WASPS are celebrating their first victory over Northampton Saints in almost five years tonight after they secured a sensational 20-16 triumph at Adams Park today.

They came from 9-3 down lead 20-9 and then held their nerve at the end after Northampton closed to within a try late on.

Director of rugby Dai Young said: “I’m really pleased. I felt for 80 minutes we stood toe to toe with the champions.

“ I’m really proud of the effort. I thought the will to win was outstanding from everybody. You don’t the opportunity to celebrate after playing Northampton very often, certainly we haven’t at Wasps, so it’s a great feeling for the players.”

After last week’s narrow defeat to Saracens at Twickenham, Wasps can now shake themselves off for Harlequins after starting the season against the best two teams in England.

Young said: “We’ve played the best two teams in the Premiership. We could have won last week and found a way to win today.

“It shows we’re going in the right direction, but that’s two performances. Today was nearer an 80 minute performance than last week but that’s the standard now.

“If we want to mix it with the best teams that is the level we have to produce week in and week out.

“There are still lots of things to improve on. The set piece wasn’t where we want it to be which meant we ended up defending for longer that we’d have liked against a quality team like the Saints.

“But thankfully we’ve learned from last week and did a better job in the last three or four minutes and I’m really thrilled with the way we responded. I thought our attitude for 80 minutes was outstanding.”