At 7.16pm, just around the time those Sunday night blues kick in, England's Champions Cup cohort finally had something to cheer about. It was not pretty but after seven of their domestic rivals had failed to claim victory in the opening round of the competition, Northampton survived a sizeable scare from Cardiff to put one on the board for the Prem.
It might be harsh on some of the performances this weekend – Gloucester were immense in drawing with Bordeaux, Exeter mightily unlucky to be beaten in Toulouse – but zero wins from eight would have been a crushing embarrassment for a league that has been feted for its attacking exploits this season.
As it was, first-half tries from youngsters Toby Thame and James Pater and second-half scores from the excellent George Hendy and Fraser Dingwall were ultimately enough to see off Cardiff. Credit to the visitors, however, who were less than impressed with having a game scheduled just five days after this fixture and felt forced to heavily rotate as a result. They scored two impressive tries and midway through the second half had Northampton fans fearing an upset.
Cardiff's frustrations are all the more understandable given their excellent home record last season and their determination to continue it this campaign. Accordingly, the head coach, Corniel van Zyl, rang the changes, leaving the back-rowers Alex Mann and James Botham, as well as the captain, Liam Belcher, out altogether, while Callum Sheedy and Josh Adams were among the replacements. There was a first appearance for Taulupe Faletau since March, however. Northampton opted to chop and change too. Tommy Freeman, Henry Pollock, Alex Coles and Emmanuel Iyogun were left out of the matchday 23 while Fin Smith and Fraser Dingwall were named on the bench.
Sideways rain will always be a leveller and the opening 10 minutes left you longing for the sugar rush of last weekend's 119-point try-fest. The first moment of quality yielded the first try. Hendy swerved his way through the Cardiff defence and charged clear, feeding the supporting Alex Mitchell, whose floated inside pass found Pater. The 19-year-old full-back still had work to do but wriggled his way into a position to dot the ball down.
Saints' second try came after Rory Hutchinson's inventive diagonal kick forced a Northampton scrum five metres out. Mitchell fed Hutchinson, who shipped on to Thame and there was no stopping the inside-centre. Anthony Belleau was on target with the conversion for a second time.
A period of scrappiness ensued and Cardiff certainly had their moments. They thought they had scored after a clever strike play near halfway put the hulking winger Mason Grady through a gap and while he could not quite get clear, the second row Tom Manz was on hand. The referee, Jeremy Rozier, at the suggestion of the TMO, disallowed the score, insisting the ball had been dislodged in the tackle. Undeterred, Cardiff came again but with Belcher among those absent, their lineout left plenty to be desired.
An interception from the covering Pater denied Cardiff a certain score on the right but the visitors kept hammering away and after a tap-and-go penalty, the outside-centre Harri Millard had the strength to force his way over the line. Jarrod Evans's conversion brought Cardiff to within a score.
Saints had plenty of possession to re-establish a commanding lead but the ball went to ground too often for Phil Dowson's liking and when Belleau was sent to the sin-bin for infringing near his own line on the hour mark, Cardiff could sniff parity on the scoreboard. Grady was worked into space on the right to bring the visitors to within two but Evans, under pressure from the charging Ollie Sleightholme, missed the conversion.
Saints swiftly made him pay and after Cardiff failed to clear their lines on the restart, Dingwall put Hendy through a gap and the Northampton winger juggled the ball towards the line before gathering just in time to score.
Hendy then rubber-stamped his fine performance by chasing down Adams on the left. The 31-year-old Wales winger has lost a yard or two of pace but it was a significant intervention from Hendy, effectively extinguishing Cardiff's hopes of victory before Dingwall added a fourth for Northampton at the death.