Saints hold off Scarlets
Wing Pisi opened the scoring early on, with prop Waller burrowing over after the break for the Saints. Flyhalf JJ Hanrahan, on his first start for his new club, added a conversion and a penalty as the hosts put their tough start to the domestic season behind them.
The Scarlets kept themselves in contention with a try from in-form scrumhalf Gareth Davies and two penalties from flyhalf Steven Shingler as they collected a losing bonus point which may yet prove valuable.
The Scarlets have been among the early-season pacesetters in the Pro 12 but they endured an uncomfortable start as the Saints pack took it to them. One rolling maul rumbled the visitors back 20 metres, while the Welsh side's scrum creaked worryingly.
Northampton made full use of the ascendancy by crafting the opening try. Hanrahan ran a lovely loop play in midfield and Pisi raced onto his pass to skate over, with the Irishman adding the extras.
The Scarlets slowly began to find their feet, with DTH van der Merwe making a break to force a penalty, which was kicked by Shingler.
Northampton thought they had scored their second try at the end of the first quarter when Luther Burrell finished a superb counter-attack off turnover ball, with Pisi, Ben Foden and George North involved.
However, the try was ruled out after North struck Michael Tagicakibau with his foot in the build-up and was sent to the sin bin against his former team.
The visitors failed to make the most of the numerical advantage and they could have come off worse during the 10 minutes had Hanrahan not failed with two long-range penalties.
Instead Shingler made amends for an earlier miss by adding his second penalty just before half-time to trim the deficit to a single point.
The flyhalf was wide and short with a long-range attempt early in the second half, before his loose pass ended a promising Scarlets attack.
But the Welsh outfit were growing in confidence and they seized the lead through arch-poacher Davies. Hadleigh Parkes and Aled Thomas linked well in midfield and the scrumhalf burst through to dot down.
Shingler hit the easy conversion against the upright and the visitors' lead did not last long as Northampton went straight up the other end and rolled their way over from a driving line-out with Waller the man to ground the ball.
Hanrahan failed to draw round the testing touchline conversion and Northampton's cause was not helped when flank Jamie Gibson became their second man in the bin after not rolling away at the tackle area.
Hanrahan extended their lead with his first successful penalty after another dominant Northampton scrum, and it proved enough to secure the four points.
The scorers:
For Northampton:
Tries: Pisi, Waller
Con: Hanrahan
Pen: Hanrahan
For Scarlets:
Try: Davies
Pens: Shingler 2
Teams:
Northampton: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Ken Pisi, 13 George Pisi, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 George North, 10 JJ Hanrahan, 9 Lee Dickson (captain), 8 Sam Dickinson, 7 Tom Wood, 6 Jamie Gibson, 5 Christian Day, 4 James Craig, 3 Kieran Brookes, 2 Mikey Haywood, 1 Alex Waller.
Replacements: 16 Matti Williams, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Michael Paterson, 20 Teimana Harrison, 21 Kahn Fotuali’i, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Ahsee Tuala.
Scarlets: 15 Aled Thomas, 14 Michael Tagicakibau, 13 Gareth Owen, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Steven Shingler, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 John Barclay (captain), 7 James Davies, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Maselino Paulino, 4 Jake Ball, 3 Peter Edwards, 2 Emyr Phillips, 1 Rob Evans.
Replacements: 16 Kirby Myhill, 17 Phil John, 18 Will Taylor, 19 Tom Price, 20 Lewis Rawlins, 21 Aled Davies, 22 Regan King, 23 Tom Williams.
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant referees: Tual Trainini (France), Pierre Brousset (France)
TMO: Eric Gonthier (France)
