London Irish beat 14-man Northampton Saints 16-20

Northampton Saints 16-20 London Irish, Franklin's Gardens
Scorecard

London Irish capitalised on a red-card to Api Ratuniyarawa as they scored two late tries to seal a 16-20 win over Northampton Saints in the ninth round of the Gallagher Premiership at Franklin's Gardens on Friday.

This is London Irish's third win from nine games as they are positioned ninth in the table while Northampton are at second place with 29 points.

Northampton had early setbacks in the game with Piers Francis stretchered off the field in the 13th minute with an injury following which the Exiles got their first points on the board with Ollie Hassell-Collins touching down in the 17th minute.

Northampton responded back with a 24th minute penalty kick from James Grayson and soon London Irish were reduced to 14-men temporarily with Ben Meehan sin-binned for a tip-tackle on Cobus Reinach.

Despite, the setback Stephen Myler kicked a three-pointer before Northampton got their opening try through Reinach in the 33rd minute and Grayson followed with a conversion and a penalty to end the first half with a 13-8 scoreline.

Northampton were dealt a major blow at the start of the second half with Ratuniyarawa sent-off for a raised arm at the ruck linking with Irish prop Harry Elrington but the Exiles couldn't quite capitalise on the advantage as they had their second sin-bin of the game as Nick Phipps yellow-carded as a penalty from Grayson made the scoreline 16-8.

As London Irish returned to full strength they turned the tables completely around with back to back tries from Franco van der Merwe (73') and Dave Porecki (79') ensuring they completed a four-point victory.