup re-think?

I used to like the Powergen Cup and various knockout guises before that with a Twickenham final to play for. I can't get onboard with this format, it just feels like fixture filling. The sooner they can try to go back to twelve Prem teams and a knockout cup with Prem teams joining at the last sixteen the better. Maybe I'm wrong and people enjoy the format, but it's not for me.

Flat on the pitch, flat off it too

Everything about last night just felt flat, I was in the North Stand youth club where even though there wasn't many in the stewards didn't bother stopping people blocking the stares. There was races across the stand at one point, groups of kids gathering at the back. Someone senior from the club had to confiscate a bottle of vodka from a group of kids.

The whole thing was summed up when two pitch invaders got on towards the end. You know it's been one of those nights when a dog in the crowd gets the biggest cheer of the night.

All's not lost for Red Bulls

I know this has been a fairly scathing summary of things last night but last night was the least important competition that Red Bulls are left in this season. There's still eighth place in the league to play for, a top eight finish would bring Champions Cup qualification and some of the big guns in Europe could be visiting Tyneside. There's also a knockout game against La Rochelle to look forward to. Given the recruitment there's a lot to look forward to next season and better times are no doubt ahead.

Next up

There's a Prem Cup game at Harlequins next week where you'd think there could be more rotation given there's no chance of progress and a break after.

League action returns to Kingston Park on 27th March as Exeter Chiefs are the visitors for a 19:45 kick off.