Northampton 15 Gloucester 3: Saints turn on power to put Stephen Myler in range

Yyou had to feel for poor Paddy McAllister, the loose-head prop from Northern Ireland who moved to Kingsholm at the end of last season

Northampton's Stephen Myler kicks a penalty as Northampton Saints beat Gloucester (Reuters)

Northampton, champions of England two seasons ago and fallers at the punultimate hurdle back in the spring, are not obviously in prime condition to mount a meaningful challenge for honours this time around: on the most recent available evidence, they are less than wholly convincing in too many areas for it to be a vintage campaign in the making. But some proper grunt up front and a dead-eyed marksman still goes a long way and with Stephen Myler in hot form from the kicking tee, they duly prevailed over Gloucester tonight.

Billy Twelvetrees and his men were a distant second best in every department in losing by squillions at this venue last season, so the fact that they were able to identify a single problem on this occasion was progress of a kind. Unfortunately for the West Countrymen, the scrum was the issue – and on a truly filthy night in the East Midlands, with wind and rain sweeping in from all directions, the set-piece was bound to be a crucial theatre of action.

Under the circumstances, you had to feel for poor Paddy McAllister, the loose-head prop from Northern Ireland who moved to Kingsholm at the end of last season after a short spell in French club rugby. He conceded three early penalties to the England front-rower Kieran Brookes and was substituted after 22 minutes – not so much a blow to the ego as a root-and-branch humiliation.

Brookes was having a whale of a time early on: to rub salt in the Gloucester wounds, he won a ruck decision off his opposite number John Afoa for good measure, giving the punishingly accurate Myler another sighting of the sticks. Gloucester had more of a say in the second quarter, but despite a long-range penalty from Twelvetrees, they still turned round half a dozen points to the bad.

The visitors might have turned things upside down on 54 minutes when Mike Haywood’s fumble on attack gave Jonny May, the quickest wing in the country, the tantalising glimpse of a run-in from distance. Uncharacteristically, May chose to kick ahead rather than back his pace and footwork - a decision that made life unnecessarily easy for the covering Ben Foden. In that moment, Gloucester’s chance slipped away.

Myler’s fourth and fifth penalties, awarded against the Gloucester flanker Matt Kvesic for offside in the first instance and the beleaguered Cherry and White front-rowers at the scrum in the second, were the inevitable upshots. The outside-half fluffed a sixth kick late on, but by that stage the thing was done and dusted.

As a final insult, Gloucester had to summon the miserable McAllister from the bench when his replacement, Yann Thomas, was sent to the sin bin for repeated scrum infringements. It never rains but it pours, especially on a wet night in Northampton.

Scorers: Northampton – Penalties: Myler 5. Gloucester – Penalty: Twelvetrees.

Northampton: B Foden; A Tuala, G Pisi, L Burrell (J J Hanrahan 58), G North; S Myler, K Fotuali’i (L Dickson 49); A Waller (E Waller 67), M Haywood (M Williams 76), K Brookes (P Hill 67), M Paterson (V Matfield 58), C Day, J Gibson (T Harrison 67), T Wood (capt), S Dickinson.

Gloucester: R Cook; C Sharples, B Meakes (H Purdy 66), J Hook, J May; B Twelvetrees (capt), W Heinz (G Laidlaw 56); P McAllister (Y Thomas 22), R Hibbard (D Dawidiuk 64), J Afoa (P Doran-Jones 59), T Savage (M Galarza 50), J Thrush, R Moriarty, M Kvesic (J Rowan 63), B Morgan (S Kalamafoni 50).

Referee: G Garner (Warwickshire).