Premiership: Worcester Warriors 14-62 Northampton Saints – Chris Ashton sent off as Warriors concede nine tries

Ollie Sleightholme scored four tries in a Premiership match for the first time in his career Worcester Warriors (7) 14 Tries: Ashton, Pennell Cons: Searle, Smith Northampton Saints (15) 62 Tries: Furbank, Sleightholme 4, Mitchell, Francis, Penalty, Ribbans Cons: Grayson 6 Pens: Grayson

Northampton ran in nine tries to beat 14-man Worcester, who had former England winger Chris Ashton sent off.

Ashton’s first score since joining Warriors in January cancelled out George Furbank’s early try.

Warriors missed good chances, but Ollie Sleightholme and Alex Mitchell scored either side of the break for Saints.

Ashton was sent off on 49 minutes for a no-arms hit, before Sleightholme led a one-sided second-half Saints display with three more tries of his own.

Alex Mitchell, Piers Francis and David Ribbans also crossed, in addition to a penalty try, while Chris Pennell scored a stoppage-time consolation try to help cut the gap to fewer than 50 points.

The bonus-point win consolidates fifth place for Northampton, while Worcester remain bottom of the Premiership.

Furbank went over after just three minutes with a well-timed break from Mitchell’s offload, but Worcester went two points ahead 17 minutes later as Ashton dived over in the right corner after an excellent long pass form Billy Searle.

James Grayson – a late replacement for Wales fly-half Dan Biggar – kicked a 25th-minute penalty to put Saints ahead, but the hosts were guilty of not taking their first-half chances as Ollie Lawrence, Francois Hougaard and Ashton were all wasteful.

And they were made to pay when Sleightholme raced in to the right corner after a four-pass move across the Warriors’ 22 as the clock ticked into stoppage time.

After the break Northampton were ruthless – Mitchell going in first after a wonderful grubber kick from Tommy Freeman before Ashton’s red card.

The former England man was penalised for a no-arms hit on Freeman’s head in a ruck and Saints took advantage almost straight away when Sleightholme found the hole in the defence where Ashton should have been.

Saints had Teimana Harrison sin-binned soon after, but despite the level numbers the visitors continued to pick off Worcester with ease as Francis scored.

Francois Venter’s yellow card for a deliberate knock-on with 15 minutes left saw a penalty try for Saints and the hosts reduced to 13 as Ribbans and Sleightholme took advantage of the extra numbers.

Sleightholme grabbed two more tries in the space of two minutes towards the end of the game before Pennell’s late consolation was approved by a television replay.

Worcester head coach Jonathan Thomas:

“That scoreline is not acceptable and our supporters don’t deserve a result like that.

“The club is in transition, there are 20 players leaving the club at the end of the season so there is a lot going on behind the scenes.

“We are not a bad team, the youngsters are working hard at the game but we are not on top of it in terms of confidence.”

Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd:

“I’ve been on the receiving end a few times so I know what it’s like when the floodgates open.

“It’s never very nice as all the momentum is one-way and there is no way to stop it.

“I was nervous at half-time as they were dominating parts of the game and we weren’t working hard enough.

“Injuries disrupted us but we held our composure and after last week’s disappointment at losing late on to Bristol, it was nice to have the game in the bag at an early stage.”

Worcester: Pennell; Ashton, Lawrence, Beck, Humphreys; Searle, Hougaard; Waller, Annett, Schonert, Kitchener, Clegg, Hill (capt), Kvesic, Batley.

Replacements: Miller, Thomas, Van Dyk, Dodd, C Du Preez, Simpson, Smith, Venter.

Northampton: Furbank; Collins, Hutchinson, Francis, Sleightholme; Grayson, Mitchell; Waller (capt), S Matavesi, Painter, Ribbans, Ratuniyarawa, Isiekwe, Wood, Harrison.

Replacements: Haywood, Auterac, Hill, Coles, Adendorff, James, Dingwall, Freeman.

Referee: Andrew Jackson (RFU).