Saints slip away in style

West Hartlepool 12

Northampton 21

NORTHAMPTON'S belated belief in the virtue of self-help and the value of youth, though sufficient to produce an emphatic victory at Brierton Lane, was not enough to save them. A wretched start to a dispiriting campaign meant that although April was by far the most productive segment in their season - with three wins and only a single-point loss at Kingsholm - Saints' destiny was no longer in their own hands.

Harlequins' defeat of Gloucester ensured that Northampton collected the solitary relegation place and returned to League Two, five years after they were promoted as champions at a time when West Hartlepool were still struggling to get out of League Three.

It would be easy to attribute Saints' decline to the England edict which prohibited members of their World Cup squad playing. But West were without Scotland's Rob Wainwright and Derrick Patterson, while their outstanding flanker Troy Jaques returned to Australia once West's status was guaranteed with victory at Bristol last week.

With no Martin Bayfield, Peter Walton or Tim Rodber to bolster their pack Saints lacked height, weight and experience. But in Grant Seely at No8, prop Matt Volland and the stringy Alastair Hepher there is hope for the future, as Northampton's director of rugby Ian McGeechan was quick to endorse.

"Our youngsters have come of age this month," declared the former British Lions coach. "We now have a hard core of young players who showed today that they can manage without the internationals."

For more than an hour it was a game long on excitement but desperately short of real quality. West conceded too many penalties and produced too few attacking ideas. Paul Grayson - at full-back for the luckless Hunter - kicked a first-half penalty, and Hepher, Grayson's deputy, dropped a goal to press Saints' claims.

Tries by Seely and Matt Allen, the second converted by Grayson, took Northampton to 18-0, and effectively out of reach, before West replied. In the last four minutes, Steve Cook and Owen Evans got West's tries. But Grayson had the last word with his second penalty.

West Hartlepool: T Stimpson; O Evans, A Elwine, P Hodder,(capt), S Jones; K Whitaker, S Cook; P Lancaster, T Herbert, P Beal, J Dixon, K Westgarth, J Whittaker, A Brown, P Evans.

Northampton: P Grayson; C Moir, R MacNaiuhton. M Allen, H Thorneycroft; A Hepher, D Elkington, (capt); M Volland, A Clarke, G Pearce, J Phillips, G Wesbster, S Foale, B Pountney, G Seely.

Referee: S Lander (Liverpool)