It was not classic, but it was close. In the gloaming on Monday, the Blues came within a play of claiming the scalp of the Saints. Missed tackles, missed kicks, and missed chances were more memorable, though, as a last-minute score saved a fourteen-man Northampton to leave Grange Road asking ‘What if?’

With only two minutes left, Tom O’Toole had given Cambridge the lead for the first time in the match, slotting over from thirty-five yards when the Saints forwards had taken leave of the offside rule.

In the last act of the night, however, Saints’ three-quarter Tommy Bullough latched on to a daring chip-kick from England U18 out-half Will Hooley to bundle over in the left-hand corner.

Earlier – much earlier – Northampton, fielding a youthful and inexperienced XV, had executed an ominously efficient move to open the scoring. Full back Cesar Sempere hit a line, joined a line, then broke a line to claim a 5-0 lead.

Yet at no stage would more than eight points separate the sides. O’Toole had responded to Sempere’s try with a straightforward penalty, and when an opportunistic drop-goal and penalty took Northampton into the break at 11-3, the Blues hit back with a beautifully worked effort from the pack: catch, drive, two phases, and stand-in skipper Scott Annett came up with the ball.

The difference fell to a single point some fifteen minutes later. Saints centre Tom Stephenson may have completed a move that went from flank to flank, but the attempted conversion was sculled; when Rob Stevens worked with fly-half Amos to get underneath the posts, no mistake was made: 15-16 going into the last ten.

And though disappointment could well define those minutes which remained – especially given that the Saints were somewhat controversially reduced to fourteen men for violent conduct – that may be too obvious a conclusion.

Some things, certainly, had shone throughout the night. Up front, the platform had been laid and the set pieces worked magnificently. Mark Murdoch’s throwing and the catching of Annett and Kururangi maintained a perfect line-out record until the last quarter; the catch and drive proved fearsome, twice claiming thirty yards, while only the Saints’ front-row was punished for infringing in the scrum.

And when the pack and backs clicked, the phases sang. No routine worked better than the ‘Ulster’ ball which led eventually to the second try: off the top, dummy switch, through the hands and lethal (cunning name, too – Ulster never play like that).

Yet, for all that, such coordination was rare. Ball was often slow or used slowly, kicked or given laterally to centres with little space in which to evade a quick – and often illegally quick – defensive line. Only once, then, did the midfield truly puncture the Saints’ line, standout centre Paul Loudon making sixty yards in the best break of the match.

At times, too, the defence was porous, especially in the near and midfield channels. More than a dozen tackles were missed, most often when Hooley showed then stepped. Those challenges only half-made counted for little, too, as Northampton off-loaded with ease.

Most frustating, though, was the kicking: eight missed points is too many, not least in so low-scoring an encounter. Still, there was a second-half performance to be cherished.

Victory against the Old Boys and Loughborough Students has now been tempered with defeat to Trinity, Dublin, and a second-string Saints.

This Tuesday’s clash between town and gown at 19:15 now becomes the litmus test of the early season. On current form is there enough here to pass? Most likely.