Northampton Saints 24 Exeter Chiefs 21: match report It was a heinous aberration, principally by Saints" Ryan Lamb and Exeter's Ignacio Mieres. Lord only knows how they will cope once the mud starts squelching round their studs. For Northampton the challenge is to sustain momentum through the international windows. Many felt that they might struggle to produce the same degree of no-nonsense, honest endeavour following the departure in the summer of talisman players such as No8 Roger Wilson and centre, Jon Downey. With two hard-fought wins in their opening games, Saints have laid that potential bogey to rest already. Hartley is the heartbeat of the side, a grafter first and foremost, a far cry from his early years when he was both a bit of showpony as well as a hot-head, a liability on both counts. He has matured with the captaincy and Northampton are seeing the fruits of their bold decision to thrust him into a leadership role against received wisdom. "He's world-class and stands out here for his attitude," said Northampton director of rugby, Jim Mallinder. There is no such thing as a sloppy session with him in training. He's first there, the hardest there. He's a hooker who can play as well as do physical stuff. He knows what space is and how to find a man with a pass. He can do everything. Unfortunately for Hartley, as well as for Saints, he was deemed to have done too much when being banned for eight weeks for biting the finger of Ireland flanker, Stephen Ferris. He was as much sinned against as sinning that day. There has been huge improvement in his temperament as well as in his tight-forward play. That was the prime difference yesterday, Hartley locating Exeter's weak point and exploiting it. "We got loose against Gloucester last week but today we recognised what needed to be done during the match and stuck at the driving maul," said Hartley, relishing the close-quarter contact side of the game. Our coach, Dorian West, has hammered that home, that we should take real pleasure from getting dominance up front. Northampton looked as if they might be away over the horizon after scoring two tries through Christian Day and back-row forward, Phil Dowson without reply by the 27th minute. Day benefited from a fine run by Ben Foden, who was hit-and-miss in other parts of his game, the lock finishing off matters after Russian wing, Vasily Artemyev had taken it on from Foden. Dowson's try was triggered by a turnover and a sharp break from Lamb. Saints had the nudge in the scrummage and looked set fair, although they were extremely fortunate that no.8, GJ van Velze, was not sin-binned for deliberately preventing a quick tap penalty by Exeter in the 20th minute. Given that the South African was shown the yellow card for dump-tackling Exeter scrum-half, Will Chudley, just before the break, Northampton were lucky to escape greater censure. Exeter have real grit in their side and were not going to be brushed aside easily. A sharp sidestep by wing, Josh Tatupu set up Phil Dollman's try on the half-hour mark, a conversion and two subsequent penalties by Mieres giving them a 13-12 lead at the break, soon extended by another successful penalty. Yet, urged on by Hartley, Northampton knuckled down. Substitute centre, Luther Burrell, roared through a limp tackle to touch down in the 56th minute. That got the juices flowing, Hartley himself giving his side a cushion with a smartly-taken try from a lineout peel eight minutes later. Exeter were not quite done, Jess rounding off fine work by Sireli Naqelevuki to clinch a losing bonus point.