Northampton marched to a 40-17 Premiership bonus-point win over 14-man Leicester as they reinforced their status as table toppers on derby day in the East Midlands.

Leicester went in ahead at half-time leading 10-6 after a scrappy 40 minutes that included a yellow card apiece.

But the Saints showed their class after the break, pulling away with a helping hand from Solomone Kata, who was dismissed for a dangerous high tackle on Fraser Dingwall with the score at 18-17 in Northampton’s favour.

The home side scored five tries in total during the second period as they warmed up for trips to Twickenham and Croke Park in the coming weeks with a fourth successive win.

Leicester had gone into the derby having won five of their past six meetings with their local rivals, but fell to defeat on the day.

Saracens 46-24 Gloucester

Tom Parton scored the fastest hat-trick in Premiership history, crossing for three tries in the first 20 minutes as Saracens hit the front and never looked back to secure a bonus-point win at home to Gloucester.

Sarries got off to the perfect start in the StoneX sunshine, scoring their first try just six minutes in. A lovely set move off the top of a lineout put Marco Riccioni through a gap, and when the ball was spun from right to left, it ended in the hands of Parton, who dived over in the corner.

It got better for the hosts just five minutes later, in a carbon copy of the first score. Again the ball came off the top of a lineout and Alex Goode’s looping pass found Parton on the left, who was never going to be caught from five metres out. The conversion went over again, doubling the advantage to 14-0 with 11 minutes gone.

Parton then completed his hat-trick inside the first quarter. A penalty was kicked to the corner and Aled Davies’ smart snipe down the blindside drew in the final defender and released the winger for his third score.

Theo McFarland, Tom Willis, Olly Hartley and Lucio Cinti added further Sarries tries by full-time.

Exeter Chiefs 14-26 Bath

Bath took a huge step towards securing a Premiership play-off spot with a battling bonus-point win over Exeter at Sandy Park.

In claiming victory, Bath avenged their 21-15 Champions Cup loss to Exeter a fortnight ago but the Chiefs, following last week’s heavy quarter-final defeat at Toulouse, looked a leg-weary side and are now in real danger of missing out on the play-offs.

Alfie Barbeary, Max Ojomoh, Miles Reid and Ben Spencer scored Bath’s tries with Spencer adding three conversions as they moved up to second in the table.

Olly Woodburn and Stu Townsend touched down for sixth-placed Exeter, both scores being converted by Henry Slade.

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