Northampton Rugby Video Ranking: 5 / five
France Gets Turned Down By Dylan Hartley
Courtney Lawes and Dylan Hartley have a new deal with the current champions: Northampton. These two are among those seven players who have already signed with the Saints recently.
The hooker and skipper of the club Hartley was previously linked to the fact that he might move to Montpellier, the French club after the World Cup next year but now it is confirmed that he will with Franklin’s Gardens on a three-year contract.
Since he joined in 2005, he has had about 200 first-team appearances and has also earned 61 England caps and Courtney who joined in 2007 has had 36 appearances on nationals. Hartley had mentioned in his column in The Sun that it is true that he was offered a position on the French team Montpellier which would have paid him a lot more money but then again, money is not everything in life.
He said that he doesn’t want to come about as someone great but he is a believer in loyalty and it means a lot to him. He admires men or players who stay or stick with a club, be it in any sport and if he gets the opportunity to end his professional career with Saints, it will make him very proud.
The Saints have shown a great deal of loyalty towards him and particularly in the times when he was having disciplinary issues. It is great that he has got an opportunity to pay back that faith they showed on him.
He says that he is well aware of the fact that being with the Saints mean that he will still be eligible for not only the competition of next year but also the England in the run-up to the 2019 World Cup. He wouldn’t have joined Montpellier until after the world cup anyways.
Saracens vs. Sale Sharks in the Premiership
The start of the Premiership event saw Saracens off to a good competition. Their start has been fantastic. Lead of 30-7 was awarded a try of penalty by the kick of Charlie Hodgson. The deficit was reduced by Tom Brady after the break. Bonus point by Sarries was secured by Richard Barrington.
Later Sale was given the chance to try out penalty as they had scored five point. In the premiership it was the Sarries who were unbeaten. Bath was defeated in the championships. The ideal start was provided by Goods by Saracens. Jonathan Mills was side stepped. Hodgson got boost with 10-0. Vadim Cobilas gave the much needed break but sadly it got finished by a score from the Brady. Goode was shown a yellow card as he was coming in the side. Line out drive by Sales was impressive. The victory achieved by them was due to Goods.
Mark McCall, the director of rugby Saracens pointed out that it was the season’s first home game and the intensity shown by them was pretty good. The fundamentals were too good to put them in pressure. Overall the performance was too good. On the other hand the director of the rugby team of Sales stated that It was n the first half itself which was quite brutal. The Saracens showed what being in race meant. The opportunities were not grabbed properly by the Sale Sharks. The Sale Sharks however believed that it was no pressure at all. 40 points were conceded by the Sharks which is disappointing.
It was a hand on match and one sided show by the Saracens. Sale Sharks have to learn a lot to put together the pieces in the next event. Eye to eye match will be what the Sale Sharks will be rooting for.