Leicester 27-16 Northampton: Tries from Foden and Ayerza seal pulsating win over injury-hit Saints

• Man on Manu: Manu Tuilagi of Leicester is tackled by Northampton's Stephen Myler at Welford Road. Photograph: Getty Images

The game was in the balance until the final quarter but the Tigers pack was ultimately too strong as the Saints line-out fell apart.

Northampton's cause was not helped by the loss of England stars Courtney Lawes and Chris Ashton to injury early in the first half.

Northampton made a dream start taking the lead after only 55 seconds. From a ruck 40 metres out they moved the ball wide to Ben Foden, who dummied and raced away for a simple try. Stephen Myler converted.

The Tigers hit back when Saints were penalised in their own 22 and Toby Flood kicked the goal.

But, from the restart Leicester produced another stunning attack and Craig Newby forced for an uncoverted try.

Northampton regained the lead with a Myler penalty to make it 10-8 to the visitors with only 12 minutes played and the lead changed hands with another Flood penalty.

Within two minutes of the restart Leicester were awarded another penalty and this time Flood made no mistake. Myler and Flood exchanged penalties before brilliant work from Foden and Paul Diggin put Saints in the Tigers and won a penalty which Myler kicked to make it 17-16 to the home side.

With 16 minutes to go Leicester scored a try when Ayerza forced his way over. Flood converted then kicked another penalty after Mark Sorenson was sin-binned.

Gloucester easily overcame Exeter with a bonus point 37-23 victory at Kingsholm.

Scrum-half Rory Lawson and full-back Olly Morgan set the tone with first-half tries, before the outstanding James Simpson-Daniel, his fellow wing Charlie Sharples and substitute Akapusi Qera posted further scores.

Fly-half Freddie Burns chipped in with two penalties and two conversions, and Tim Taylor kicked the final conversion. Exeter displayed a workmanlike attitude that was rewarded through tries in quick succession for flanker Tom Johnson and centre Sereli Naqelevuki, while Naqelevuki also crossed during injury time. Gareth Steenson slotted one conversion and two penalties.

Harlequins continued their post-Christmas winning run to move into the Aviva Premiership championship play-off zone with a 17-10 victory over Wasps in the London derby at The Stoop.

Harlequins did the damage with three first-half tries from Joe Marler, Mike Brown and Nick Easter.

Moving the ball quickly from right to left, Quins created space for Marler to charge over and dive in near the flag.

Wasps hit back to take the lead five minutes later when full-back Mark van Gisbergen timed his run perfectly to link up as the extra man in the three-quarter line and provide the final pass which sent right-wing Richard Haughton racing in for a try which was duly converted by Van Gisbergen.

Harlequins responded with a wave of attacks which ended when scrum-half Danny Care, looking to regain his England starting spot from Ben Youngs, moved the ball quickly from the base of a ruck to put Brown over in the left corner. Evans converted to increase their lead to 12-7 and Harlequins went further ahead three minutes before half-time when Easter drove in through a crowd of players as Wasps defended desperately on their own line.

The visitors rallied in the second half and substitute Dave Walder kicked a penalty but that was all Wasps were able to add to their tally.

A superb Nick Abendanon try straight after half-time helped earn off-colour Bath to a 16-13 win over Leeds Carnegie.

Abendanon latched on to a clever pass from fly-half Butch James and outpaced the cover. Olly Barkley converted and added three penalties.

The bottom side had plenty of possession and territory and overcame the loss of scrum-half Warren Fury to the sin-bin in the first half to lead 6-3 at one stage.

But Barkley landed a penalty on the stroke of half-time and, within 60 seconds of the restart, Bath shrugged off the mid-winter blues with Abendanon's classy score.

Leeds then set up camp in the corner and England hooker Steve Thompson eventually peeled off a maul to score.

Thomas added the conversion to bring the sides level at 13-13 but Barkley's 68th-minute penalty secured an edgy Bath victory.