London Irish 39 Northampton 17

26 points in the 20 minutes either side of half-time helped London Irish to a comfortable victory over Northampton.

The Exiles were searching for their second win in six and looking to bounce from the previous week's defeat to Worcester, whole Northampton were flying following five wins on the bounce. An inconspicuous start to the match suggested there'd be little between these two teams, but the form book was thrown out of the window in the latter three quarters as Irish ran away with the contest. Jonathan Joseph got the ball rolling for Irish when he capitalised on a mistake from Vasily Artemiev to touch down, though the conversion was missed. Ten minutes later Steven Shingler put eight points between the sides with a penalty goal, before David Paice powered his way over the line for the hosts' second try. Shingler's conversion made it 15-0 with an Ian Humphreys drop goal just before half-time put another three points between the two teams. Northampton got off the mark six minutes into the second half courtesy of a Stephen Myler drop-goal, but an unconverted Tomas O'Leary try minutes later re-asserted the Exiles' authority, before a Shingler penalty left Northampton with a mountain to climb. Jamie Gibson secured the bonus point for Irish on the hour with another good try, converted by Shingler, and, though the Saints rallied through tries from Ken Pisi and Phil Dowson in the final 15 minutes, it was too little too late for Northampton, whose run of strong recent form came to an emphatic halt.