Dan Biggar channels inner Carlos Spencer against Harlequins
Dan Biggar is an elite level Test fly-half, but he has never really been known for being too flashy. As fly-halves go, he is as dependable as they come, which is why Warren Gatland liked him so much in a Wales shirt.
But in this new Gallagher Premiership season of teams playing swashbuckling rugby, things changed for the Welshman on Sunday. The Saints have shared some clips of Biggar’s passing against Harlequins at the Stoop in round four, and many would be forgiven for thinking it was one of his Saints No10 predecessors, Carlos Spencer.
Through the legs passes and no-look behind the back passes are passes that are associated more with players like the legendary All Black than Biggar, but the current Saints fly-half showed his full bag of tricks in his side’s narrow loss to Quins. The British & Irish Lion has shown glimpses of passes like these in the past, but two in one match is rare.
Having fallen to a 14-0 deficit in the opening ten minutes, Northampton were more or less forced to go on the attack for the rest of the game, and came very close to pipping Quins in the dying seconds, losing 35-29. They did pick up two bonus points from the match though. Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson bemoaned his side’s slow start.
He said: “We were very slow coming out of the blocks, we were under pressure in the first scrum but fine in that area after that, but we went 7-0 down and then 14 after we lost possession after trying to play too wide too early.
“Then we were not clinical enough and need to be better, but we showed great character so it’s frustrating.
“It’s positive that we are creating lots of opportunities but we repeatedly turned the ball over in their 22 so it became an uphill battle as we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.
“The off-load is a great attacking weapon but we need to assess whether we throw it or not and that’s a problem for the coaches to consider.”
Take a look at Biggar’s passing:
Touches of class from Biggs 🤌
Our 10 pulled off a couple of beautiful passes yesterday afternoon. pic.twitter.com/uZyvkMrloD
— Northampton Saints 😇 (@SaintsRugby) October 3, 2022
