Saints steal famous win in France

Agen 6 Northampton Saints 19

Northampton Saints notched their first Heineken Cup win on French soil at the sixth attempt to stay in the hunt for the Pool 4 title and qualification for the quarter-finals.

Fourteen points form the ever reliable boot of the England outside half Paul Grayson steered the Saints to a priceless away win, while Bruce Reihana’s second half try tipped the scales in favour of the visitors.

John Leslie’s men knew they would have to come up with something special at Agen to stay in touch with Llanelli Scarlets at the top of the pool table.

While the Scarlets were cruising to a 53-7 bonus point victory at home over Borders, the Saints had a much tougher task.

Agen had taken the Scarlets’ unbeaten record at Stade Armandie the previous week and had to win to stand a chance of reaching the quarter-finals at the first attempt.

Tensions ran high from the start and Ben Cohen was sent to the sin bin with home centre Luc Lafforgue for fighting after 25 minutes.

By that time Grayson had already given the visitors an early lead with his first penalty after seven minutes.

Eight minutes after Lafforgue had been sent to the sin bin Grayson hoisted his side into a six point lead with another penalty.

Home outside half Francois Gelez hit the mark with the first of his two penalties two minutes before half-time and then levelled the scores four minutes after the break with his second success.

That came shortly after Agen had lost their second player to the sin bin, this time lock Meaher Khala for a late tackle and before he returned the Saints struck their crucial blow.

Grayson kicked ahead for Reihana to chase, although it took a mistake by French International full-back Pepito Elhora on his line to allow the Saints full-back to grab the crucial score.

Grayson converted and then rounded off an historic night for his side with two more penalties after 60 and 80 minutes.