Despite the monsoon weather, London Irish and Northampton played out an entertaining game at Sunbury with the Saints eventually coming out on top.

Northampton opened the scoring on three minutes when Alistair Hepher capitalised on Irish scrum-half Matt Jones' fumble to run over in the left corner.

Hepher converted his try and added another penalty but not before Niall Woods capped a sweet Irish move to score under the posts after good work from South African centre Brendan Venter.

Saints seemed to adapt better to the atrocious weather but Countney crossed in the corner just before the break after some good mauling to go in 15-10 ahead.

Northampton started the second half as they finished the first when number eight Pat Lam found himself free on the right to touch down in the corner.

And Irish had no answer to Northampton's spoiling tactics and despite some fierce pressure in the second half, Saints' defence held solid.