Northampton 37 Borders 13: Thompson trains sights on a red rose recall

The England head coach, Andy Robinson, had a reason to smile at the weekend - one of his battalion of walking wounded has returned to action two weeks ahead of schedule and has survived to tell the tale.

However, Steve Thompson's recovery has come a week too late for the Northampton hooker to be included in the England squad for the opening Test of the autumn, against New Zealand on Sunday.

But at least he came through a full and demanding 80 minutes unscathed, and his return to the fray leaves him optimistic of the possibility of some international action at some point in the next month, when England will also play South Africa, twice, and Argentina. "Hopefully, I can be contention for the games later in the autumn," he said.

On this showing Thompson is not far short of match fitness after a five-week lay-off with a torn calf muscle, though he knows he cannot walk straight back into the England set-up. He said: "I was disappointed to get the injury, but I just have to get on with it and play my way back in. The two other hookers [Bath's Lee Mears and George Chuter of Leicester] have been playing well, so it's one of those things."

This was not a bad start. He was at the front of a fine performance by the Saints pack, who dominated an extremely physical Heineken Cup Pool Six match, and not merely because he scored two tries, the first earning a vital bonus point. His mobility in the loose posed too many problems for the Borders to cope with. There are times, when he is rampaging up the middle of the field, when all the 6ft 2in, 18st 2lb hooker needs is a driver and a guard in order to resemble a runaway train.

It took some outstanding defensive work by Borders to keep out the marauding and confident Saints pack. The pity of it was that Northampton's backs did not come more into the picture. Despite some quite breathtaking play from the former All Black fly-half Carlos Spencer and a barrage of lightning breaks from his fellow New Zealander at scrum-half, Mark Robinson, Saints never really threatened out wide.

True, the centre Rhodri Davies came close to a try when a clever chip off the outside of Spencer's right boot beat the advancing defenders, but sadly for Northampton the ball bounced dead a split second before the chasing Davies was able to get a hand to it for the touchdown.

It was no surprise then that four of the home side's five tries came off the back of some great work by the forwards. Even Robinson's opening try, from distance, came courtesy of passes by the open-side flanker Darren Fox and the blind-side, Paul Tupai.

Borders were not hopelessly outplayed, but they were handicapped by twice having players sent to the sin bin - the former Leeds prop Gavin Kerr's yellow card seemed to be very harsh, since he was merely guilty of joining a maul from the side. The centre Ben MacDougall went for a high tackle on Davies.

They did lack a little pizzazz at the set piece and a great deal of nous at the line-out. It was at a line-out that they suffered a telling blow, when Opeta Palepoi, their Samoan lock, appeared to be taken out in the air. He landed awkwardly and injured his back, and although there was apparently no serious damage he will have an X-ray today. The Borders' management will study a video of the incident, to see if they can detect an act of foul play in the 25th-minute incident.

Northampton: Tries Robinson, Tupai, penalty try, Thompson 2; Conversions Spencer 3; Penalties Spencer 2. Border: Try Danielli; Conversion MacRae; Penalties MacRae 2.

Northampton: I Vass; S Lamont, R Davies (J Howard, 48), L Myring, B Cohen; C Spencer, M Robinson; T Smith (S Tonga'uiha, 75), S Thompson (D Hartley, 76), C Budgen, Damien Browne, D Gérard (M Lord, 74), P Tupai, D Fox (capt), Daniel Browne (M Easter, 80).

Borders: C MacRae; S Danielli, B MacDougall, N De Luca (G Law, 65), B Daniel; S Jones, C Cusiter (capt); G Kerr, R Ford (S Scott, 67), E Kalman (B Douglas, 46), O Palepoi (S Newlands, 28-59 & 68; Kalman, 59-68), C Hamilton, J Dalziel, S Gray (A Miller, 65), K Brown.

Referee: C Berdos (France).