Saints stay top after Quins thriller

Champions Northampton maintained their lead at the top of the English Premiership with an impressive 30-25 victory over Harlequins in front of 82,000 fans at Twickenham on Saturday.
Saints had just 25 percent of the ball yet proved ruthless in their execution as Quins came up just short in a thrilling advert for the English game.
But Northampton are now just one point ahead of Bath after the West Country outfit earned a bonus point in a 31-14 win at home to Exeter Chiefs.
Samu Manoa, George North and Kahn Fotuali'i scored tries for Saints while Quins matched them with scores from George Lowe, Jack Clifford and Sam Twomey.
Fly-half Tim Swiel however missed a conversion and a couple of penalties, while Northampton's Stephen Myler was faultless with the boot.
Quins were out of the blocks in breakneck fashion as centre Lowe started and finished off a sweeping move on six minutes.
Swiel missed the conversion, but made amends by knocking over a penalty a few moments later after more good work from Lowe.
Yet from the restart the hosts gave away a penalty for accidental offside and Myler stemmed the tide with a three-pointer of his own.
That spurred the champions into life and Toulon-bound American back row Manoa bulldozed over after a catch-and-drive line-out move from five yards out.
Myler's penalty gave Saints the lead and he stretched that out before half-time with another despite prop Salesi Ma'afu sitting in the sin bin for a high tackle on Lowe.
It had been a smash-and-grab half from Saints as Quins led in every aspect of the statistics except the one that counted the most: the scoreline.
At the start of the second period Manoa charged down a Swiel kick on halfway before beating Matt Hopper to the rebound and offloading one-handed to Wales wing North to steam in unopposed.
Just as they had done the week before when beating Leicester despite playing 63 minutes a man-down, Northampton had proved peerless with 14 men, outscoring Quins 10-0.
Swiel and Myler swapped penalties before the Quins man made a scything break that saw the fly-half come up barely an inch short.
Yet Quins did not despair and after battering away at the Saints line, the defence narrowed and the hosts went wide right where Clifford cut inside to score.
Saints brought on Alex Corbisiero to make his first appearance since September after a shoulder injury and the England prop helped the visitors take control up front.
He almost scored a try but had the ball stripped from his grasp as he crossed the line, yet fellow replacement Fotuali'i did burrow over shortly afterwards.
Twomey dived over from close range as Quins set up a tense finale with a late converted try but it was only enough to earn a losing bonus point.
Earlier in the day, Bath continued their fine form over the last two months, securing a seventh straight victory in European and domestic competition.
Tries by wing Horacio Agulla, centre Kyle Eastmond, replacement lock Dave Attwood and full-back Anthony Watson helped the hosts turn around the disappointment of conceding a breakaway try to Matt Jess and seeing Jack Nowell level the scores at 14-14 early in the second period when winning a foot race to touch down in the corner.
Saracens moved above Exeter into third after Newcastle Falcons' Argentine fly-half Pablo Socino missed a last-gasp conversion that would have handed his side a draw.
The 2013 champions had been cruising to victory until two Chris Harris scores in the final five minutes could have given Newcastle an unlikely victory.
Yet Socino missed both conversions and Sarries won 25-23.
Leicester Tigers, the 2012 champions, continued their climb up the table after a troubled start to their campaign as Julian Salvi's late try, converted by Owen Williams, gave them a bonus-point 32-30 victory at Sale, who earned attacking and defensive bonuses.
Source: AFP