8 January 2012
Northampton put 24 points past Quins to seal victory at Franklin’s Gardens. The win puts the Heineken Cup runners-up into third place in the Aviva Premiership table. Jim Mallinder was pleased with his side's performance and said "Defensively we shut them up and stopped them playing, which of course they are good at, so we're very pleased.”
Sixways was full to capacity for Worcester v Gloucester in a local derby match. Tries from Andy Goode and Marcel Garvey for the Warriors sealed the win whilst Jonny May's try gained Gloucester a losing bonus point.
Gloucester boss, Bryan Redpath, said “I felt that Freddie Burns directed us around well in the first half, but in the second half our retention of possession was poor and we tried to throw the ball around a bit too much.”
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| Roger Wilson - Northampton Saints |
Redpath added "We have to come out fighting against Quins next week, we have nothing to lose, but we need to reflect on this week's performance and make sure our mindset is really focused."
London Irish narrowly beat Sale Sharks with 21-19 victory. The score was equally as close at half time when Irish led by just 12 points to 10.
Sale Sharks boss, Steve Diamond, was unhappy with the referee and said "I'm concerned about the referee being absolutely right about the penalty at the scrum.
"I'm not whinging but if the referee is going to make his interpretations, let it be consistent. That's what we are after.” Toby Booth thought the win could have been a little easier for his side and said “"If we had been more clinical, we could have made it more comfortable.”
The stand-out player of the weekend was Billy Twelvetrees. The young Leicester fly-half kicked all of his side's 29 points against Wasps, including two tries. Other strong performances came from Worcester's Andy Goode who led his side's comeback and the ever-improving Owen Farrell performed well yet again for Saracens.
Other results included Saracens beating Bath at Vicarage Road, Newcastle losing yet again against Exeter and Leicester beating Wasps 29-11 at Welford Road.
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