ON this day 15 years ago - 11 February 2006 - Saints headed to the capital to kick off what would be a remarkable Grand Slam winning season.
It was a new look for Daniel Anderson's men - playing the rebranded Londoners in the shadow of Twickenham.
There were debuts for Leon Pryce, Jason Cayless and Francis Meli in the 40-16 win over Harlequins - but it was established full back Paul Wellens who set the tone.
The Saints full back grabbed a hat-trick to delight the 3,500 travelling fans among the Stoop’s 8,500 crowd.
He had plenty of back-up, and there were two pieces of Jamie Lyon mastery on display.
The first saw the Aussie ace collect Sean Long’s precision kick wide before slipping it to Ade Gardner for the wingman to do the rest.
And in the second saw Lyon intercept, only to be caught by Quins Karl Temata. Undeterred, out came the jack-hammer hand off to drop the lanky prop like a sack of spuds.
Long was outstanding - nervelessly playing his first game back since suffering the horrendous cheekbone/eye-socket injury.
Cayless was top-drawer too, on debut, scoring a try, with Jason Hooper grabbing Saints’ other touchdown.
Lyon chipped over six goals to provide an emphatic looking scoreboard.
Next time Saints visited this part of town, they left with the Challenge Cup.
Saints: Wellens; Gardner, Lyon, Talau, Meli; Pryce, Long; Fozzard, Cunningham, Cayless, Gilmour, Wilkin, Hooper. Subs: Roby, Graham, Fa’asavalu, P. Anderson.
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