Niall Woods devastated a lacklustre Northampton with a personal tally of 27 points, scoring four tries, two conversions and a penalty goal that propelled the Exiles to their sixth win in seven English Premiership games at Franklin's Gardens last night.

Full of fire and creative wit, Irish continued their remarkable climb up the Premiership table with a comprehensive victory that cast serious doubts over Northampton's title ambitions.

Northampton's attempts to impose a direct physical style on a game that was fought out at breakneck speed by both sides were frustrated by the Irish forwards, who prevented them getting their midfield backs moving into top gear.

The home side also spurned a number of penalty chances by following the current fashion and seeking better field position by kicking for the corner rather than giving them to their ace marksman Paul Grayson, and paid a heavy price for their over-confident tactics, falling behind after 23 minutes to a brilliantly-worked try that caught their defence badly out of position.

There seemed little obvious danger when the Irish flanker Jake Boer broke from inside his own half but within seconds the ball had been moved through five pairs of hands to Nick Burrows whose crisp transfer allowed Woods to sprint 30 metres down the left touch-line.

Encouraged by going in front against the run of play, Irish applied intense pressure inside the Saints 22, gaining further reward with a penalty for a ruck offence which Woods calmly slotted between the posts.

After 33 minutes they increased the lead to 17-0 when the lively Woods completed a long kick and chase through the middle with a flick pass to Burrows whose try at the posts left the provider with a simple conversion.

Shortly after the break the ebullient Irish rocked Northampton with another try by Woods who took a splendid miss pass from Conor O'Shea on halfway before showing a bemused defence a clean pair of heels.

Northampton's troubles deepened when Grayson missed a penalty in front of the posts but their sustained aggression paid off with a 55th minute try by Andy Blyth whose diagonal run caught Irish cold.

Northampton's prospects brightened when Grayson kicked a 25-metre penalty goal and almost immediately Irish international second row, Malcolm O'Kelly, was sin-binned for persistent offside. However, in the last five minutes Woods added two more solo tries to leave the home side and their fans shell-shocked.

London Irish are now up to sixth place in the table and only trail joint leaders Leicester and last night's opponents, Northampton, by four points.