Late Smith Try Seals Thrilling Northampton Victory Over Exeter

Northampton Saints secured a nail-biting 35-28 win over Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on Saturday, thanks to a last-minute try by England fly-half Fin Smith. The match seemed destined for a draw after replacement winger Paul Brown-Bampoe scored a charge-down try in the 78th minute, but Smith's dummy allowed him to score the winning try. Northampton's director of rugby, Paul Dowson, praised his team's determination, saying, "We stuck at it again in what was another proper game... We've got a lot of trust in our attacking system and we have that intent to go and try and score." Exeter had taken an early lead with a try from Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, and later doubled their advantage through Will Rigg. However, Northampton fought back, with tries from Alex Mitchell and Ollie Sleightholme, to level the score at 14-14 at half-time. The second half was closely contested, with Ridl scoring for Exeter, before Smith's late heroics sealed the win for Northampton. In other Premiership matches, Bath ran in eight tries to defeat Harlequins 48-15, while Leicester thrashed Newcastle 62-3, with Gabriel Hamer-Webb scoring five tries.