London Irish 22-42 Northampton - Exiles thrashed by play-off chasing Saints

Tom Collins has scored four tries in his last five Premiership appearances for Northampton

Northampton boosted their top-four hopes as they thrashed rival play-off chasers London Irish.

Ollie Hassell Collins' try early on helped Irish into an 8-0 lead, but Northampton were ahead by half-time after two tries in quick succession from Tom Collins and Rory Hutchinson.

Irish conceded a penalty try shortly after the restart.

Alex Mitchell and Fraser Dingwall then went over in the space of five minutes before Collins got an excellent second.

Nick Phipps scored two late consolation tries for Irish but they drop to eighth, level on points with Northampton, who move up into seventh.

Northampton centre Fraser Dingwall got the fifth of the Saints' six tries

Hassell-Collins gave the hosts a great start when he went over in the corner after a nice passing move, before Paddy Jackson added a penalty.

But that was the high point for Irish as Collins snuck over after pressure under the posts before Api Ratuniyarawa's break from the restart set up Hutchinson.

Nick Phipps was held up over the Saints line before Rob Simmons was sin-binned shortly before the break after a swinging arm.

Another Ratuniyarawa break set up good field position for Saints, in which Irish were then reduced to 13 men when scrum-half Phipps was sent to the sin bin after bringing down a close-range maul for a penalty try.

Mitchell finished a sweeping break to claim a try bonus point before, with Irish back to 14 men, Dingwall crossed unchallenged under the posts with half an hour remaining.

Collins scored an excellent second try when he chipped over the Irish line and gathered his kick to score with 20 minutes left.

Phipps sniped over with four minutes to go before Saints had George Furbank sin-binned in the final minute after a deliberate knock-on and the Exiles' Australian scrum-half scored again from the resulting penalty.

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney:

"The scoreline doesn't concern me. We can turn that around but it's just that period in the first half where we let them back into the game.

"We made a strong start and there were times we had people in the clear so we were creating the chances. If we weren't creating chances I would be more worried, but we did that.

"If you give a good side like Northampton as much of the ball as we did, they're going to take their opportunities."

Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd:

"They talk about the classic game of two halves but this was a game of four quarters.

"It was a horrible first 20 minutes where we were probably still on the bus and didn't get it right.

"It was a pretty decent fightback where we steadied the ship."

London Irish: Stokes; Rowe, Cinti, van Rensburg, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, Phipps; Goodrick-Clarke, Creevy, Hoskins, Munga, Simmons, Rogerson (capt), Gonzalez, O'Brien.

Replacements: Cornish, Gigena, Green, Nott, Pearson, Cracknell, White, Parton.

Sin Bin: Simmons (37), Phipps (43).

Northampton: Furbank; Skosan, Dingwall, Hutchinson, Collins; Biggar, Mitchell; Waller, Matavesi, Hill, Ribbans, Ratuniyarawa, Lawes, Ludlam (capt), Augustus.

Replacements: Haywood, Auterac, Carey, Moon, Coles, James, Litchfield, Freeman.

Sin Bin: Furbank (78).

Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU).

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