Northampton Saints held off a late Worcester Warriors fightback with a dominant 37-31 victory at Franklins Gardens this afternoon.

Worcester snatched an early 3-0 lead with a penalty through the consistent boot of Andy Goode.

Following two Stephen Myler penalties, Luther Burrell powered through for the opening try, putting Northampton 13-3 up. Burrell continued his fine scoring form with a second try four minutes later.

Russian Vasily Artemyev scored Northampton's third, touching down in the corner to put Northampton 25-3 up at half-time.

Courtney Lawes picked a hole in the Worcester defence early in the second half to extend the Saints' lead and substitute Mike Haywood added another to extend the advantage to 37-3.

Worcester staged a late fightback though Jonny Arr, Josh Matavesi, Josh Drauniniu and Ollie Hayes but they left it too late as the Saints held out for 37-31 victory.