Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson said his side made their win over Gloucester "feel like a loss", while London Irish suffered a narrow-margin defeat to Leicester Tigers.
Saturday 25 February 2023 22:47, UK
Saracens extended their lead at the top of the Gallagher Premiership table as they beat 14-man Newcastle on Saturday.
Elsewhere Northampton fended off a late flurry from Gloucester to make it three straight wins, while London Irish were edged out by Leicester Tigers.
An early red card for Newcastle's Greg Peterson ruined any hopes of his side causing an upset as Saracens moved 12 points clear of Sale at the top of the Gallagher Premiership table after a 29-23 home win.
Tenth-placed Newcastle were level at 10-10 when Peterson was dismissed for a high tackle with the table-toppers taking advantage by scoring five tries but it was the visitors who emerged with the most credit thanks to a heroic second-half display.
Alex Lewington scored two of the home side's tries, Eroni Mawi, Ivan van Zyl and Theo Dan the others with Alex Goode kicking two conversions.
Philip van der Walt and Adam Radwan scored Newcastle's tries with Brett Connon adding three penalties and two conversions to leave them just two points ahead of Bath at the bottom of the table.
Saracens' director of rugby Mark McCall said: "It's a valuable five points against a good Newcastle side but nobody is clapping their hands at the end of it.
"It was a good first half as we scored five good tries but I'm certainly disappointed at our second-half effort as we were very careless.
"It was a standard red card for me and although Newcastle grafted well it shouldn't have come down to it being that close.
"I thought our young front-rowers, Eroni Mawi and Theo Dan, carried well in the first half and Olly Hartley excelled up against two experienced Argentine centres."
In-form Northampton dealt Gloucester's play-off hopes another blow with a 41-34 victory in a compelling game at the cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.
The hosts secured a third consecutive Gallagher Premiership victory as they gained revenge for a defeat at Kingsholm in December.
Saints scored six tries through Alex Waller, Callum Braley, Alex Moon, Sam Graham, Tommy Freeman and Fraser Dingwall, while braces from Seb Blake and Jamal Ford-Robinson, as well as a Matias Alemanno five-pointer, secured two hard-earned bonus points for Gloucester.
Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson said: "I'm more than grinding my teeth today, it's some way to make a
win feel like a loss.
"We were so poor, and it's not the first time it's happened. I'm glad the game wasn't five minutes longer.
"You have to celebrate the things that were good in the game, but so much of that is avoidable if we continued to do what we were doing prior to that.
"There's lots for us to work on, because fundamentally that's the issue with our game at the moment. We're in third and they're in fourth and instead of it being a five-point gap, it's a three-point gap.
"The table is so tight that when you add those points up at the end of the year, it will make a difference."
Reigning champions Leicester ended their losing run on the road to pick up four valuable points in their quest for an end of season play-off spot.
After four consecutive away defeats in the Gallagher Premiership, Tigers won a fiercely contested battle 25-22 at London Irish to move up to fifth in the table with five games of the regular season remaining.
Olly Cracknell, Jasper Wiese and Harry Potter scored their tries with Handre Pollard kicking two penalties and two conversions.
Tom Pearson, Joe Powell and Chandler Cunningham-South crossed for Irish, with Paddy Jackson adding a penalty and two conversions.
London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney said: "It was a good game with lots of ebbs and flows but they took one more chance than we did.
"We had a period after half-time when we should have scored but they had a similar period just before half-time, so it evened itself out."
"I have no problems with us not taking kickable penalties as the boys have to react to how they see it and realistically we ended one play short of a bonus-point victory.
"We are taking every moment as it comes and it's a journey for us. I'm sure there are plenty more ebbs and flows to come in this league before the season ends.
"We travel to Newcastle next week and then we have a few home games, including the Premiership Cup final, so it's important that we don't look too far ahead."
