Saints storm the Leicester citadel

Leicester 12 Northampton 25

Of all the teams to end Leicester's unbeaten home record in the Premiership – 57 matches strong in a shade under five years – it had to be Northampton. The Saints' owner, Keith Barwell, had spoken beforehand of his "envy cum jealousy" of their great local rivals in midweek, and there was devilish intent in their short journey across the East Midlands.

One upshot was the further depletion of England resources after the huge recent exertions, with scrum-half Matt Dawson carried off injured early on and awaiting a scan on his knee, but Leicester could have no complaints about the result. Newcastle's win here, on the penultimate day of 1997, is at last expunged from the record books, and a goodly minority of a capacity crowd cheered the Saints to the rafters at the final whistle.

These sides had seven players on the field for England against South Africa last weekend, and initially it seemed as if the Springboks' strong-arm tactics had been carried over. That would be unfair on the Tigers. Their attitude, like their green jerseys, was of a different hue to the Boks', on the right side of illegal, and Northampton gave as good, or bad, as they got. Even so, there were more casualty reports to add to the pre-match pair of Leicester's back rowers, Neil Back and Lewis Moody, out for a few weeks with a shoulder injury and fractured eye-socket respectively.

Dawson, whose stock has risen considerably with England recently, lasted only nine minutes before being carried off with what looked like a nasty knee injury. He was heavily tackled by Geordan Murphy as he covered a Leicester kick down the touchline. It was not clear if that was when the injury happened but Dawson was clearly hobbling soon after and could not continue after again going to ground with the assistance of Andrew Blowers' arm around his neck.

A late tackle on Dawson's half-back partner, Paul Grayson, by Harry Ellis further raised the hackles, Grayson delivering three points from some 70 metres downfield where his kick had landed.

Leicester got level through Tim Stimpson when Grayson caught Rod Kafer around the Adam's apple with another dubious tackle. Grayson booted a second penalty from the halfway line, when Leicester went offside at a ruck, and Stimpson missed from a tricky angle as the hot tempers cooled to simmering. But danger lurked all over: Ben Cohen, another recent England hero, crashed into an advertising hoarding staving off Stimpson's chase on to a Murphy grubber-kick.

Northampton had extended their lead with a piece of play incongruous in its cuteness. Never mind anything the South Africans might have done to him, Steve Thompson, the England hooker, probably felt like kicking himself after a first half-hour in which four of his throws into the line-out were nicked by Leicester. Faced with this floodlit robbery, he had a highly effective Plan B. At an attacking line-out five metres from the Leicester goal-line, he threw underarm to Budge Pountney, who dived round the front of the line and over. While the cynics wondered if England had discovered a new tactic to win back the Ashes, Grayson smacked the conversion over from the touchline; it was 13-3 to Northampton.

Not that Thompson's more conventional overarm throwing got much better, but Northampton had other weapons at their disposal in their determination not only to reverse the result from the previous Premiership meeting at Frank-lin's Gardens three weeks ago, but ruin that proudest of domestic home records. Blowers, Pountney and Mark Soden were in fine fettle, chasing and harrying Austin Healey at fly-half. As a consequence, Josh Kronfeld was not the force he was when Leicester won two of their three games in the international window.

Stimpson kicked further penalties in the 43rd and 54th minutes, sandwiching a yellow card to Northampton's Rob Hunter for killing a ruck. The Saints survived that, and then some. A devastating burst of two tries in eight minutes took them clear. First Vass skidded in at the left corner, Thompson and Pountney again outwitting the line-out. Then Chris Hyndman became the unlikeliest of star turns after two years of learning the ropes in Northampton's academy, going over from close range on the short side of a ruck. Leicester's fifth defeat of the season, more than in any of their four title-winning campaigns, was sealed.

Leicester 12
Pens: Stimpson 4

Northampton 25
Tries: Pountney, Vass, Hyndman
Cons: Grayson 2
Pens: Grayson 2

Half-time: 6-13 Attendance: 16,800

Leicester: G Murphy; T Stimpson (S Booth, 72), O Smith (L Lloyd, h-t), R Kafer, F Tuilagi; A Healey, H Ellis (T Tierney, 72); G Rowntree (P Freshwater, 61), G Chuter, F Tournaire, M Johnson (capt), B Kay (A Balding, 72), M Corry, W Johnson, J Kronfeld (B Gerry, 76).

Northampton: N Beal; B Reihana, C Hyndman, J Leslie (capt), B Cohen; P Grayson, M Dawson (I Vass, 9); T Smith, S Thompson (D Richmond, 72), C Budgen (R Morris, 62), M Lord, R Hunter (J Phillips, 70), A Blowers, M Soden (S Hepher, 81), B Pountney.

Referee: T Spreadbury (Somerset).