Dawson at the double

Northampton bounced back from the disappointment of their spineless defence of the Heineken Cup with a 73-35 victory over ambitious Leeds at Franklin's Gardens in the fourth round of the Tetley's Bitter Cup yesterday. The England pair of Matt Dawson and Ben Cohen each went over twice as the Saints won the try count in a high-scoring contest 11-5.

Northampton bounced back from the disappointment of their spineless defence of the Heineken Cup with a 73-35 victory over ambitious Leeds at Franklin's Gardens in the fourth round of the Tetley's Bitter Cup yesterday. The England pair of Matt Dawson and Ben Cohen each went over twice as the Saints won the try count in a high-scoring contest 11-5.

Newcastle were in doubly generous mood when they visited Rosslyn Park, once mighty but now languishing in National League Two. After donating their £6,000 share of the gate receipts to their hosts, Rob Andrew's side were content to cruise home 25-13. In the absence of Inga Tuigamala and Jonny Wilkinson, Jamie Noon was the star turn with two tries, the first a dash from 60 yards.

Two tries from the wing Jamie Williams in a two-minute spell shortly before half-time helped to smooth Harlequins' path to a 36-8 victory at Plymouth to which the visitors' other wing, Niall Woods, contributed 16 points.

The Samoan Fereti Tuilagi, a recent signing from rugby league side St Helens, and the hooker Perry Freshwater each ran in a hat-trick of touchdowns as Leicester hammered Otley 83-11 at Welford Road.

London Irish sailed into the fifth round with a 57-12 success at Exeter while Worcester, the only club from outside the Premiership with realistic ambitions in this competition, enjoyed a 74-12 romp at Tynedale. Four other National League One sides also reached the last 16: Birmingham/Solihull, after a struggle with minnows Darlington Mowden Park; Waterloo, who shaded Esher 27-26; Manchester; and Wakefield.

Llanelli made it a six-way logjam at the top of the Welsh/Scottish League Premier Division when their captain, Scott Quinnell, galloped 35 yards for his second try with just 10 minutes remaining to convert a threatening deficit into a 31-28 victory over Neath at Stradey Park. The visitors' scrum-half, Patrick Horgan, also went over twice, but Stephen Jones, with 21 points for Llanelli, proved the difference between the sides. Bridgend are still at the head of affairs despite going down 38-20 at Pontypridd, whose fly-half, Lee Jarvis, scored 21 points, and Caerphilly consolidated their mid-table position by beating Ebbw Vale 45-14.

Fran Cotton, accused of "sitting on the fence" over the promotion-relegation row (see above), is being sued by the RFU for "alleged intellectual infringement of copyright" of England's famous rose emblem. The RFU have signed an exclusive deal with Nike and disapprove of Cotton Traders selling replica England jerseys with the rose logo on the chest. "We are defending the action," Cotton said. "They claim that we are using their trademark but we're maintaining that the rose has never been exclusive. It's been in use since 1875 and whoever designed it has died. Dozens of companies use the rose. We have been putting it on our jerseys for 13 years and we intend to carry on doing so."