In any team, the man keeping you on the bench is usually given acclaim through gritted teeth, especially if you are the captain. However, Bruce Reihana, the Northampton club captain and lengthening in the molars, had nothing but praise for his replacement, Ben Foden, despite being dropped for the second game in a row.

Foden is likely to be one of Martin Johnson's five changes to England's 32-man elite player squad announced on Wednesday. The 23-year-old, who left Sale Sharks in the summer, ostensibly because he wanted a chance at scrum half, was named in the Saxons squad last July. This was only his fourth start at full back, but Jim Mallinder, the Northampton director of rugby and former Sale coach and No 15, will find it hard to drop him after his performance on Saturday.

“I saw him for Sale and thought he was an awesome talent; young, lot of speed, naturally skilled and I thought he should have been with England last year,” Reihana, 32, said. “Having him come down here, it's good; it puts the pressure on me and now Fodes has had a chance and he's taken it. If he keeps playing like that, I'll happily be clapping him on the sideline. If they [England] don't look at him, it will be a sad miss. He is a rare talent.”

Foden's try that enabled Northampton to pull away to 17-6 in the 50th minute was impressive enough. However, it is the space he creates for others that is crucial and scything into the line from slow first-phase ball he put Paul Diggin away for the first of his two tries. If Stephen Myler, who made at least three wonderful line-breaks, had not missed four straightforward first-half kicks at goal and five in total, Northampton would not have been sweating at the end.

Leicester could not produce another remarkable recovery as they had six days before against Bath. Toby Flood scored all their points, adding a second-half converted try to his two penalty goals. “If they had kicked their penalties and conversions, they might have been out of sight by half-time,” Richard Cockerill, the Leicester forwards coach, said. “You have to take your hat off to the way they played.”

Scorers: Northampton: Tries: Diggin 2 (13min, 23), Foden (50). Conversion: Myler. Leicester: Try: Flood (61). Conversion: Flood. Penalty goals: Flood 2 (27, 35).

Scoring sequence (Northampton first): 5-0, 10-0, 10-3, 10-6 (half-time), 17-6, 17-13.

Northampton: B Foden; P Diggin, J Clarke, J Downey (rep: C Mayor, 77), S Lamont; S Myler, L Dickson (rep: B Reihana, 72); T Smith (rep: S Tonga'uiha, 54), D Hartley, E Murray, I Fernández Lobbe, J Kruger, M Easter, S Gray, M Hopley.

Leicester: G Murphy; J Murphy (rep: S Hamilton, 40), S Rabeni, A Mauger, M Smith; T Flood, J Dupuy (rep: B Youngs, 62); B Stankovich (rep: M Castrogiovanni, 56), G Chuter, J White, M Wentzel (rep: M Corry, 55), B Kay, T Croft, B Herring (rep: C Newby, 11-23, 62), B Deacon.

Referee: W Barnes.

Attendance: 13,582.