England wing Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries as Northampton Saints put in a much-improved second-half to beat Harlequins 33-29 in the Premiership on Friday.

Trailing 22-14 at the break, Northampton came out for the resumption in impressive form as they crossed thrice more to Harlequins’ one to claim a bonus-point victory.

Wing Sleightholme went over in both halves while Emmanuel Iyogun, a penalty try and Sam Graham’s score got Northampton Saints to the finish line with their noses in front.

Marcus Smith, lining up at full-back for the first time in Harlequins colours, ended the game with a 19-point haul that included two tries but that wasn’t enough for victory.

Harlequins opened the scoring in only the second minute after Northampton infringed at a ruck, with tighthead prop Titi Lamositele grounding the ball off the back of a maul.

The lethal Marcus Smith made the conversion but he ran into heavy traffic not long after under his own posts, with the resulting penalty leading to Saints hitting straight back.

The penalty was tapped and the ball worked to the left before Iyogun squeezed his way over, with Fin Smith’s conversion levelling the score.

Two superb pieces of defending then prevented Quins from regaining the lead when Tommy Freeman got back brilliantly to hold up Will Joseph before Curtis Langdon performed similar heroics on Lennox Anyanwu.

But Harlequins were back in front in the 20th minute when Marcus Smith received the ball from Jarrod Evans and stepped past Rory Hutchinson with ease to go clear.

Northampton struck back almost immediately when Sleightholme scampered away down the left, but Quins led for a third time when Danny Care’s forward pass, allowed to go by the officials, dropped perfectly for Marcus Smith to score his second try.

The England international then knocked over a penalty to extend the visitors’ lead to 22-14, which was how the score remained until half-time.

However, the gap was narrowed to one point within three minutes of the restart when Northampton were awarded a penalty try after Nick David’s dangerous tackle prevented Sleightholme from scoring.

David was sent to the sin bin as a result before Iyogun looked set to barge his way over for his second try, only for Jack Kenningham to get underneath him and hold him up.

It was all the home side at this point and the try that put them 28-22 ahead arrived after 56 minutes when Graham picked up from a ruck and crashed over just to the left of the posts.

Northampton then extended their lead in the 63rd minute when a superb off-load by captain George Furbank put Sleightholme in the clear.

Harlequins ensured a tense finish when Will Porter gathered Dino Lamb’s wild off-load infield to close the gap to four points with seven minutes left, but the champions were able to hold on for back-to-back wins.

Elsewhere on Friday, England wing Tom Roebuck scored two tries as Sale Sharks secured a breathless 31-27 bonus-point win over Gloucester at the Salford Community Stadium.

The 23-year-old, named earlier in the day in Steve Borthwick’s England training squad, struck either side of half-time as the Sharks bounced back from last week’s defeat at Saracens.

England colleague Luke Cowan-Dickie also crossed twice in a five-try show from Sale as they held off Gloucester’s late surge.

Gloucester, who lost last week’s hat-trick hero Christian Wade to a first-half rib injury, grabbed two bonus points with a 78th-minute try from Max Llewellyn but could not breach the Sale defence in added time.

Sale led 14-8 at half time, coming from behind after Tomos Williams had given Gloucester the lead with a sixth-minute try. The Welsh scrum-half finished off a flowing move started by half-back partner Gareth Anscombe with a lovely step off his right foot after a deft back-of-the-hand pass by Jack Clement in the build-up.

Roebuck, who won his first England cap off the bench against Japan in June, replied for Sale 11 minutes later, scooping up Robert du Preez’s pass to slide over in the right-hand corner.

Roebuck turned provider four minutes before the break, scything though from Du Preez’s inside ball before putting scrum-half Gus Warr away for the try.

Full-back George Barton put over a penalty just before the break to keep the visitors in touch.

Sale, already without the injured George Ford and Tom Curry, lost centre Will Addison to an eye issue before the break.

Roebuck went over again in the 48th minute, crossing after Arron Reed’s bending run in midfield had pulled apart Gloucester’s defence.

Gloucester stayed true to this season’s promise to play from anywhere and they conjured a breakaway try from their own half just before the hour-mark with Williams grabbing his second after hacking on replacement Charlie Atkinson’s kick.

Du Preez’s 50-22 put Sale in position for a lineout drive score from Cowan-Dickie in the 64th minute. The pack, beefed up by the appearance off the bench of 21st 10lb second-row Le Roux Roets, rumbled 15 metres for the try.

Cowan-Dickie went over for his second in the 71st minute off a smart blindside lineout play, taking Reed’s pass to go over with Gloucester’s defence splintered.

Replacement Caolan Englefield grabbed a third try late on for Gloucester and they added a fourth from left wing Llewellyn with Warr in the sin-bin but time ran out on them.