Umaga red carded again as Saints snatch late win 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 Gallagher Premiership contest.

Despite having 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.

Jacob Umaga is sent off for dangerous play on Courtnall Skosan.

After a heavy collision, the @WaspsRugby fly-half is able to leave the field on his own steam ?#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/3C7h4KLDzK

— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) October 9, 2022

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.

Jacob Ugama's red card incident vs. Saints ??#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/MaQkNKxoCS

— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) October 9, 2022

Gabriel Oghre burrowed his way over from a metre out before Charlie Atkinson managed to ground the ball after chasing down his own kick ahead.

Saints quickly pulled a score back when Fraser Dingwall drew defenders before passing to put Ollie Sleightholme in down the left wing.

Umaga then extended Wasps’ lead with another penalty, but he was then sent off for taking Skosan out in mid-air after he had claimed George Furbank’s cross-field kick, leading to Saints being awarded a penalty try.

A penalty from Will Haydon-Wood with three minutes left appeared to have finally secured the win for Wasps, only for Northampton to produce an astonishing finish.

Coles ran in for his second of the afternoon in the 79th minute and there was still time for Skosan to snatch the most unlikely of victories by running in down the left after Tommy Freeman had picked him out.