Leaders Northampton Saints beat battling Newcastle Falcons

Northampton Saints finally shrugged off a resilient Newcastle Falcons side to extend their lead at the top of the Aviva Premiership with a 39-31 home win.

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The Falcons did not let Northampton get away until the latter stages and scored only one try fewer than them in a high-scoring affair at Franklin's Gardens.

It appeared as though the Saints were on their way to a routine win when Stephen Myler scored 10 unanswered points in the opening 15 minutes.

However, Newcastle responded through a converted 20th-minute Chris Harris try, and briefly levelled the scores when Tom Catterick knocked over a penalty.

George Pisi ensured that Northampton would be ahead at the break when he crossed on 32 minutes, with Myler adding the extras to extend their lead to seven.

Three more points from Myler and two tries before the hour mark put the Saints in what they thought was a commanding position, but Newcastle bounced back with their own pair of quickfire efforts.

George McGuigan and Alex Tait went over in the space of three minutes, with Catterick making the conversion on each occasion to bring the scores to 32-24 with over 15 minutes remaining.

The next try in the game was always going to be decisive, and Luther Burrell stepped up for the Saints to mean that Richard Mayhew's reply four minutes from time earned Newcastle only a bonus-point loss.

Northampton are now six points clear of Bath in first place, while the Falcons climb to 10th.