Wasps 31-35 Northampton: Saints' 13 men snatch Premiership victory

Northampton Saints survived the shock of being reduced to 13 men for a frantic final 10 minutes at the Ricoh Arena as they bravely rallied to score a late try and dramatically beat Wasps.

Cobus Reinach's sinbinning and the award of a penalty try put Wasps 31-28 in front, just five minutes after Tom Collins' red card for a high challenge.

But, with two minutes left, replacement Taqele Naiyaravoro went over.

That earned second-placed Saints' first Premiership win at the Ricoh Arena.

Reinach's two earlier tries, coupled with scores from Teimana Harrison and Tom Wood, added up to the five tries which earned Saints their bonus-point win - to keep them within a point of leaders Exeter, who also survived being reduced to 13 men to win at London Irish.

Four-times Premiership champions Wasps, who have won just two of this season's opening eight league games, were looking to back up last weekend's bonus-point win at Bristol.

Despite the pre-match blow of losing captain Joe Launchbury to illness, they cancelled out Reinach's early converted try with a penalty from Jacob Umaga, who then converted Marcus Watson's try for a 10-7 lead.

But Harrison crossed for Saints' second try five minutes before the break, Wood added another within two minutes of the restart, and Reinach then went in again at the corner on 53 minutes, with Wales number 10 Dan Biggar converting for a fourth time for a 28-10 lead.

Two tries in two minutes from Jimmy Gopperth and Thomas Young then turned it round, Umaga kicking both conversions to bring it back to 28-24.

But the real drama was only just about to begin.

With 15 minutes left, Saints winger Collins took out opposite number Umaga in the air and the sickening collision left both needing prolonged treatment.

Umaga was eventually led off and the TMO ruled that Collins should join him.

And, only five minutes later, Saints lost another man - and the lead - when Reinach was punished with a yellow card for a deliberate try-preventing slap-down and the greater punishment of a Wasps penalty try.

It seemed, with a three-point lead and a two-man advantage, the most Saints could hope for was a penalty or a drop goal to tie the game.

But, with Saints camped on the Wasps line following a five-metre scrum, the visitors scrambled the ball out from a maul to Naiyaravoro who crashed over to win it, sealed again by the reliable boot of Six Nations winner Biggar.

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young:

"Another loss at home really hurts but you have to give Saints credit for the way they played the last five minutes.

"We gave three or four penalties away and couldn't get the ball and, when they got close to the line, they've got some big ball carriers to force their way over.

"We were playing against a quality team. They are near the top and we are near the bottom.

"We could have folded when we went 18 points down, so I'm very pleased with the boys' attitude."

Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd:

"To cough up an 18-point lead was very poor as we stopped trying to play and we were just defending.

"I have no complaints about Tom's sending off but he was unlucky as I believe he was about to jump and get in the air but mistimed it and the contact came from their player. I appreciate safety is paramount but it was tough on Tom to get up and then collect a red card.

"The yellow card for Cobus was also justified but I would question the consistency of the referee as, minutes later, their flanker did exactly the same thing and there was no punishment at all.

"At the end, we showed great resilience to poke ourselves and get in front, but we shouldn't have been in that position as we were pretty grumpy at half-time at not being further ahead."

Wasps: Minozzi; Kibirige, Fekitoa, Le Bourgeois, Watson; Umaga, Robson (co-capt); West, Taylor, Brookes, Flament, Matthews, Willis, Young (co-capt), Carr.

Replacements: Gopperth for Le Bourgeois (49), Cruse for Taylor (49), Toomaga-Allen for Brookes (55), Vailanu for Carr (55), de Jongh for Umaga (65).

Not used: Owlett, Cardall, Porter.

Northampton: Furbank; Tuala, Hutchinson, Francis, Collins; Biggar, Reinach; Waller (co-capt), Haywood, Hill, Moon, Ribbans, Lawes, Wood, Harrison (co-capt).

Replacements: Proctor for Francis (55), Van Wyk for Waller (55), Franks for Hill (55), Ludlam for Wood (57), Matavesi for Haywood (57), Ratuniyarawa for Moon (62), Naiyaravoro for Tuala (64), Taylor for Proctor (73).

Sin-bin: Reinach (70).

Sent off: Collins (65).

Referee: Matthew Carley (RFU).