Champs hold on for tense win at Tigers
FLY-HALF Owen Farrell scored all 16 points as Saracens beat Leicester 16-12 at Welford Road to cement second position in the Aviva Premiership.
The England star kicked 11 points and scored the only try of the game as the visitors hit back from 9-6 down to take a 13-9 lead in the 55th minute.
Fly-half Owen Williams kicked Leicester’s points but England wing Manu Tuilagi limped off with a knee injury in the first half.
George North made a successful return by helping Northampton Saints fight back to win 13-12 at Gloucester.
The Wales wing was playing for the first time since suffering a head injury on December 3 and enjoyed an incident-free return.
Four Billy Burns penalties and two from Stephen Myler saw Gloucester lead 12-6 with seven minutes left.
But David Halaifonua conceded a penalty try, which Myler converted to win it.
Tom Varndell became the Premiership’s joint top try scorer of all time to help bottom side Bristol overcome Sale 24-23 for a second straight league win.
Varndell equalled Mark Cueto’s record of 90 tries to edge Bristol back into the contest at half-time, after a penalty try and a Denny Solomona score helped put Sale 15-10 up at the break.
A James Mitchell penalty and Johnny Leota’s try extended Sale’s lead.
However, tries from Rhodri Williams and Max Crumpton won it for Bristol.
Worcester got just their second win of the season as they upset Harlequins 24-17 at Sixways.
Jimmy Gopperth came from the replacements’ bench at Kingston Park to plunder the try bonus score in a 34-30 win for Wasps.
In a see-saw contest Wasps had to overcome the blow of conceding tries to Newcastle scrum-half Tane Takulua and winger Marcus Watson before running in four tries of their own to emerge victorious.
Danny Cipriani led the fightback with an opportunist 20th-minute score and further tries by winger Christian Wade – his 19th in the league in 2016 – plus flanker Thomas Young and former Newcastle fly-half Jimmy Gopperth helped Wasps to a try bonus victory that put them clear of reigning champions Saracens.
James Short scored two tries in the last nine minutes as Exeter overcame an 11-point half-time deficit to beat Bath 17-11.
Two George Ford penalties and a try by Semesa Rokoduguni seemingly had Bath set for victory and they appeared well in control until a 62nd-minute Gareth Steenson penalty kick-started Exeter’s challenge.
And Short crossed the line twice in the closing stages to move the Chiefs above Bath into third place.
Elsewhere, Munster extended their lead at the top of the Pro12 league to five points as they beat defending champions Connacht 16-9 in a battle of attrition in a wet Galway.