Bath, meanwhile, bucked a trend of their own when, in the first couple of minutes, both Danny Grewcock and Andrew Higgins, tempestuous sorts with yellow-card material in their DNA, chose not to throw big right hands in the direction of opponents doing their level best to wind them up. Who was it who called the Premiership predictable? Step forward Andy Robinson, and explain these developments to us. The England coach has been fiercely critical of standards in the bread-and-butter domestic game, but even he must have been partial to some of the skills displayed by the home side - not to mention their tempo, which was above and beyond anything that could reasonably have been expected in the conditions. But for the catching talents of Mefin Davies and Anthony Allen, both of whom would have done justice to the first-slip position, neither Jack Adams nor Olly Morgan would have crossed the Bath line. The defeat, sealed by Andre Pretorius' late penalty, stopped Henry's men's winning run on 15, two short of the Test record set by Colin Meads' All Blacks between 1966 and 1969. "When you've won 15 in a row human nature ensures you're not as hungry as a team like the Springboks were," Henry said. "We've had a great year and we wanted to finish with a clean slate, but they had greater desire than us.
They were up against it and they did the business."South Africa's Jake White said: "It probably keeps the wolves from my door for a week." Five defeats in a row, White's interest in the England ?te rugby director job and controversy over "transformation" - picking black players - have put the Springbok coach under pressure."If you consider where we were a couple of weeks ago," he said - referring to a 49-0 annihilation by Australia and other calamities - "this is one of our biggest wins as a group." South Africa conclude the Tri-Nations against Australia in Johannesburg next week.. Graham Henry reacted to New Zealand's 21-20 Tri-Nations defeat in Rustenberg on Saturday by saying his team had been "not as hungry" as the Springboks. Before the Saints get carried away, they will need to find some backs.Northampton: Tries Quinlan, Robinson, Cohen; Conversions Reihana 2; Penalties Reihana 2. Newcastle: Tries Elliott, Wilkinson, Woods; Conversion Wilkinson; Penalties Wilkinson 2.Northampton: B Reihana (capt); S Lamont, J Clarke (R Kydd, 26), D Quinlan, B Cohen; C Spencer, J Howard (M Robinson, 56); T Smith, S Thompson, C Budgen (S Emms, 69), D Browne (M Lord, 54), C Short, P Tupai (M Hopley, 69), D Fox, M Easter.Newcastle: M Burke (capt); T May, J Noon, T Flood, A Elliott (J Rudd, 74); J Wilkinson, H Charlton (J Grindal, 60); M Ward (J Golding, 60), A Long (D Thompson, 60), D Wilson (R Morris, 40), A Perry, A Buist, B Wilson (M McCarthy, 54), B Woods, P Dowson.Referee: R Debney (Leicester).. First Ben Woods got a try, then Ben Cohen scored one for the home side, which Reihana converted There was still more to come. With time running out Wilkinson was wide with a penalty attempt, and then Flood fluffed a dropped goal. The Northampton faithful could hardly believe their luck.Having dominated the first half before conceding three tries after the break, it was left to the home captain, Reihana, to seal the victory with the conversion of Cohen's try.
He converted the second but missed the first, so the score became 18-13 to the visitors.The scrum-half Mark Robinson was then the beneficiary of a long period of Northampton scrums on the Newcastle line, crossing for a try which Reihana failed to convert.The excitement continued. With the last play of the half, Wilkinson kicked a long-range penalty to make it 13-6.Reihana missed with the opportunity to make that 16-6 before the Falcons made the next five minutes their own. Anthony Elliott was first to cross, in the left corner and beating Reihana, and then Wilkinson sped over for his own try. Newcastle were not going to benefit by many moments of this sort, and they knew it. When Wilkinson kicked a penalty there was some relief.Northampton, on the other hand, were playing with increased confidence. They had the chance to repeat their earlier five-metre scrum, and at first it looked as if they would, though somehow the Falcons saved the difficulty.