Saints march past Champ Bedford

NORTHAMPTON Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson began his tenure with a win over Championship side Bedford Blues.

It was the Blues who produced the early pressure, as Sean French scored in the right corner in the third minute after a neat cross-field kick from Michael Le Bourgeois.

A sharply-executed lineout drill and drive saw Haywood over at the back of the rolling maul.

Northampton then extended their advantage from a scrum inside their own 22; a searing break from Saints saw Tom Litchfield carve through a gap and find Tom Collins outside him, before the wing burst deep into Bedford territory.

As Blues scrambled back a deliberate knockon from former Saint Jordan Onojaife bought the hosts a penalty, and off the back of the resulting scrum, Litchfield wriggled out of a couple of tackles before offloading to Arden who dived over and converted his own score.

Collins was at the centre of the action again in the 16th minute with another break down the left. His offload found Ramm and Saints worked the ball to Sam Graham, who dived over under the posts and celebrated a try on his first appearance at the Gardens.

Arden again made no mistake with the conversion to take the scoreline to 21-5, and there was still time before the break for Saints to score again.

Robbie Smith made an immediate impact with a try at the back of another perfectly-executed rolling maul.

Skosan skipped through a couple of tackles and scored but the Blues came to life however around the hour mark with two quickfire tries through Jack Hughes and Ed Coulson.

Northampton hit back through James’ score.

There was still time for Worley to grab a try of his own, through a clever tap and go.