Six-try Leicester blow away Premiership leaders

MATCH REPORT: Geoff Parling kept his feet firmly on the ground, despite seeing his Leicester side power to an emphatic 41-17 win over local and title rivals Northampton.

The Tigers ran in six tries at Mattioli Woods Welford Road to clinch a vital bonus-point victory, but head coach Parling insisted there was still room for improvement as the race to be crowned Gallagher Prem champions hots up.

Leicester handed Prem leaders Saints their first league defeat of 2026 – and only their second of the season.

George Martin, Ollie Hassell-Collins, Adam Radwan and Freddie Steward also crossed as the Tigers closed to only a point behind second-placed Bath as the race for a top-two finish hots up.

Tommy Freeman scored twice to become the Saints’ record try scorer in the Prem with 52, either side of a George Hendy touchdown.

Leicester’s win still left them in third place but cut the gap to leaders Northampton to five points.

The contest saw a record number of cards for this fixture – five yellows, while Tigers’ Izaia Perese got a late red.

Leicester dominated the first half and secured three tries to carve out a 19-5 interval lead.

James O’Connor, who replaced the injured Billy Searle, was outstanding at number 10 as the veteran Australia international created momentum and pressure for his side.

England lock George Martin opened the scoring as he had the easiest of tasks to saunter across the line unchallenged after the ball was moved wide.

Parling said: “It was a good win, but we can still do some things better as well.

“I was really pleased with our edge. We were on a real sweet spot physically and I’m also pleased we managed to stop them scoring a bonus point.

“We know when it’s these big derby matches at home that the lads are going to get up for it so we were quite tactical during the week with preparations.

Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson admitted his side were comfortably second best.

He said: “It was very painful. We battled very hard and worked incredibly hard, but after half-time, we couldn’t make the adjustments.

“We couldn’t get into the game or exert any pressure of our own to give us some momentum and get some points.

*Saracens survived two late yellow cards to keep alive their hopes of an end-of-season Prem play-off spot after a 41-26 win at Bristol.

Their bonus-point win saw them reduce the gap to both Exeter and Bristol who both remain just ahead of the London club.

Bristol were their own worst enemies in the first half, conceding 34 points from slipshod tackling and the deficit proved too great to overcome.

Saracens’ tries came from Tom Willis, Hugh Tizard, Rotimi Segun, Ben Earl, Tobias Elliott and Fergus Burke, who added a penalty and three conversions. Owen Farrell kicked a conversion.

Fitz Harding, Harry Thacker, Matias Moroni and Kalaveti Ravouvou scored Bristol’s tries with Tom Jordan converting three.

Leicester 19-5 Northampton

The scorers:

For Leicester:
Tries: Martin, Hassell-Collins, Blamire 2, Radwan, Steward
Cons: O’Connor 3, Bailey
Pens: O’Connor

For Northampton:
Tries: Freeman 2 Hendy
Cons: F Smith

Teams:

Leicester Tigers: Freddie Steward, Adam Radwan, Will Wand, Orlando Bailey, Ollie Hassell-Collins, James O’Connor, Jack van Poortvliet, Joaquin Moro, Tommy Reffell, Hanro Liebenberg, George Martin, Ollie Chessum (c), Joe Heyes, Jamie Blamire, Nicky Smith.
Replacements: Charlie Clare, Archie van der Flier, Will Hurd, Cameron Henderson, Samuel Williams, Tom Whiteley, Solomone Kata, Izaia Perese.

Northampton Saints: George Furbank (c), Tommy Freeman, Rory Hutchinson, Fraser Dingwall, George Hendy, Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell, Callum Chick, Sam Graham, Josh Kemeny, JJ van der Mescht, Tom Lockett, Luke Green, Robbie Smith, Emmanuel Iyogun.
Replacements: Craig Wright, Tom West, Elliot Millar Mills, Ed Prowse, Chunya Munga, Henry Pollock, Archie McParland, Tom Litchfield.

Referee: Matthew Carley
Assistant referees: Hamish Smales & Simon Harding
TMO: Stuart Terheege

Bristol 26-41 Saracens

The scorers:

For Bristol
Tries: Harding, Thacker, Moroni, Ravouvou
Cons: Jordan 3

For Saracens:
Tries: Willis, Tizard, Segun, Earl, Burke, Elliott
Cons: Burke 3, Farrell
Pens: Burke

The teams:

Bristol Bears: 15 Noah Heward, 14 Kalaveti Ravouvou, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Bernhard Janse van Rensburg, 11 Gabriel Ibitoye, 10 Tom Jordan, 9 Kiernan Marmion, 8 Santiago Grondona, 7 Fitz Harding (c), 6 Joe Owen, 5 Joe Batley, 4 James Dun, 3 George Kloska, 2 Harry Thacker, 1 Ellis Genge.
Replacements: 16 Tomas Gwilliam, 17 Jake Woolmore, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 George Taylor, 20 Kofi Cripps, 21 Harry Randall, 22 James Williams, 23 Jack Bates.

Saracens: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Noah Caluori, 13 Nick Tompkins, 12 Olly Hartley, 11 Rotimi Segun, 10 Fergus Burke, 9 Charlie Bracken, 8 Tom Willis, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Nick Isiekwe, 5 Hugh Tizard, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Marcus Street, 2 Jamie George, 1 Rhys Carre.
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Eroni Mawi, 18 Alec Clarey, 19 Theo McFarland, 20 Nathan Michelow, 21 Ivan van Zyl, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Tobias Elliott.

Referee: Christophe Ridley
Assistant referees: Adam Leal & Jamie Leahy
TMO: Andrew Jackson