Northampton Saints’ awful European Champions Cup campaign came to an almost inevitable end last night as they went down to a 26-17 defeat by Montpellier.
Nemani Nadolo, the Montpellier wing, was named man of the match as the giant Fijian’s brute force saw him destroy Northampton’s defence to score two tries of his own and create another. Nadolo’s second try late on secured a bonus point for Montpellier that means they can still qualify for the quarter-finals as one of the three best runners-up if results go their way today.
“We had a few chances and in the second half we probably didn’t win enough ball and there was one outstanding performance from Nadolo,” Northampton’s director of rugby Jim Mallinder said. “I thought he was absolutely on fire so a lot of credit has to go to him and the way he played.”
Saints scored tries in either half through Lee Dickson and Tom Kessell but never looked like pulling off the huge victory that would have kept alive their slim hopes of progressing.