AT TIMES of financial doubt and other anxieties, here was the Guinness Premiership at its most powerful and appealing, and at its most delightful.

Northampton, playing with rare relish, pace and attacking power, secured the loudest bragging rights in the Midlands with a thumping victory betrayed by the feeble final margin. Leicester were hardly in it, beleaguered by the Saints at all points.

Northampton were delightfully quick and inventive, with a real electricity from Ben Foden at full-back and James Downey in midfield. Stephen Myler at fly-half had a wonderfully accomplished game as well, although he was the problem as well as the solution because five missed kicks at goal allowed Leicester to stay in the contest when they were palpably the inferior team.

Saints needed a win to move up to mid-table, but in terms of long-term health, the burgeoning team and wonderful ground and supporters indicate no real alarm for the club. Leicester had an edge in the scrum, but tended to brute it out around the fringes because, apart from the typical power and energy of Seru Rabeni, they had nothing remotely like the armoury of Northampton and their try in the second half was from nothing.

It is very rare that you see Leicester almost being swamped but such was the pace and dexterity of Northampton’s attacks in the first half that the Tigers were rocked down to their claws, and the half-time score of only 10-6 to Saints was a complete farce.

Sadly, even though Myler was the ringmaster in the opening 40 minutes and made four beautiful line breaks with his passing and stepping, he was also the culprit because he missed all his shots at goal, none of them from really fierce distance.

Leicester may well have once been seen as one of the greatest teams in terms of slowing the ball down, but it would have taken Messrs Johnson, Back and Rowntree at their best to slow down the flying Saints. Northampton scored two breathtaking tries in a first half of quite dazzling movement and, with Myler prompting, they could quite easily have scored two more.

The first came from a line-out, and Northampton attacked with no thought to take the ball laboriously through the phases. Myler set the back-line running, Jon Clarke drew defenders with a dummy run, Sean Lamont came in from the blindside wing, Foden went scorching through on an outside break and Paul Diggin scored in the right-hand corner. One phase, one great try.

Diggin popped up again not long afterwards. Northampton had been piling almost recklessly into the mini-rucks to create quick ball and when they again put steam on the ball deep in Leicester territory, Myler checked, held up the ball and put Diggin through the gap to cross the line. Myler, to his ill-disguised grief, kept missing the kicks, however, and so two penalties by Toby Flood for an outgunned Leicester gave the scoreline a respect that the visiting team did not merit.

Soon after the break, we had a third Northampton gem, which Diggin helped to create but graciously allowed Foden to score. Leicester had delivered a few poor kicks out of defence, most of which were run back with interest and when scrum-half Julien Dupuy put up a rather speculative effort, Saints countered with a simple but beautifully executed attack, Diggin and Downey running superb angles before the splendid Downey sent Foden through the gap for a try. From near the posts, even poor Myler was not going to miss the conversion.

At this stage, Leicester were so out of it in an attacking sense that it was something of a surprise to note that they were still on the field, but they scored after an hour and it was the try, though entirely against the run of play, that brought them back into it. Northampton were penalised near their own line, Dupuy called for the penalty rather than the advantage, then set off after a quick tap and put Flood in for the try.

Personally, I think quick-tap penalties by the scrum-half near the opposition line should be outlawed because they are so iniquitous with the defence not able to make the tackle. But that is no concern of Dupuy or Flood. They were more interested in the fact that this brought Leicester back to 17-13, with the final 20 minutes promising the riches which the rest of the game had delivered.

However, Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe and his forwards ran down the clock, and the lap of honour was the slowest thing that Northampton did all day.

Star man:James Downey (Northampton)

Scorers: Northampton: Tries: Diggin 12, 22, Foden 50 Con: Myler Leicester: Try: Flood 61 Con: Flood Pens: Flood (2)

Referee:W Barnes (RFU)

Attendance:13,582

LEICESTER: G Murphy; J Murphy (S Hamilton ht),S Rabeni, A Mauger (capt), M Smith; T Flood, J Dupuy (B Youngs 62min); B Stankovich (M Castrogiovanni 55min), G Chuter, J White, M Wentzel (M Corry 55min), B Kay, T Croft, B Deacon, B Herring (C Newby 11-24min, 62min) Tigers struck down
NORTHAMPTON: B Foden; P Diggin, J Clarke, J Downey (C Mayor 77min), S Lamont; S Myler, L Dickson (B Reihana 72min); T Smith (S Tonga’uiha 53min), D Hartley, E Murray, I Fernandez Lobbe (capt), J Kruger, M Easter, M Hopley, S Gray