Luther Burrell makes his mark on the London Irish defence
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Matches: London Irish 12 - 19 Northampton Saints

Northampton Saints came away from Reading with four points after they beat London Irish 19-12 at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

Just hours after Bath had underlined their title credentials with an empathic victory over Saracens, Saints toiled to their fourth win of the season. England centre Luther Burrell's 36th-minute try was the solitary touch down of a drab spectacle short on highlights.

Burrell showed strength to breach the whitewash, but it was an otherwise disappointing afternoon notable for some poor handling that will not have strengthened his claims to selection in this autumn's Internationals.

Fly-half Stephen Myler finished with a 14-point haul made up of four penalties and a conversion. Northampton led 10-0 at half-time but resurgent Irish hit back through the kicking of Shane Geraghty, who finished with four penalties, to secure a deserved losing bonus point.

Samu Manoa showed his power with a muscular early run through the heart of the Exiles' defence, but when Saints sought to exploit an overlap Burrell flung out a poor pass. Northampton, who were missing injured England forwards Tom Wood and Dylan Hartley to injury, turned the screw at the scrum before Myler landed his first penalty.

A scruffy quarter continued with Geraghty missing a simple three points and the former England fly-half was flattened by Courtney Lawes shortly after. Ken Pisi's thunderous midfield hit enabled the champions to turn defence into attack, but the Exiles recovered quickly and the deadlock continued.

Once again Northampton began pounding at the Irish 22 and once again they were let down by their handling with Burrell culpable. But the England centre then made amends, showing his strength to slide over and touch down after the speed of a Saints counter-attack that began with a loose kick outwitted the Exiles.

Myler, Ken Pisi and George North were involved before Burrell chose to go it alone with Lawes outside him and he had the tenacity to stampede over Geraghty and ride a despairing tackle from Tomas O'Leary. The third quarter was dominated by a kicking duel from the tee between Geraghty and Myler as a poor match continued to disappoint.

North and Andrew Fenby collided, but the Irish full-back came up with the ball after plucking a superb catch from the air. There appeared to be little chance of a second try being added to Burrell's touch down with a fourth Geraghty penalty keeping the scoreboard ticking over.

Irish continued to snap at the heals of Northampton, although their cause was not helped when Geraghty failed with a simple drop-goal and long-range penalty. At last the game opened up with Burrell almost forcing his way over for a second time before his poor pass butchered a chance for Ben Foden. Fittingly, the final act of the afternoon was a penalty from Myler.

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