Downey’s try on the stroke of half-time brought Northampton back into the game and a Paul Diggin try after 52 minutes gave the visitors the lead for the first time from which point they tightened their grip on the fixture and never looked back.

In a free flowing first-half both side were committed in attack and Edinburgh led the way scoring three fantastic tries.

Dylan Hartley grabbed the first for the visitors after Chris Patterson had given Edinburgh the lead with an early penalty. The re-called Stephen Myler, back in the side following the Saints kicking woes last weekend, converted his captain’s try.

It was then one-way traffic from Edinburgh as they took charge through tries from
Allan Jacobsen, Netani Talei and Ben Cairns who all rounded off stunning attacking moves.

It was Talei and second-row Fraser McKenzie who were at the heart of everything positive for Edinburgh.

Northampton could only respond with three Myler penalties.

The Saints were trailing 24-16 before Downey’s try which cancelled out all of Edinburgh’s first half dominance.

Patterson kicked an early second half penalty for the Scottish side but that was there last points of the day as the Northampton pack took control of the game.

Diggin crossed for his converted try, Myler then added the conversion and a penalty to finish the game with 16 points.