London Welsh revived memories of their glory days with a spirited performance against a far superior Northampton side. If Saints had not sat back each time they scored, the gap might have been more of a chasm between the Premiership One and Two sides.
All Saints had to do was weather the predictable early burn by the Exiles before opening up and that was the way it went. There had been a festival feel to proceedings long before the start. Old Deer Park filled with the smoke of barbecues and with Exiles fans eager for the kick-off. It had been a long time since there was much for home fans to cheer in the Cup competition.Their red-shirted heroes did their best for almost half an hour, bristling at every confrontation, grabbing the lion’s share of possession and allowing just a trickle of ball to the opposition. This was their ninth appearance at the quarter-final stage of the competition, compared with Northampton’s 10th.On paper, not much between the sides, on grass, quite a lot more. Even so a famished Northampton could do little but watch and wait in that first half-hour, when Welsh got perilously close to breaching the line on a couple of occasions.Inspired by the belligerence of Buster White and the awesome tackling and ball-winning ability of their captain, Luke Jones, Welsh kept Saints more often halted than marching.

These great logs of men spat and crackled in the flames of the Welsh cause as they attempted to pull off a Cup shock.In the end though it was Saints’ propensity to give away penalties which caused them to fall behind. The Exiles fly-half, Andy Lee, knocked over two kicks before Saints had gathered their wits. Then suddenly, just as if someone had doused the London Welsh side with a high-pressure hose, the home fires were extinguished. It coincided with Lee’s fluffed third penalty attempt.Thereafter Northampton were firmly in control, at least of the match if not their tempers. One or two niggles flared up and the prop Martin Scelzo looked anything but saint-like as he appeared to attempt an illegal piece of footwork on an Exile. He escaped with a caution, but the lock Jon Phillips and White did not escape.Their attempt to knock the stuffing out of each other earned them a spell in the cooler, by which time Saints were up and running.

Andy Northey, the England wing Ben Cohen and Scelzo had already crossed the Welsh line, with Paul Grayson converting all three tries.When the England fly-half was replaced by Alistair Hepher there was more of the same, Nick Beal back in serious action after a few weeks’ lay-off scored the fourth try and Hepher himself touched down the fifth, converting both.It looked extremely one-sided and in truth it was. Luke Jones did score a deserved try for the Exiles and the replacement Paul Carr added another in injury time, but the reality of the modern game is that the top guns rarely get shot down. The home supporters were left with a few more stirring memories of Exile heroics, a great deal of honour, but little else.London Welsh: A Jones (N Mardon, 66); P Shaw, S Roskell, S Frost, V Going; A Lee, D Edwards (J Phillip, 76); I Buckett (P Carr, 70), G Botterman (G French, 71), I Dunston, C Langley (A Johansen, 68), E Moors (P Carr, 60; L Hall for Carr, 76), M White (D Ramsey, 65-68, 75), C Alexander, L Jones (capt).Northampton: N Beal; J Sleightholme (C Moir, 69), A Northey, M Allen, B Cohen; P Grayson (A Hepher, 57), D Malone; G Pagel, F Mendez (S Walter, 57), M Scelzo, J Phillips, T Rodber (A Newman, 51), D Mackinnon, P Lam (capt), S Holmes.Referee: C Rees (London).. Twelve years is a long time to wait for revenge but Bristol, or at least some of their more loyal supporters, enjoyed it none the less when they reached the semi-finals of the Tetley’s Bitter Cup with a praiseworthy victory in a cracking match at the Memorial Ground. Twelve years is a long time to wait for revenge but Bristol, or at least some of their more loyal supporters, enjoyed it none the less when they reached the semi-finals of the Tetley’s Bitter Cup with a praiseworthy victory in a cracking match at the Memorial Ground.
Harlequins, who beat Bristol 28-22 in the final of this competition in 1988, have spent most of the intervening years living up to their image of being perennial wasters, the City slickers who can’t finalise a deal. However, they usually have a big game or two in their locker each season, and this was one of them.With the wind at their backs in the second half they hit the front and were looking good, but Bristol, recent winners over Northampton in the Allied Dunbar Premiership, are in prime form. Their forwards raised the pace, and two tries after the interval and a 15-point contribution from the South African stand-off Henry Honiball got them home, but they did not have a lot to spare.It became obvious that Quins meant business when their player-coach, Zinzan Brooke, who has been more coach, less player for most of the season, ran through his full repertoire of footballing skills.