Grayson junior states his case at Saints

NORTHAMPTON kicked off their busy two-game week with a win against Nottingham on Thursday at Franklin’s Gardens.

Rory Hutchinson, Paul Hill, Paddy Ryan and Alex Mitchell all went over while the impressive James Grayson, son of Saints legend Paul, ended with 12 points made from a try, two conversions and a drop-goal.

It was the hosts who got the scoreboard ticking with wing Jamie Elliot setting up Hutchinson. Grayson converted from in front of the posts to make it 7-0, but Nottingham recovered rapidly and replied through a score from Sean Scanlon.

Tiff Eden added the extras to level the scores and Jim Mallinder’s men fell behind for the first time when Eden found space and dived over before adding the conversion.

But it did not last long as Grayson matched him and converted his own try – but Tom Kessell was sent to the bin for repeated infringements. Saints held strong until the break, however, and they soon had their third try through Hill.

There was a second yellow card for Saints as Hutchinson was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on and Nottingham made them pay with Sec Cecil’s converted try putting them in the lead at 21-19.

That was as good as it got, however, with Grayson edging Northampton in front with his drop-goal before Ryan and Mitchell sealed the win with their tries in the last ten minutes.