It shows how far Leeds have progressed that the only surprise about yesterday's result was the small margin of their victory. The Tykes, who have lost fewer Premiership games than anyone else, shot into a 15-0 lead, albeit against a Northampton side missing a dozen injured first-teamers to international duty or injury.
But the Saints clawed their way back and in the end left their hosts clinging on. When Northampton scored a converted try through the lock Jon Phillips seconds after the Leeds lock Tom Palmer had been sin-binned for pulling down a maul, there were still 10 minutes remaining. However, they were unable to pierce the strangling home defence again.
Northampton's coach Wayne Smith was reasonably happy with the bonus point and retained an optimistic outlook after a third successive defeat. "If we are able to get a win next week [against Harlequins] and come away with five points from these three games, I'd be really happy, given that we have 12 players out," he said.
The only bonus point the Tykes have mustered in 10 matches was in their defeat at Newcastle, which is why they trail next week's opponents Gloucester by three points. They played some excellent rugby early on in scoring tries from the centre George Harder and full-back Dan Scarbrough but thereafter they rarely caused much excitement.
In mitigation they too were missing six regulars and they were not helped by Braam van Straaten's poor kicking; the former Springbok missed four attempts at goal. Although Alan Dickens clipped through a kick for Chris Hall to touch down on the hour, it was a laboured performance that relied too much on their outstanding defence.
Leeds: Scarbrough; Hall, Harder, Van Straaten, Emmerson; Davies, Dickens; Shelley (capt), Rawlinson (Regan, 51), Holt, Murphy, Palmer, Mather, Ponton, Popham.
Tries: Harder, Scarbrough, Hall; Con: Van Straaten; Pens: Van Straaten 3.
Sin-bin: Palmer 70.
Northampton: Beal; Sleightholme, Reihana, Leslie (capt), Ripol; Grayson, Howard; Sturgess, Richmond, Morris, Phillips (Lord, 80), Hunter, Blowers, Fox (Hepher, 57), Soden.
Try: Hunter; Con: Grayson; Pens: Grayson 4.
Referee: R Maybank (London).
Attendance: 4,017.
