Premiership: Leicester Tigers 35-20 Northampton Saints - Nadolo scores double as leaders win derby

Nemani Nadolo has now scored six tries for Leicester Tigers this season

Nemani Nadolo marked his return from injury with two tries as Leicester Tigers stretched their Premiership lead with victory over rivals Northampton.

Alex Mitchell gave Saints an early lead before Nadolo's double and a Julian Montoya try put Leicester in control.

Courtnall Skosan reduced the deficit but Tigers led 22-10 at the interval.

Bryce Hegarty and Karl Wilkins swapped tries in the second half and Chris Ashton was shown a yellow card on his Tigers debut as they held on to win.

The result puts Leicester 12 points clear of second-placed Saracens, who are at home to 2021 champions Harlequins on Sunday, with Saints remaining fifth following their sixth defeat of the season.

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Fijian winger Nadolo, who had been out of action for over a month, also scored twice in Leicester's 55-26 win at Northampton in October.

But Saints had won on four of their five previous visits to Mattioli Woods Welford Road in all competitions. They made a flying start in this latest East Midlands derby as scrum-half Mitchell created space with a neat side-step and sprinted away for his seventh try of the season.

Nadolo levelled from close range and powered over for a second before Montoya extended the lead at the end of a rolling maul.

Fly-half Freddie Burns was pulling the strings for Leicester, but he had to go off for a head injury assessment, enabling Ashton - who was signed on a short-term contract, having been released by Worcester in December - to make the first of two appearances in the game.

Saints capitalised as Rory Hutchinson - playing his 100th game for the club - sprinted around Nadolo before feeding Skosan for the score.

Chris Ashton made his Leicester debut as a replacement against one of his former clubs

Ashton's last-ditch tackle denied Furbank another try before the interval, after which Burns was allowed to return to the action and landed a penalty to put Leicester 15 points clear.

Saints were unable to capitalise on the absence of Harry Wells, who was yellow-carded for a tip tackle just before half-time. They were back at full strength, though, when Burns provided the pass for Hegarty to step inside and add the clinching try.

Although Northampton kept going to the end and Ashton was sin-binned after a series of infringements near the Tigers line, replacement Wilkins' score proved to be no more than a consolation.

Leicester's win maintained their 100% home record in the Premiership this season and they now have 13 wins from 15 games ahead of a trip to Bath on 19 February.

Tigers fly-half Freddie Burns told BBC Radio Leicester:

"It's always a tough game against our nearest and dearest, but the boys up front were outstanding and we went out there and got the job done.

"They came to play, that opening 10-15 minutes was a bit helter-skelter and we knew we had to tighten the game up a little bit.

"We managed to do that, get the score back pretty soon after we conceded, grab the momentum and we kept it from there.

"Confidence is high. We'll enjoy the win but there's definitely ways we can improve and it's going to be a tough challenge at The Rec next week."

Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd:

"I'm really disappointed to lose for the second time in a season to the Tigers - that hasn't happened for a number of years.

"We're disappointed with the outcome and disappointed with quite a few parts of the performance, so disappointment all-round.

"In the last 15 or 20 minutes of the first half, we loosened up and managed to score a try then we were unlucky not to score a second one, a good bit of defence from them.

"But at the end of the day we were under pressure from them physically, we were under pressure from our decision-making."

Leicester: Hegarty, Potter, Porter, Kelly, Nadolo; Burns, Wigglesworth; Whitcombe, Montoya, Cole, Wells, Green, Liebenberg (capt), Reffell, Wiese.

Replacements: Clare, van Wyk, Leatigaga, Snyman, Martin, van Poortvliet, Scott, Ashton.

Northampton: Tuala, Sleightholme, Dingwall (capt), Hutchinson, Skosan; Furbank, Mitchell; Waller, Matavesi, Hill, Ribbans, Ratuniyarawa, Wood, Harrison, Augustus.

Replacements: Haywood, Iyogun, Carey, Coles, Wilkins, JHames, Grayson, Proctor.

Referee: Matthew Carley (RFU).

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