Replacement prop Alex Waller will go down in history as the man whose last-gasp try gave Northampton the 24-20 win over Saracens that saw them crowned them champions for the first time but the name Graham Hughes will also have its own special place in the hearts of the Franklin’s Gardens faithful.
Saracens were leading 20-17 with the clock heading into the red zone as both sets of exhausted players hammered into each other relentlessly just short of the Saracens line.
Saracens, desperate to get something from a superlative campaign having lost the Heineken Cup final a week ago and topped the regular season standings, looked to have done enough as their famed defence held firm.
However, one last surge on the 24th phase found some movement and a handful of Northampton players summoned just enough energy to celebrate what they felt was a try.
Referee JP Doyle consulted Hughes, the Television Match Official (TMO), and almost 82,000 frazzled fans were left stewing. The action was shown from a variety of angles on the big screens, with none of the pictures looking conclusive.
Eventually, to the joy of Northampton and the utter despair of Saracens, Hughes told the referee to award the try.
The TMO was already off the Saracens Christmas card list after an earlier intervention that also went against the London side and caused confusion to most of those watching.
Ken Pisi had scored Northampton’s second try to give them a 14-9 lead when Saracens surged into an attack that ended with Owen Farrell touching down what would have been their opening try.
The referee gave the try but Farrell needed treatment that caused a delay in Alex Goode taking the conversion.
While he waited, replays of the try were shown in the stadium, raising howls of protest from the Northampton fans who detected a forward pass by Goode during the build-up.
Unprompted by the referee and seemingly against protocol, the TMO suggested to Doyle he might want to review the score. Doyle did so, sending it back to Hughes, who disallowed it.
With Saracens fans also claiming a forward pass during the build-up to Pisi’s try, the officials did not help their cause.
Doyle said that on Wednesday he had attended a briefing where the overriding message was "get it right".
Referring to the disallowed try Doyle told Reuters: "There's time to do it. Until the conversion is kicked it's still there and the main thing is to get the right decision.
"The whole point of the TMO is to get the big decisions right in the big games and that's what happened today."
Regarding the decisive try of the match, Doyle said the Northampton players were screaming at him that they had scored but he could not see.
"That's what (TMO officials) are there for. It's the biggest game of the season. It's right that we take the time to get these things right and I think today fully justifies the use of the expanded TMO system."
'PAINFUL FINISH'
"It was a painful way for the game to finish," Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall told a news conference. "Even at the end, JP Doyle said it (the TV replay) wasn’t clear.
"We felt that nothing went our way. The players were unbelievably courageous and we played well but it felt like one of those days.
"Not much went our way, obviously the two TMO calls. We had to keep coming back to win it again and again and I’m unbelievably proud."
Equally proud was his opposite number Jim Mallinder, who is celebrating a wonderful double for Northampton having won the Amlin Challenge Cup eight days ago .
"It’s been a roller coaster seven years," he said. "We’ve come close – a Heineken Cup and Premiership final when we’ve been on the wrong end of it - so it’s fantastic to be on the right end of it."
Mallinder said he had faith his players would keep going strongly and confirmed that they did know that a drop goal at the end – which they did not even seem to consider – would have been enough to win the match with the scores level by virtue of their 2-1 try advantage at the time.
"We trust our fitness and I backed us playing to the very end – though I didn’t think that would be beyond 80 minutes," he said.
"We’ve done it before, as we did against Leicester in the semi-final when we showed a lot of courage and belief to come from behind and we’ve done it again today.
"The players knew the scenario; we’d told the key decision-makers in the couple of minutes we had at the end of normal time.
"They didn’t go for it (drop-goal) because there was a belief in the team that if we looked after the ball and got phases we’d score under the posts.
"And to finish like that, I suppose it's fairytales."
It was a moment to savour for club captain Dylan Hartley, who came on after an hour having not played since March due to injury and returned to the scene of last year's final defeat by Leicester when the hooker was sent off for abusing the referee.
"I haven't slept all week and now a finish like that, I don't think I've got any hairs or fingernails left,” he said after hoisting the trophy.
"It means everything to win it. We were so close last year. I'm proud to do it, not just for the town, but for all these special people here."
(Editing by Rex Gowar)
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