Sarries come from behind

Saracens came from behind on Saturday to beat Northampton 29-15 at Franklin's Gardens and keep the pressure on Aviva Premiership leaders Leicester.

The home side made a good start but having gone in at half time four points to the good, they ended up suffering their fourth league defeat of the season against opponents who found themselves two men down at one stage.

Both sides were willing to throw the ball around and play some open rugby in an entertaining, if low-scoring, opening period and the Saints had the upper hand territorially.

Saracens also came close to scoring on a couple of occasions but could not find the killer touch to get over.

Northampton fly-half Stephen Myler and Sarries full-back Alex Goode exchanged 30-metre penalties in the opening six minutes before the Saints stepped up a gear.

Northampton went to within a metre of their opponents' line with a lovely move to the left wing, but lock Dan Vickerman's roll over from a ruck was ruled out for a knock-on.

The Saints then scored the opening try when pressure in the Sarries 22 ended with scrum-half Ryan Powell spinning the ball out to centre Jon Clarke, who dummied both Rodd Penney and Brad Barritt to open a gap and slip through.

Saracens responded by running the ball from halfway, with hooker Schalk Brits prominent.

Illegal

However, they were on the back foot again with ten minutes to go to the break as prop Carlos Nieto was sin-binned for an illegal act at a ruck.

That brought ex-England international Matt Stevens, in only his third week since returning from a ban for drugs offences, off the bench.

But Sarries soon found themselves with only 13 men on the pitch as fly-half Owen Farrell took former England fly-half Shane Geraghty out with a late tackle.

Northampton probably should have gone for the corner with the resultant penalty but decided that Myler should kick for goal.

He missed and even with their numerical disadvantage, Sarries started scoring points as Goode kicked two penalties either side of half-time.

He then converted a try, scored in the left-hand corner by Barritt after co-centre Penney had charged down a clearance inside the home 22.

It meant Sarries had scored 13 unanswered points while short-handed.

Northampton looked to get themselves back into the match and started attacking the Sarries 22 just before the hour.

Pressure

Paul Diggin, Soane Tonga'uiha and Bruce Reihana were all prominent as the home side looked for a way through but the pressure came to nothing.

But full-back Greig Tonks then created a chance from nothing by finding space on the left and feeding Diggin to go over in the corner, although Myler's touchline conversion went wide.

Even so, Saracens were in the ascendancy once again after home number eight Roger Wilson was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle.

Stevens went over for a try under the posts, converted by Goode, to put the visitors eight points ahead.

The match was over by the time Goode landed another penalty in the final 10 minutes, with Barritt also kicking a 25-metre drop goal in the last minute.