Noah Cato touches down as Saracens enjoy Wembley triumph

Saracens 19-16 Northampton
Noah Cato
Noah Cato is all smiles after scoring Saracens only try in their victory over Northampton Saints at Wembley. Photograph: Jed Leicester/Getty Images

It does not matter where you take the Premiership, particularly a fixture between two mid-table yeomen such as these, you know what you are going to get on the field. This was classic Premiership fare – eye-wateringly physical, tense and in doubt to the very end.

The crowd was made to sweat in the final two minutes as the video referee deliberated, at length, over a drive for the line by Soane Tonga'uiha that had seemingly won Northampton the game and rained on Saracens' parade, which, before the game, had been long and loud. Northampton were sure they had scored and it looked to the naked eye as if Tonga'uiha had just got the ball down on the line before it was ripped from him by a Saracen hand. It still looked that way after the replay. But the man who counted saw it otherwise and found in favour of Saracens.

An almighty cheer went up from that big crowd. For the second weekend running, Sarries had only just clung on to what was a handsome lead early in the second half. They are looking good under this new regime – hard and sharp of wit – but they will want to know why they are having to dig so deep to preserve these leads.

They would have been distraught to have had their big day ruined. Everything else had gone swimmingly, bar health and safety's decision to disallow the camel race before the match. Saracens have a record home crowd to chalk up, smashing the 19,000 they attracted to Vicarage Road for a league game in 1998. If they can coax even a couple of thousand of those who might not otherwise have done so to come to the more modest of their football venues, this win could prove valuable indeed. The sun shone and people were having fun, even before the video referee did his bit.

Mind you, all the razzmatazz of the build-up was just as well because there was not a huge amount of entertainment once the game got under way. Those collisions may have been ferocious, but the first half offered little more than that.

What bursts of coherence there were came mostly from Saracens and they were perhaps unlucky to go in at the break only 9-3 up, after Glen Jackson's two penalties had secured them the edge, the second coming when Juandre Kruger slapped the ball out of play with Noah Cato ready to pounce for a try. Kruger was lucky not to attract further punishment.

Karma was restored when Sarries scored a try they barely deserved two minutes into the second half. Northampton were pressing and had a juicy overlap. Cato stepped in and took Dylan Hartley in a challenge that was high and early, the ball went to ground and Cato galloped clear from 80 metres out.

Saints went at them again and Jon Clarke was worked over in the corner for a try that Shane Geraghty converted from the touchline. Suddenly, we had a game on our hands. It built to an appropriate climax with that controversial call at the end. But you make your own luck and Saracens will feel, in bringing the game to Wembley, they aimed high enough to deserve a bit.

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