Saints claim third straight win
Tries from props Soane Tonga'uiha and Brian Mujati helped Northampton clinch a 24-13 win over Wasps at Adams Park.
Last Updated: 06/11/11 6:49pm
Northampton claimed their fifth successive victory at Wasps with a 24-13 triumph over the Londoners at Adams Park.
Tries from props Soane Tonga'uiha and Brian Mujati plus 14 points from the boot of fly-half Ryan Lamb gave Saints a third successive Aviva Premiership win and put their poor start to the season firmly behind them.
Wasps replied with tries from England centre Riki Flutey and lock Ross Filipo, as well as a penalty from fly-half Nick Robinson.
Wasps' miserable week continued when after just 10 minutes they lost former England prop Tim Payne to the sin-bin for throwing a punch.
Just a minute later and the hosts, who earlier in the week had seen coach Shaun Edwards and veteran England lock Simon Shaw sever their ties with the club, fell behind when Lamb slotted over his first penalty following another messy breakdown.
Complaints
Wasps however, responded quickly despite being a man down, Flutey going over after collecting a pass from right-wing Christian Wade who had grabbed the loose ball from Joe Simpson's kick through.
Lamb and Robinson exchanged penalties soon after to take the scores to 8-6 after 25 minutes but the former saw his next attempt disallowed after referee Tim Wigglesworth consulted the television match official.
After more than three minutes of deliberation following complaints from Northampton players, Wigglesworth's decision was to rule out the 29th minute kick after it sailed high above the posts.
However, the fly-half made no mistake three minutes later and again on 35 minutes, two long-range penalties taking the visitors into the break with a 12-8 lead.
Saints increased their advantage less than two minutes after the restart when left-wing Vasily Artemyev released the ball as he was brought down close to the line.
Late surge
Tonga'uiha picked up and dived over for the try, and 11 minutes later fellow prop Mujati collected scrum-half Lee Dickson' short pass to crash through Robinson's tackle and run 30 metres to the line.
Lamb slotted over one of the two conversion attempts to make it 24-8 and effectively take the game out of reach for Wasps.
But a late surge from the home side saw leading Premiership try-scorer Wade go close before the pressure finally paid off on 70 minutes when Filipo went over in the left corner.
Wasps continued to push for a losing bonus point but were unable to improve any further on the scoreline.