Pisi: Tackled by Southwell

The Saints dominated throughout against a hopelessly out-of-form Wasps side to ensure that Exeter cannot catch them in Pool Four, regardless of their result against Bath on Sunday.

The Saints went into this game knowing a bonus point victory would guarantee their third LV= Cup semi-final in four years while Wasps were simply looking for their first win in the competition.

Unsurprisingly, the Saints had the edge at the scrum at the start and it was from this that they got an early penalty, which was comfortably slotted by Stephen Myler.

Will Robinson, the 19-year-old making his first senior start for Wasps, had a chance to quickly level the scores but he pushed his penalty from the right wing wide.

Lee Robinson then tackled Christian Day into touch on the left as the Saints continued to threaten and eventually the Wasps line was breached.

After Martin Roberts took the ball on before being tackled a metre short, hooker Andy Long plunged over from close range for his first try for the club and Myler converted for a 10-0 lead.

Northampton soon had a second as James Craig also opened his account for the Saints by going over after a quickly-taken penalty close to the line.

Robinson then got Wasps off the mark with a penalty but almost immediately Saints had their third try when Myler's deflected grubber falling kindly for Elliott who ran in unopposed.

Myler converted before Robinson struck a long-range penalty short leaving Wasps with it all to do as they went into half-time 22-3 down.

The Saints were given a further boost when Wasps had replacement Simon McIntyre sin-binned and the 14 men soon gave out.

A maul from the resulting line-out was hauled downed illegally short of the line and referee Dean Richards awarded a penalty try.

But still Northampton were hungry for more and Roberts fed the ball to the left, giving Noah Cato an easy run to the corner.

The hosts continued to rub it in three minutes later as Tom May's off-load allowed Elliott to score his second try.

Wasps then finally managed to get a try of their own with nine minutes left as Joe Simpson kicked ahead before his pace allowed him to get there first to touch down.

But Saints were to bring up the half-century as Alex Waller emerged with the ball after a rolling maul forced its way over following a line-out.

And they had try number eight with the last play when Cato scrambled his way over in the corner after being found by Elliott.