Northampton Saints gave their fans something to cheer about after their Champions Cup semifinal defeat with a 90-0 hammering at home to Gloucester.
The Saints gave Leinster an almighty scare at Croke Park with their pulsating attack and that attack was on form at Franklin's Gardens as they scored 14 tries with Ollie Sleightholme bagging himself a hat-trick.
Gloucester did field a rotated squad as Head Coach George Skivington made 12 changes from their victory over Benetton last week to reach the final of the Challenge Cup. That was evident very quickly as George Furbank was already crossing over the line with less than a minute on the clock.
It only got worse from there and Gloucester fans were rightly annoyed at their team's performance and their annoyance would've gone up tenfold when they elected to go for the posts for a penalty while they were 80-0 down with just over 10 minutes to play.
It was a very bizarre decision with a plausible motive for it being to kill a minute off the clock as they knew the match was already lost. What made the decision even worse was that Atkinson missed the kick. It was a tough position to be in for the young out-half and the miss really summed up Gloucester's day.
Oh my 90 points for Saints against Gloucester. At 80-0 down Gloucester went for posts from a penalty and missed too! 🤦🏼
— Andy Goode (@AndyGoode10) May 11, 2024
It wasn't a good day to be a Gloucester fan and their captain Lewis Ludlow shared their anger in a statement on his Twitter for the fans.
We know @gloucesterrugby supporters are angry and embarrassed. So are we. That was no where near good enough for this shirt. We won’t shy away from why today happened, but, we have a massive two weeks ahead and we need you with us please! 🍒⚪️❤️
— Lewis Ludlow (@LewisLudlow94) May 11, 2024
Speaking after the match George Skivington talked about his decision to make 12 changes against the league leaders Northampton.
You cannot do it all and that is the decision I made and people either like it or lump it.
I don’t regret what I did and some teams took some hidings at the beginning of the season. I don’t think our integrity can be challenged.
With a European final against the HollywoodBets Sharks in two weeks Gloucester will need to turn this around if they want to bring silverware to Kingsholm.
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