Haffar's late double helps Saints dent Saracens' play-off bid

Northampton replacement prop Tarek Haffar scored two late tries as the Saints came from behind to seal a 28-24 English Premiership win at home to Saracens on Saturday to dent the visitors' hopes of a play-off spot.

Saracens appeared destined for victory at 24-7 ahead but Northampton staged a stunning fightback that featured three converted tries – including one with the last play of the game.

Saints head to Cardiff next Saturday for the European Champions Cup final where they face French club Bordeaux-Begles.

Only the top four at the end of the regular season qualify for the title-deciding play-offs and this reverse means Saracens' fate is no longer in their own hands as a Bristol win in next week's final round of league games will see the southwest side seal fourth place.

"It was a painful experience and a hugely-disappointing ending as we were all over the place in the final 20 minutes," said Saracens boss Mark McCall.

"In the first half we played with intensity and exactly as we had planned to have the better of full-strength European Cup finalists, but after that we were really poor."

Josh Kemeny scored Northampton's first try and there was also a penalty try award, with Rory Hutchinson kicking two conversions and Fin Smith adding one.

Tom Willis, Juan-Martin Gonzalez, Alex Goode and Rotimi Segun each crossed over for Saracens, with Fergus Burke converting two of those tries.

Northampton's fight-back started with the first of Haffar's two tries, with the Saints then awarded a penalty try that saw Saracens' Andy Onyeama-Christie sent to the sin-bin for collapsing a scrum.

That led to a dramatic finish, with Haffar racing over for the winning score in the closing seconds.

Leicester, meanwhile will need a point from their final Premiership game against Newcastle to be assured of a play-off place after losing 43-15 to runaway leaders and title favourites Bath in Saturday's other Premiership match.

Victory for the Tigers over bottom-of-the-table Newcastle on May 31 would also secure a home semifinal.

Bath, however, were too strong for Leicester as they enjoyed a 14th league win of the season thanks to tries from Ben Spencer, Beno Obano, Tom Dunn, Quinn Roux, Will Stuart, Joe Cokanasiga and Will Butt –- plus four conversions from Scotland star Finn Russell.

A thumping win was the ideal way for Bath to head into their European Challenge Cup final with French side Lyon in Cardiff on Friday.

Leicester were in contention for much of the match and led just before halftime at the Recreation Ground.

But despite tries by Joseph Woodward and Adam Radwan, as well as a penalty and conversion from Springbok World Cup-winning fly-half Handre Pollard, the visitors could not make their pressure count.