But Saints ensured they remained unbeaten at their Franklin’s Gardens home this season through two-half tries from Paul Diggin and a second-half score by Ben Foden. Fly-half Stephen Myler kicked one conversion, but was off target with his five other kicks at goal.

Fijian centre Seru Rabeni replaced Dan Hipkiss, who was ruled out with a hamstring injury, and Toby Flood was selected at fly-half after missing last week's win over Bath. In the forwards, Ben Herring was named at openside, George Chuter was included at hooker, Marco Wentzel partnered Ben Kay in the second row and Brett Deacon came into the team at No8. Aaron Mauger captained the side with Martin Corry named among the replacements. Northampton made two changes to their team with Tom Smith replacing Soane Tonga’uiha at prop and Mark Hopley coming in for Roger Wilson at No8.

Tigers conceded an early penalty for not rolling away from the tackle, but Saints fly-half Stephen Myler pushed his 40m kick to the left of the posts.

The game began at a breathless pace and Saints thought they had scored the game’s first try inside three minutes but Sean Lamont was pulled back for a forward pass earlier in the move.

Tigers were then given their first chance to put points on the board when Northampton were ruled offside but England international Flood missed the penalty from 45m.

Play immediately switched to the other end where Myler miscued with an attempted drop-goal.

Johne Murphy was then alert to come across from his left wing to the opposite flank and clear to touch as Lamont threatened to reach his own kick ahead.

From the resulting line-out Saints put together a well-worked backs move across the width of the field that ended with Ben Foden putting Paul Diggin in to score on the right. However, Myler’s conversion fell short to leave Saints 5-0 ahead. 

Myler then missed with another penalty, this time from 45m out and in front of the posts, his third miss from three kicks.

Diggin scored his and Northampton’s second try of the game after 22 minutes, coming off the left wing to collect Myler’s pass and force his way over. Again Myler was off target with the kick at goal.

Flood showed him how it was done when he kicked a simple penalty from in front of the posts to reduce Northampton’s lead to 10-3.

Myler then missed another kickable penalty, pushing his 30m effort from the left-hand side to the right of the posts.

A quick penalty by scrum-half Julien Dupuy then took Tigers into the Saints 22 and as Saints attempted to win possession at the breakdown they were penalised for going off their feet. Flood slotted the penalty from in front of the posts to leave Tigers 10-6 behind going in at the break.

Tigers made a change in their backs at half-time with New Zealand international Scott Hamilton replacing Johne Murphy.
In contrast to the first-half, the second period began in scrappy fashion.

But Foden had the home fans on their feet when he broke the Tigers line on the left to run in behind the posts from 35m out and score Northampton’s third try of the game. Myler completed the seven-point score with his first successful kick of the game to give Saints a 17-6 lead.

Tigers hit back midway through the half through Flood’s sixth try of the season. Rabeni’s break took Tigers into the Saints 22 and, when the home side were penalised at the breakdown, Dupuy’s quickly taken penalty sucked in the Northampton defence and he offloaded for Flood to force his way over from 5m. Flood converted to leave Tigers 17-13 behind.

However, Tigers were unable to fashion the chance to complete the comeback and, when they were penalised at the breakdown with seconds left, Myler was able to run down the clock before clearing to touch to ensure Northampton won the 216th meeting between the two sides.