Leicester Tigers' dominant second-half performance earned them an impressive 28-7 victory over defending champions Northampton Saints. Saints actually led at half-time at a soaking Mattioli Woods Welford Road, but they had no answer as the Tigers turned on the power to score four tries following the restart. It meant that Leicester enjoyed a third win in four league games, as well as beating their East Midlands rivals at home for a fourth season running, in jumping up to second in the table.
The wet and windy conditions quickly played a part as Northampton grabbed the game's opening try after only seven minutes. With advantage being played, Fin Smith chipped towards the Leicester try line and, after Billy Searle's fumble, James Pater pounced to score, with Smith adding the conversion. The Tigers were on the board after 19 minutes when Freddie Steward blasted a superbly struck penalty between the uprights from just inside the Northampton half.
It remained 7-3 to Saints at half-time, but a fracas down the touchline as the players made their way towards the tunnel indicated a fiery second half was on the way. The home crowd was brought to its feet four minutes after the restart when a driving maul rumbled its way over with Jamie Blamire grounding the ball, although Searle's missed conversion meant Leicester's lead was just one point. But their dominant start to the half brought a second try when the ball was worked out to the left to Gabriel Hamer-Webb whose pass led to Cameron Henderson scoring in the corner.
Searle's conversion again slid wide. The Tigers were more than a score clear, though, when Finn Carnduff crashed over from close range in the 57th minute after a beleaguered Saints defence had illegally collapsed a maul. Having not converted any of his side's three tries to that point, Searle extended the hosts' lead further with a penalty from in front of the posts.
Northampton's afternoon continued to disintegrate when they had Tom Lockett sin-binned for making head-on-head contact with Solomone Kata with 10 minutes left. And the Tigers rubbed their noses in it by claiming a bonus point not long after when Searle's long pass found Steward and the England full-back glided in under the posts. Bristol Bears moved third in the table with a hard-fought 20-7 win over Exeter Chiefs in appalling conditions at Ashton Gate.
It was their fifth successive league victory over Rob Baxter's men after an old-style-rugby war of attrition in heavy rain and strong winds. Exeter had the better of the opening exchanges and enjoyed a period of pressure on the home line. However, hanging on to the slippery ball in the tackle was proving a major problem for the visitors and several potential scoring opportunities were squandered.
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