Northampton keep play-off hopes alive with 3-27 win over London Irish

London Irish 3-27 Northampton Saints, Twickenham Stoop
Scorecard

Northampton Saints kept their hope of finishing in top four alive as they brushed aside London Irish 3-27 in the 16th round of Gallagher Premiership at Twickenham Stoop.

The Saints now have 40 points as they are at sixth place in the table while London Irish are at ninth place. Both the teams made 10 changes from their previous game.

A closely fought opening half saw both the teams scoring three points apiece coming from penalty kicks from James Grayson and Paddy Jackson.

Tom Collins scored the opening try that came in the 51st minute to provide the Saints with a five-point lead but things went haywire for the Exiles as they suffered back to back yellow cards.

Sekope Kepu was sin-binned in the 59th minute as he dragged down a maul with Mike Haywood in the 59th minute as he was yellow-carded and to make things worse the Saints were awarded a penalty try.

A repeat of the incident saw William Goodrick-Clarke yellow-carded in the 68th minute for an infringement and another penalty try meant, Chris Boyd's men took a lead of 3-22 before Ahsee Tuala's try in the closing stage helped them complete a bonus point victory.