Northampton Saints complete 21-27 win over Leicester Tigers at Welford Road

Leicester Tigers 21 - 27 Northampton Saints, Welford Road

Leicester Tigers' chances of making it to the play-off has taken a blow following their 21-27 defeat to Northampton Saints in their Aviva Premiership encounter at Welford Road on Saturday.

The Tigers have now moved to the fifth position with 57 points and they have two games in the season to bid a place in the play-off while Northampton Saints are at 10th place with 36 points.

Northampton Saints suffered a major setback early in the game when the stand-in captain Rob Horne was forced off the field following a head injury after a collision with Graham Kitchener. However, they got the game on track when Ben Foden scored the opening try in the eighth minute and Stephen Myler kicked a conversion and a penalty to make it 0-10.

Leicester Tigers' response came at the end of the first quarter when Ellis Genge offloaded to TelusaVeainu in the 19th minute that was improved by George Ford to reduce the deficit to three points and nine minutes later they went on to claim the lead with Matt Toomua dotting over the line.

With eight minutes to go for the break, CobusReinach made most of the pass from Teimana Harrison as he scores Northampton Saints' second try of the game and the first half ended with a 12-17 lead for the visitors.

Reinach turned the supplier at the start of the second half as he set up AhseeTuala for a touchdown in the 43rd minute and the conversion from Myler increased Northampton Saints' lead to 12 points. Ford kicked two penalties on either side of an Alex Waller sin-bin in the 64th minute to make the scoreline 18-24.

With Myler and Ford trading penalties, Northampton Saints maintained their six-point lead and the home side's fairytale comeback was put off when a late Jonah Holmes try was ruled out by a TMO. The game also saw England international Ben Youngs making a comeback from the injury when he came off the bench in the 56th minute.