Perpignan see off Saints

Perpignan bounced back from their shock loss to Treviso on the opening weekend of the Heineken Cup with a 29-13 win over Northampton.

Both sides managed two tries apiece at Stade Aime Giral but Jerome Porical kicked 19 points to help the hosts come out on top in the Pool One clash.

Having been humbled in Italy six days ago, a performance that likely led to plenty of empty seats in the ground, Perpignan were clearly keen to make amends in front of their own fans.

Saints played their part in an entertaining European clash but in the end poor discipline cost them dear, perhaps a sign of tiredness following their hard-fought home success over Munster the previous week.

Intense pressure

They had little time to reflect on past glories as they were immediately put under intense pressure, Perpignan quickly setting out to right the wrongs of their 9-8 humbling on Italian soil.

A careless offload by visiting skipper Dylan Hartley inside his own 22 allowed Porical to break the deadlock early on and after Jean-Pierre Perez knocked on with a try there for the taking, Perpignan's pack turned the screw.

Scrum-after-scrum from five metres out saw Northampton tested up front and only some last-ditch defending held up Nicolas Laharrague over the line.

But from the resulting set piece Saints' heads were squeezed up to break Nigel Owens' patience, the referee running from the scrum to award a penalty try underneath the posts.

The simple conversion made it a double-digit lead before Shane Geraghty got the Guinness Premiership side on the board with a penalty.

However the three points were handed straight back when Hartley's shove on Perez was punished by Porical, restoring Perpignan's 10-point advantage.

That lead was cut in half, though, when Chris Ashton became the first opposing player to score at the ground since the opening day of the French domestic season.

It took a moment of individual skill, plus a slice of luck, for the rugby league convert to get it, his chip over the top running kindly for him to dive on after the covering Nicolas Durand was fooled by the bounce.

At 13-8 - with Geragthy's conversion drifting wide to the right - Saints would have had high hopes of making it two wins from two in Europe.

That proved to be as close as they would get though. Maxime Mermoz collected Nicolas Laharrague's chip over the top to set up centre partner David Marty for a stroll-in underneath the uprights before the break.

Never close

Porical's conversion made it 20-8 at the interval and although they did cross again, Northampton never really came close to ending their opponents' 19-match unbeaten home run.

Saints' second-half score came against the run of play too, a burst from Ben Foden showing why he is a serious contender for England's number 15 jersey.

The full-back counter-attacked from deep with devastating effect, cutting right down the heart of the field on a run that eventually led to replacement prop Brian Mujati diving over on the right untouched.

But from then on Porical's boot took over, the full-back slotting over a trio of penalties to give the final score a healthy look for Perpignan - next up for them is a trip to Munster when the competition resumes in December.