Northampton Saints 34 Munster 32

Fin Smith passed another Six Nations audition as Northampton claimed a home last-16 tie in the Champions Cup, but there could be more injury worries for England head coach Steve Borthwick.

Lock Alex Coles left the ground with his right arm in a sling after walking off after 53 minutes of a Test-match-intensity contest.

And more worryingly for Borthwick, whose squad heads to Girona next week for a pre-Six Nations camp, scrum-half Alex Mitchell limped off with nine minutes left after three bouts of treatment on a knee injury.

Mitchell was strapped up in the first half and again in the second half and although Northampton were playing it down must be a concern for England.

Phil Dowson, the Northampton director of rugby, said: “Mitch got a knee on knee and that could be more of a dead-leg-type issue which can be quite debilitating in the short term to run. He slowed down later on, but touch wood there is nothing structural there that I am aware of.

“Alex Coles hurt his wrist, he bent it forward and he said it is quite painful. He is not overly worried but I don’t know any more than that.”

Coles has been a fringe figure for England since his debut in 2022 but Mitchell has emerged as England’s No 1 scrum-half since the last World Cup. His reputation was enhanced when he missed the autumn Tests with a neck injury but he has been flying since his return before Christmas and was inked in to start against Ireland in Dublin on Feb 1.

Whether Smith will be starting at No 10 that day is another matter but he did his cause no harm with another composed display in a match played at 90 miles per hour. There was a hat-trick for wing Tom Seabrook, who was playing because another of England’s Saints, Ollie Sleightholme, has a hamstring injury.

Smith had a hand in a couple of tries and kicked from hand neatly to ensure the debate about England’s fly-half, with Marcus Smith and George Ford also in the squad, will rage until Borthwick announces his side.

Northampton looked comfortable at 27-18 up with 17 minutes left and the bonus point in the bag but a try from visiting wing Diarmuid Kilgallen, on his first Munster start, turned it back into a one-score match.

Then came Seabrook with his third try, his searing pace taking him around the Munster defence with 13 minutes left. Munster, though, would not go away and a second score from wing Kilgallen left the game in the balance.

Munster had one last thrash but Northampton won the ball in midfield and Smith smashed it into the crowd to ensure Seabrook’s three tries were not wasted.

Chris Boyd, the former Northampton director of rugby who sparked the revival that led to Saints winning the Premiership last year when he acted as a sounding board for his successor Phil Dowson, was here in his new role as performance director of Munster.

The pair were all smiles on the pitch ahead of the match but there has been a feisty relationship between the two clubs during their frequent European meetings in the last couple of years, and both sides went flat out from the off.

Northampton soaked up a pile of pressure early before Tommy Freeman was held up and centre Rory Hutchinson released the former Gloucester wing Seabrook who put the hosts in front.

However, a quick-fire double from Munster wing Calvin Nash put Saints on the back foot. On 23 minutes he beat Mitchell to touch down after a searching kick from Conor Murray. And shortly afterwards he was on the end of a superb pass from Jack Crowley, as he came off his right wing, ran round the fly-half and scored in the left-hand corner.

Saints hooker Curtis Langdon then scored a try from a driving line-out after Munster had been penalised four times in a row near their line. The Irish side also lost No 8 Gavin Coombes to the sin-bin as Northampton closed the gap to three points at the break.

Seabrook’s second, with Coombes still off, came off a slick move, with Smith involved twice and full-back James Ramm supplying a 30m scoring pass.

Then Ramm grabbed the bonus point off Smith’s sublime flick pass.

There was still drama to come, but Northampton got home to claim another home knockout game.

“Getting a home draw is huge,” added Dowson. “We have got a good record here and if we want to go deep into the tournament that is one of the things that is going to make it slightly easier. There are some pretty tasty teams out there but we will put it to bed for a few weeks.

“We were expecting that sort of intensity bearing in mind the quality of Munster and their history of Europe. I am just glad it didn’t go on five minutes longer.”

Match details

Scoring sequence: 5-0, Seabrook try; 5-5, Nash try, 5-7 Crowley con; 5-10, Crowley pen; 5-15, Nash try; 10-15, Langdon try, 12-15, Smith con (half-time) 17-15, Seabrook try; 22-15 Ramm try, 24-15 Smith con; 24-18, Crowley pen; 27-18 Smith pen; 27-23, Kilgallen try, 27-25, Crowley con; 32-25, Seabrook try, 34-25, Smith con; 34-30, Kilgallen try, 34-32 Crowley con.

Northampton Saints: J Ramm; T Freeman, F Dingwall (capt), R Hutchinson, T Seabrook; F Smith, A Mitchell (T James 71); T Haffar (T West 60), C Langdon (H Walker 79), T Davison (L Green 62), A Coles (C Hunter-Hill 53), T Lockett, J Kemeny (A Scott-Young 71), T Pearson, J Augustus (H Pollock 59).
Replacement not used: T Litchfield.

Munster: M Haley; C Nash (T Butler 62), T Farrell, R Scannell. D Kilgallen; J Crowley, C Murray (P Patterson 71); D Bleuler (J Ryan 71), D Barron (N Scannell 49), O Jager (S Archer 49), F Wycherley (T Ahern 49), T Beirne (capt), P O’Mahony (J O’Donoghue 49), A Kendellen (B Gleeson 66), G Coombes.
Sin-bin: G Coombes (40).

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia).