Lawes stars as Saints give Tigers a mauling

NORTHAMPTON Saints ended a run of seven successive East Midlands derby defeats to Leicester Tigers with an emphatic and much needed win.

Win the derby and all will be forgotten. After an embarrassing defeat to Saracens last week that was the thinking at Franklin’s Gardens, and Northampton responded well. They had to.

Tries from Luther Burrell, Dylan Hartley and Tom Collins were enough, with Harry Mallinder adding the rest from the tee.

Leicester only managed two penalties from George Ford and a late Jonny May score.

Lion Courtney Lawes was the star, bringing his brilliant tour form home, smashing into Leicester all afternoon.

Defeat and it would have been Northampton’s worst start to a season in 20 years, but it is the Tigers now with two defeats from two. Saints played with more purpose and aggression from the outset and possession brought points — 17 of them. First Burrell went over on the right of the posts after the smashing work had been done by George North and the forwards. Then Hartley sniped from close range on the half-hour mark. Between the tries Ford missed a penalty, but hit his next from right in front.

Despite hammering the Tigers’ line before half-time, the Saints could only add another penalty. After the break Leicester’s woes continued, with substitute Mike Williams sin-binned for the final act of what referee JP Doyle said was a cumulative team offence.

Soon after there was controversy as Dominic Ryan was seemingly knocked out tackling North, but, incredibly, was not taken off for a head-injury assessment. His next involvement was being cajoled into a lineout — it did not look good.

Ford took Leicester closer with a penalty before North limped off with a leg injury.

Then when Tom Collins jinked through a hole in the Leicester defence the derby was won for the Saints. Despite a brilliant May score at the death Northampton had their first win over their Midlands rivals since 2014.