The way Richard Cockerill, the Leicester head coach, and Jim Mallinder, his opposite number at Northampton, were talking after this scrappy, occasionally heated derby, you would have thought both men were relieved they had 15 fit players to get on the pitch and another eight available as replacements.

Injuries do seem to be blighting the game in England and Wales and the shortage of players is made worse by the demands of the national squads for the autumn internationals. “It is nice to beat our local rivals but this was not a true reflection of either side,” Cockerill, the Northampton director of rugby, said.

Lote Tuqiri, the Australia wing, is said to be on his way to Welford Road on a short-term contract. “I’m delighted if he is . . . but I haven’t seen him,” Cockerill said.

Northampton’s cause would have been helped had a dropped goal by Stephen Myler soon after the start and a try midway through the second half not been disallowed by the television match official. Either of these scores would have made a difference, as would the availability of a few more of Northampton’s best forwards to help to shore up a scrum that did not so much creak as collapse. It was marched 20 yards back on one occasion on Saturday.

Leicester’s two tries came from mistakes by their opponents. At the end of the first quarter, Anthony Allen got behind Northampton’s defence and passed quickly to Lucas Amorosino, who, given half a yard start, had the speed to beat the covering defence in an 80-metre dash to the line. With four minutes remaining and Northampton doing all the attacking, Allen leapt to intercept a long pass from Barry Everitt and score a soft try.

Combine these presents for Leicester with their superiority in the scrum, where Martin Castrogiovanni, Mefin Davies and Marcos Ayerza can rarely have had such an easy ride in the front row, and the fact that Jeremy Staunton was successful with both conversions and five penalties, and it is clear why the home side won. “We knew we were under pressure in our tight five,” Mallinder said. “Three of our top tight-heads were unavailable and then we conceded two slack tries. That makes it very tough.”

Scorers: Leicester: Tries: Amorosino (23min), Allen (76). Conversions: Staunton 2. Penalty goals: Staunton 5 (11, 19, 35, 38, 54). Northampton: Tries: Day (5), Ashton (40). Conversion: Myler. Penalty goal: Myler (59).

Scoring sequence (Leicester first): 0-7, 3-7, 6-7, 13-7, 16-7, 19-7, 19-12 (half-time), 22-12, 22-15, 29-15.

Leicester: S Hamilton; L Amorosino (rep: W Hurell, 79), A Allen, A Mauger (rep: A Forsyth, 79), J Murphy; J Staunton, J Grindal (rep: B Youngs, 52); M Ayerza (rep: B Stankovich, 70), M Davies (rep: T Youngs, 79), M Castrogiovanni (rep: D Cole, 79), C Green, B Kay (rep: T Armes, 79), G Parling, B Pienaar, B Deacon (rep: D Hemingway, 50-56, 65).

Northampton: B Reihana; C Ashton, J Clarke, J Downey (rep: J Ansbro, 62), P Diggin; S Myler (rep: B Everitt, 61), L Dickson (rep: A Dickens, 69); R Dreyer (rep: J Vickers, 64), B Sharman (rep: J Gray, 61), S Tonga’uiha, J Cannon (rep: M Easter, 56), C Day, P Dowson, N Best (rep: S Gray, 65) R Wilson.

Referee: D Pearson.

Attendance: 23,641.