Northampton bounced again from their derby disappointment in fashion as they
trounced Sale 47-17 within the Gallagher Premiership.
The place Northampton had been wasteful in defeat at Leicester final Saturday, they had been deadly towards the Sharks at Franklin’s Gardens, the place Ollie Sleightholme scored two of their seven tries.
It additionally meant their profitable run at dwelling will now lengthen past a yr, with Saints racking up an 18th consecutive victory on their very own patch on an evening Sale will wish to rapidly put behind them.
Rob du Preez’s second-minute penalty opened the scoring for the Sharks, however Northampton had been quickly on the board when Fin Smith’s grubber kick was missed by Sale full-back Joe Carpenter, permitting Tommy Freeman to get the ball down and rating.
Northampton had been over once more within the eighth minute when Freeman charged onto Rory Hutchinson’s ball inside earlier than timing his go exterior to place captain George Furbank within the clear.
The Sharks momentarily bought themselves again within the recreation as a driving maul led to Luke Cowan-Dickie scoring to scale back the hole to 12-10.
Nonetheless, the guests’ evening fell aside after Wills was despatched to the sin bin for taking George Hendy out within the air, with Northampton happening to attain three tries in six minutes.
James Ramm, a blood alternative for Furbank, arrange the primary two, his lengthy go giving Sleightholme a walk-in earlier than the winger’s kick forward bounced kindly for the Australian, permitting him to place Tom James within the clear.
That was the bonus level within the bag for the Saints after 24 minutes and take a look at quantity 5 adopted when Tom Roebuck missed Smith’s kick to the left wing to present Sleightholme his second of the match.
There was nonetheless time for yet one more rating for the hosts earlier than half-time as Hendy intercepted Waisea Nayacalevu’s go to run in unopposed, taking the rating to 40-10 on the break.
Sale had the primary strive of the second half because the forwards labored the guests to underneath the Northampton posts earlier than Du Preez’s go gave Carpenter a straightforward end.
Excellent defence by Henry Pollock to carry up Gus Warr then prevented the Sharks scrum-half from pulling again one other rating earlier than Roebuck denied Sleightholme a hat-trick on the different finish by tackling him into contact.
Any query of a Sale comeback was silenced within the 61st minute when but extra unfastened play from the guests led to Ramm, now on completely, gliding by means of a spot to go clear for Northampton’s seventh strive of a profitable evening.
Large win for Falcons
Newcastle earned their first Gallagher Premiership victory in over a yr after beating fellow strugglers Exeter 24-18 at Kingston Park.
The Falcons went into Friday’s conflict with out a win since March 2023 however introduced their 25-game shedding streak to an finish with a hard-fought victory.
Regardless of falling behind to an early Chiefs strive, Newcastle responded with tries from Philip van der Walt and two both aspect of the break from Jamie Blamire.
Ethan Grayson’s second-half drop objective gave the Falcons some respiration area earlier than Josh Hodge scored a late strive for Exeter, however the Falcons held on for a long-awaited triumph.
Stream rugby union and extra with NOW.
Sky Sports activities+ has formally launched and might be built-in into Sky TV, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports activities app, giving Sky Sports activities clients entry to over 50 per cent extra dwell sport this yr at no additional value. Discover out extra right here.
