Northampton hope their extraordinary semi-final win over Leinster will be a springboard to further personal and collective success in the coming weeks. The Saints director of rugby, Phil Dowson, also believes several of his players have “undoubtably” enhanced their British & Irish Lions selection chances before Thursday’s tour squad announcement.
Henry Pollock and Fin Smith, along with hat-trick try-scorer Tommy Freeman, could not have made a better impression on a high-pressure stage and Dowson believes Pollock’s exuberance is beneficial to any team. “It’s infectious and spreads throughout the team,” said Dowson. “Leinster are one of the best sides in Europe and the world. For our players to perform on that stage and execute under that pressure speaks volumes for them.”
Pollock, who won his first senior England cap in March, was understandably ecstatic afterwards. “I tell you what … that was a battle,” said Pollock. “Jesus. I’ve never played in a game that hard in my life. That’s what dreams are made of. As a boy I grew up watching this competition. To do it with my boyhood club, to get in the final … honestly, it’s getting a bit emotional talking about it, because it’s so special.”
“This is what sport’s about. This is why you play the game. You do it because you love it. You love the fans, the atmosphere, the sport. Going up against the best back row in the world. I couldn’t ask for much more. I’m so proud. The team were just amazing, 1 to 23. Bring on Cardiff! All week we’ve been saying: ‘Why not us?’
Smith said he and his team had been motivated by the general expectation that Leinster would brush them aside. “All week we were reading stuff: Leinster by 35, Leinster by 40. We looked at that and thought: ‘Bring it on.’ The fact we are so close makes it all the sweeter. No one else believed. No one else believed. We just sat, stayed nice and calm all week. We said we had a job to do, and we turned up and did it.”
He also hopes the result will now influence this week’s Lions’s selection. “One hundred per cent. Wait and see. I don’t think we did ourselves any harm today. Look, I’m going to give you a boring answer but fingers crossed. We’ll be watching that telly but we definitely didn’t do ourselves any harm.”
Freeman will definitely be on the plane next month but is currently more focused on ensuring Northampton press on and win the Champions Cup. “We know if we get our game on the pitch, we can take anyone on. They said Leinster by 30 but here we are. If we put our game on the pitch, we stress defences. We ran for each other, we showed love for each other, we showed heart. We did that for 80 minutes and we got the result.”
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Leinster’s director of rugby, Leo Cullen, described the outcome as “a pretty horrific feeling” but paid tribute to the opposition. “Northampton were excellent. [But] often when we fall behind we get a little bit jittery, don’t we? It’s a pretty sombre place in the dressing room. It’s one of those games you’d like to have another opportunity at straight away.”
