Courtnall Skosan snatches dramatic late victory for Northampton at Wasps

Courtnall Skosan’s last-gasp try gave Northampton Saints an extraordinary 40-36 victory over Wasps, as the visitors scored twice in the last two minutes of a crazy Premiership contest.

Despite having the full-back Jacob Umaga sent off, Wasps looked near-certain for victory as they led 36-28 going into the dying stages at the CBS Arena, with Northampton set for a fourth loss in five games. But the visitors, who were far below their best for the most part, had other ideas as they left the majority inside the ground stunned by their late double salvo.

Wasps were forced into a couple of late changes, with John Ryan coming in for Vincent Koch at tighthead prop and Ben Morris replacing Tom Willis in the back row.

Dan Biggar, who announced on Friday he would be leaving Northampton at the end of the season, opened the scoring with a simple penalty from in front of the posts after five minutes.

But it was the hosts who scored the game’s first try in the 11th minute when Nizaam Carr slipped through some slack defence before timing his pass to put Jack Willis in the clear.

Biggar then reduced Wasps’ lead to one point with his second penalty, but it was soon increased again when a huge overlap on the right led to Josh Bassett putting Paolo Odogwu in at the corner.

Umaga could not convert but he did add a penalty after Biggar was penalised for offside before nailing a superb strike from halfway as the visitors’ discipline deserted them again.

Saints then gave themselves a lifeline right on half-time as Biggar produced a brilliant off-load to set up Alex Coles to score and reduce the deficit to 18-14.

Biggar then slotted an easy penalty within three minutes of the restart, but two quick tries bagged the bonus point for Wasps.Gabriel