Leicester dominate Midlands derby to maintain run

Leicester Tigers produced another superb display to claim the derby spoils as they thrashed arch rivals Northampton Saints 55-26 at Franklin’s Gardens.

Steve Borthwick’s men completely dominated the first half, moving into a 27-0 lead via two Nemani Nadolo tries and other scores from Francois van Wyk and Julian Montoya.

Courtnall Skosan responded for Saints before Alex Mitchell and Alex Waller touched down in the second period, but a George Ford drop-goal, as well as two penalties from the fly-half, halted the hosts’ resurgence.

Ford’s accuracy effectively ended the game as a the contest, but they rubberstamped the win as Jack van Poortvliet (twice) and Kini Murimurivalu went over.

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Leicester had the game’s first points, through a simple Ford penalty, in the third minute, after David Ribbans was pinged for holding on in front of his own posts.

The Tigers then had their first try after 12 minutes, as a move started by Jasper Wiese’s break led to Nadolo easily brushing off Fraser Dingwall’s tackle to score in the corner off Dan Kelly’s long pass.

Most of the play was taking place in the hosts’ half and Leicester soon struck again when Wiese got them within striking distance before Richard Wigglesworth recycled for Van Wyk to plunge over against his old club.

The visitors quickly forged even further ahead when Mitchell missed Ford’s high kick and Nadolo pounced on the loose ball to go clear for his second, despite him slipping metres from the line.

That took the score to 20-0 after 22 minutes and the Leicester onslaught was not finished, as Montoya sealed their try bonus point by stretching over, after breaking off a driving maul.

Northampton finally found a response off the final play of the first half, as Skosan did well to squeeze over in the right-hand corner for an unconverted try.

Leading 27-5 at the break, Leicester lost Wigglesworth to the sin bin four minutes after the restart after his shoulder made contact with Dingwall’s head.

Not only did Northampton quickly pull back a second try through Mitchell’s dart, the Tigers were down to 13 men, as Wiese’s no-arms tackle earned him a yellow card as well.

Despite being two men light, Leicester still extended their lead through a superb drop goal from 40 metres by Ford.

Waller scampered down the left to score Northampton’s third try just short of the hour mark, but Ford quashed any hopes of a fightback with two penalties in quick succession.

Leicester then added salt to their rivals’ wounds, as Van Poortvliet scored after charging down Rory Hutchinson’s kick before Murimurivalu went through some flimsy tackling to get in on the act.

There was still time for Skosan to earn Saints a try bonus point off James Grayson’s cross-field kick, before Van Poortvliet was gifted a second by Grayson’s loose pass off the final play.

Bristol earn second win

Bristol Bears grabbed their second win of the season in emphatic fashion following a scintillating display of attacking rugby to see off London Irish 45-33 at Brentford Community Stadium.

Bristol got off to a fast start thanks to Jake Heenan, Toby Fricker and Jack Bates tries, but the Exiles levelled matters through James Stokes, Mike Willemse and Matt Rogerson.

However, scores from Piers O’Conor and Harry Thacker, allied by the accurate kicking of Callum Sheedy, who scored 20 points, sealed the win for the Bears.

Struggling Bath lose again

Bath remain winless after they succumbed to their sixth successive defeat as Wasps left the Rec with a deserved 27-17 victory.

The visitors scored three tries via Vaea Fifita, Gabriel Oghre and Brad Shields, with all them converted by Jimmy Gopperth and Jacob Umaga.

Stuart Hooper’s men hit back through Tom de Glanville and Semesa Rokoduguni, but it wasn’t enough as their woeful start to the season continued.

Worcester take advantage of Sale errors

Duhan van der Merwe and Jamie Shillcock scored a brace of tries apiece as Worcester claimed a 27-14 Premiership victory over Sale at Sixways Stadium.

Warriors were 14-0 up after 12 minutes after both men scored a converted try, with Gus Warr scoring for Sale later on in the half.

And they repeated the trick, sandwiching a second Sale try from Curtis Langdon, and that proved enough to seal a much-needed bonus-point victory.