Hartley off the bench to turn tide

The hooker Dylan Hartley came off the replacements' bench to score the try which broke the deadlock as Northampton made a winning return to top flight rugby with a 21-13 success over Worcester. Hartley, the only Saints player in England manager Martin Johnson's full squad, had to play second fiddle to Paul Shields when director of rugby Jim Mallender named his squad for the opening match.

But he made an almost immediate impression after replacing Shields in the 48th minute, gratefully accepting a long pass from young scrum-half Lee Dickson and crashing through a tackle before stretching for the touchdown. The try came after Worcester had been temporarily reduced to 14 men when flanker Tom Wood was yellow-carded for an infringement which has allowed Northampton skippe Bruce Reihana to level the scores.

"I'm delighted we could get off to a good start but we're not going to get carried away because we know the next 21 games are going to be tough," said the Northampton coach Joe Mallender. Joe Maddock, Tom Cheeseman and Jonny Faamatuainu crossed for tries as Bath beat Bristol 33-20. Sale Sharks recorded a 14-9 victory over Newcastle Falcons, with Charlie Hodgscon scoring the only try of the game.

* With agencies