Northampton thrash Newcastle to stay in Premiership play-off hunt

Northampton kept their hopes of a place in the English Premiership play-offs alive with a 66-5 hammering of basement club Newcastle on Friday.

Both Tom Collins and England scrum-half Alex Mitchell grabbed two tries apiece for visitors Northampton, who scored 10 in total, with Juarno Augustus, Paul Hill, Fin Smith, Sam Graham, Tommy Freeman and David Ribbans all going over as Newcastle suffered their heaviest defeat of the season.

Only the top four at the end of the regular campaign qualify for the title-deciding play-offs and Saints must now wait to see if they are overtaken by London Irish, who have two games in hand.

Newcastle, in complete contrast to the bulk of the match, opened the scoring when wing Adam Radwan went in for a try at the corner after just four minutes.

But the Saints hit back when Mitchell sidestepped his way through a tackle for a try to leave Smith with a simple chance for the first of his eight conversions.

From then on it was one-way traffic with Collins, showing good speed and awareness, scoring two tries before the break.

And when Augustus went over on the stroke of halftime it meant Saints had a valuable bonus-point try, with Smith's fourth conversion of the opening 40 minutes giving Northampton a 28-5 lead at the interval.