England greats Ben Youngs and Dan Cole have sifted through the wreckage of Northampton’s latest Gallagher Prem hammering at Leicester.

The retired Tigers duo revelled in the spectacle of their former team coming good in last Saturday’s second half at Welford Road, enjoying seeing Geoff Parling’s team turn a wet weather slog of a 3-7 deficit into a storming 28-7 win.

A major talking point was the on-pitch bust-up that happened after the blowing of the half-time whistle and the acrimony – of which Ollie Chessum arguing with Henry Pollock – continued up the terrace steps before the players reached the dressing rooms.

Leicester returned the more fired-up team and they took control with two tries by the time Pollock was subbed off 12 minutes into the second half.

“Basically every article I’ve seen on this game is not about the game…”

Reflecting on the shemozzle, Youngs suggested on the latest episode of For the Love of Rugby: “Sometimes in derby games and big fixtures you need something like where it just sparks a little bit.

“It’s all a bit of pantomime and everything like that but it just like reinforces and resets everyone because it was a really scrappy first half like. It was pretty messy, dysfunctional and it just brought that edge and a bit of laser focus for Leicester. They came out in the second half and simplified the game plan. In those conditions you got to make it simple and in the end then just completely outmuscled Saints.

“You kick, you chase, you hustle, you win penalties, your set-piece gets on top, you eek easy metres through penalties and ultimately you want to put a team in those conditions to chase the game. Saints were having to chase it and ultimately you create more on the back of them overplaying, over-chasing, squandering opportunities and it sort of invited the scoreboard pressure.”

After Youngs shared this match overview, Cole wanted to drill down into Pollock’s performance and why he couldn’t do anything to stop the momentum irrevocably shifting to Leicester.

“We should probably touch on Pollock because basically every article I’ve seen on this game is not about the game,” he said. “It’s about the half-time scuffle, which involved Henry Pollock, and Henry Pollock brings a lot of eyes to the game and so people want to know what he’s doing.

“Him being involved at half-time, it actually probably sparked Leicester back into life. In retrospect, you go like, ‘Oh yeah, Pollock got it wrong because Leicester sparked up’. It might not have happened.

“Leicester might have sparked up (anyway); we’ll never know. So, you can’t blame Leicester’s second half performance purely on him, but he will get blamed for it. But he came off at 52 minutes… It’s obviously tactical, but was it just the wrong game for him? Was it conditions or what?

“With his ability to jackal, you look at those conditions and think his ability to get over a ball, sometimes in those games this is what probably Saints as a whole needed.

“You don’t need them to be superstars, but you need a jackal from Pollock, you need half-backs to put you in the right areas of the field and that’s where Saints didn’t have the biggest game players. Not saying they had to be superstars to win this game, but they just didn’t have an impact that you’d want on a derby game like this.

Youngs replied: “The Leicester big players that you needed to stand up, your Chessum, your (Joe) Heyes definitely did. Freddie (Steward), they stood up, but JJ van der Mescht came on as a (Saints) sub and you’re looking at the conditions leading up to it, why would you not start him? Like big, big presence, why would you not have him in there?

“But coming back to Pollock, those conditions are minging and that’s where someone – I know he doesn’t play for them and he’s injured at the moment – like an Underhill, how good is he in those conditions?

“Like a Tom Curry, how good is he in those? It suits him, but then on a dry track it would suit Pollock more, so it’s one of those. It’s a good luxury for England because they have got variety in terms across that back-row. It’s so competitive… but it just wasn’t his [Pollock’s] sort of day. These things happen.”

Elsewhere in the Prem on Saturday, Bristol banked a 20-7 win over Exeter and one particular moment involving England loosehead Ellis Genge grabbed the attention of his retired ex-Test teammates.

“Genge brought a little bit of hot spice for a short while with (Ethan) Roots. He also brought a chip and chase,” enthused Youngs mischievously. “You say chip and chase. I say thud and run really hard panic. Run and panic is what I call that one,” replied Cole.

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“Everyone knows the kick is only good as his chase,” added Youngs. “Watch Ellis chase after his kick in the hope that (Olly) Woodburn falls over, runs into the post, slips up, the ball bounces in a totally random direction. He is same arm, same leg. He is haring down after this in the hope that he scores an amazing shin and chase.”

Cole added: “Ellis in full flight is something I admire, and he was definitely in full flight by then because he kicked it and the thud that came off his boot, it was harder than he thought but he chased after this and almost got there.”

Youngs concluded: “Ellis just needs to remember that he can run over everyone. Maybe he is evolving his game. He’s not only a ball carrier, he can chip and find space in the backfield and do all that…”