FORMER Woodlands School pupil Emmanuel Iyogun helped Northampton Saints triumph in Saturday’s Premiership rugby final at Twickenham.
The powerful prop-forward, who was scouted by the Saints when playing for Southend at the age of 15, came off the bench during Saturday’s 25-21 win against Bath.
And he helped Northampton to be crowned champions at Twickenham after a late try by Alex Mitchell secured a victory that ended Bath’s defiant response to Beno Obano’s red card.
Obano was sent-off with almost an hour of the final left to play for a high tackle on Juarno Augustus that referee Christophe Ridley said presented a high level of danger with no mitigation.
Bath sacrificed Alfie Barbeary to bring on replacement prop Juan Schoeman, stripping them of a second key ball carrier and in theory the ability to play anything more ambitious than a spoiling game, yet they rallied courageously.
Tries by Tommy Freeman and Ollie Sleightholme inflicted some initial wounds, but they recovered to hit back through touch downs from Thomas du Toit and Will Muir and the boot of Finn Russell to lead 21-18 with 13 minutes left.
However, Mitchell’s late try saw Northampton come out on top.
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