Two dazzling tries from Rob Horne sees Northampton victorious at London Irish

Not exactly the homecoming London Irish were hoping for, rather a few home truths on a first Premiership match here for 16 months and the brutal reality of the arduous slog ahead. Chief among the lessons for the Exiles is the danger posed by a start as sluggish as theirs. They stirred themselves after the break but Irish were ultimately outclassed by Northampton, for whom the Australian centre Rob Horne registered his first two tries and caught the eye throughout.

The fact that the Saints were themselves ragged at times in the second half will not please Jim Mallinder, but his side’s recovery following their opening‑day embarrassment continues to impress with this a third win in a row since then. George North is finding some form, Luther Burrell too – although he limped off with a knee injury after the break – and Courtney Lawes does not seem capable of dropping his excellent standards at present.

Indeed, the contrasting fortunes of these two sides since the opening weekend of the season, when both were in action at Twickenham, is stark. Irish have slipped to heavy defeats at Exeter and Sale and now on their own patch, conceding 113 points along the way. Northampton, meanwhile, have put that thrashing by Saracens out of sight in their rear-view mirror and are expected to have Piers Francis and Dylan Hartley back at the weekend when Harlequins visit Franklin’s Gardens, assuming both come through England’s training camp in Oxford.

“Francis has got the all clear and we’re hoping for Dylan as well,” Mallinder said. “Hopefully he doesn’t do too much with England and he comes back fresh and raring to go.”

Of Horne, Mallinder said: “I thought today he was outstanding, he was tough as nails. His carrying for his two tries – he was always going to score them, he saw the line and he wasn’t going to be stopped. He’s given us that little bit of composure and punch in defence. His best game in a Saints shirt.

“The start was just what we talked about, being direct, being physical – two cracking tries – and some of the scramble defence was pretty good but we did help them with some loose passing.”

Solace can be found for Irish in the fact that, having gone in at the break trailing by 20 points, they won the second half and had Tommy Bell’s tricky conversion gone over with 15 minutes to go, they might just have avoided walking away empty-handed. They had the wind in their sails at that point after Bell had himself gone over on the left but there was an absence of composure in the Irish ranks and when the ball was coughed up and Cobus Reinach streaked away for Northampton’s sixth try, it rather summed up the difference between the sides.

Irish’s cause was not helped by conceding two tries inside the first six minutes. Both were finished under the posts, the first from the scrum-half Nic Groom after Ahsee Tuala had created the initial space for North to exploit down the right wing. The Welshman then fed Burrell, who passed on to Michael Paterson inside him and Groom was soon clear. If it looked a little easy for Saints, the same can certainly be said of Horne’s first – the 34-cap Wallaby coming off the left and through a series of missed tackles.

Indeed, Irish were reeling and while they were off the mark with a Bell penalty, Horne was over for his second on 26 minutes, again wriggling past defenders with an ease that will concern the home side. The bonus point came before half‑time – a period of Saints pressure yielded a penalty which Harry Mallinder kicked to the corner with Mike Haywood finishing off the driving lineout.

A second Bell penalty kept the deficit at half-time to 20 and soon after Alex Lewington, perhaps the brightest of silver linings for Irish, was arcing his way around the outside of the Northampton defence for a fine try. Just five minutes later, however, North responded by finishing off a straightforward overlap down the right.

Then came Bell’s score and some sustained Irish pressure and while the home side had the last say after Reinach’s effort – Josh McNally barging over from close range – a long season is in store. “For the third week in a row we gave ourselves a mountain to climb against a very good side,” the director of rugby, Nick Kennedy, said. “It’s lots of different things that were hurting us. Our overall work without the ball needs to improve. We’ve conceded a lot of points and but we are aware of how hard it was going to be. We knew it was a huge step up and we knew it was going to be a very tough season.”

London Irish Bell (Tonks, 67); Lewington, Tikoirotuma, Williams, Nalaga (Ojo 74); Marshall, McKibbin (Steele, 51); Franks (capt); (Elrington, 62), Porecki (Paice, 46), Du Plessis (Hoskins, 57), Van der Merwe (Paulo, 57), De Chaves, McNally, Gilsenan (Schatz, 58), Cowan.

Tries Lewington, Bell, McNally. Cons Bell, Tonks. Pens Bell 2.

Northampton Tuala (Foden, 59); North, Horne, Burrell, Collins; Mallinder (Grayson, 63), Groom (Reinach, 59); Waller (Ma’afu, 62), Haywood (Marshall, 76), Hill (Brookes, 54), Paterson, Ribbans (Day, 62), Lawes (capt), Gibson, Dickinson (Nutley, 67).

Tries Groom, Horne 2, Haywood, North, Reinach. Cons Mallinder 5.

Referee Matt Carley (RFU). Attendance 5,502.