Northampton v Leicester: Five takeaways as ‘razor sharp’ French maestro seals bragging rights but victory soured by injury to England star

Alex Spink

11 Oct 2025 6:16 PM

Anthony Belleau scored two tries for Northampton Saints.

Following a 32-26 win for Northampton Saints over Leicester Tigers on Saturday, here are our five takeaways from the PREM clash at Franklin’s Gardens.

The top line

A week after sparing their blushes at Gloucester, Anthony Belleau came off the bench to win Northampton the 258th East Midlands derby with two moments of try-scoring brilliance.

A match in which the lead changed hands nine times was finally won by the home side after the Frenchman replaced injured England and Lions star Tommy Freeman soon after half-time.

Back-to-back tries by the 29-year-old took the game away from Tigers in a decisive third quarter for a Northampton side which had failed to register a second half try in its first two games.

Fin Smith, Edoardo Todaro and Tom Pearson also crossed for Saints, who deserved the derby bragging rights for scoring five tries to Leicester’s two, by Freddie Steward and Harry Wells.

The one negative for Phil Dowson’s outfit was the sight of Freeman forced off by a leg injury on his 100th appearance for the club, just three weeks before England open their autumn Test series against Australia.

Saints finally hold onto a lead

This was third time lucky for Northampton, who had coughed up a 26-0 lead to hand Exeter a draw in round one then thrown away a 31-point advantage at Gloucester a week later and needing a late penalty goal to escape to victory.

At a packed cinch Stadium, they again threatened to give up a winning position on numerous occasions, with Leicester five times wrestling back the lead. That they survived was down mainly to Belleau.

The former Toulon, Clermont and France star took a pay cut to come to Saints, so keen was he to experience the top flight of English rugby. How grateful Dowson is that he did.

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For it was Belleau’s late kick, his seventh success from seven, which saved the day at Kingsholm and his razor-sharp finishing that proved the difference here.

On 51 minutes Northampton attacked from their own 22, Fraser Dingwall and Rory Hutchison scorching upfield before finding Belleau, a fly-half playing out of position on the wing.

The Monflanquin-born half-back did brilliantly to get over in the left corner, despite the attention of Will Wand and Ollie Hassell-Collins. He did even better to chip behind the Tigers defence soon after, regather and take it to the house a second time.

Leicester doing it for Lewis

Tigers will be frustrated to lose a game they led five times but boss Geoff Parling will be proud of the effort, having spoken beforehand of how the club wanted to show the best of themselves in a week in which Lewis Moody, their much-loved former star, revealed his motor neurone disease diagnosis.

“The whole club’s thoughts are with him,” said Parling before kick-off. “Everyone is right behind him. I want the lads to put all their emotion out on the pitch.”

Leicester started the better, silencing the crowd. When referee Luke Pearce then pulled up lame with a calf strain, forcing him to hand the whistle to Alex Thomas, the atmosphere became strangely subdued.

That was fine by Tigers, whose forwards had much the better of the first half, winning two scrum penalties and forcing Saints into three lineout losses on their own throw.

Steward continuing his fine summer form

Nobody caught the eye for the visitors more than Steward, the England full-back who enjoyed such a fine tour to the Americas in July with the national team.

After a couple of years off the boil the big man is back. At Saints he ruled the skies, leading TNT Sports pundit Brian O’Driscoll to say: “I don’t know if there’s anyone better in the world (in the air). He’s like he’s a Gaelic footballer.”

The moment off the match for Steward came on 19 minutes when he took a high ball above his head, linking with Emeka Ilione who made the hard yards. The ball was recycled back to the full-back who chose exactly the right line to puncture the defence and score. Ahead of the upcoming internationals, head coach Steve Borthwick will have enjoyed that.

Saints cash in on their returning Lions

When you are able to call upon four British and Irish Lions, you should be a match for anyone. Saints took a while to put Tigers away, and they had to adapt after losing Freeman and George Hendy to injury, but ultimately that injection of class told.

Smith did not have his kicking boots on, he will admit that. But the way he and Alex Mitchell combined for Northampton’s early try was a thing of beauty; Mitchell wrong footing the entire Leicester defence with a cute change of direction, then regathering his own kick before feeding the scoring pass to his full-half.

Belleau then rather took over, but the match was still on the line when Henry Pollock came off the bench to complete the returning quartet and, along with Josh Kemeny, won a vital jackalling penalty to snuff out Tigers’ late resistance.