After five months of famine, and a couple of days of penalty-fests, finally something to feast on. Jack Willis produced a breakdown masterclass in front of Eddie Jones to cap Wasps’ hugely impressive victory in what was, by a considerable distance, the best match of the round and the jump-start the Premiership needed. The five previous matches of the weekend will not live long in the memory and the league organisers would have been desperate for some sort of spectacle. Rusty players and new breakdown interpretations have not been a good mix but it can be no coincidence that fielding three mobile loose forwards paid dividends, as Wasps demonstrated. Willis was the standout performer but Thomas Young and Brad Shields were similarly superb, and perhaps Wasps have found the blueprint for others to follow. Willis was wearing No 6 but is the kind of flanker who looks to set to profit from the law tweaks. He is only 23 but has already displayed considerable resilience, having suffered a dreadful long-term knee injury in the 2018 Premiership semi-final, shortly after he had won his first call-up to an England squad for the tour of South Africa. As a result he is still waiting for a first Test cap but he is an international back-row in waiting on this showing. “It’s Eddie’s decision,” said the Wasps head coach, Lee Blackett. “But Jack will be there or thereabouts, he can’t not be. Hopefully he keeps working hard and keeps playing well. If so I’m pretty sure he’ll get a call up. Jack is proving himself at this moment in time. He’s one of the last off the training field, first on. He won’t die wondering at any time during his career. We played two out-and-out sevens, plus we had Brad Shields who is pretty good over the ball. You’d like to think the new breakdown interpretations would suit us.” Northampton, for their part, were decidedly sluggish – Dan Biggar having one of his most error-strewn matches in recent memory – but take nothing away from Wasps, who leap into fourth place in the table and assert their play-off credentials. Josh Bassett finished with two tries, Willis and Ben Harris one each, and credit too to Blackett, for whom this was a first win since taking over on a permanent basis. It feels like a lifetime ago, but it should be remembered that Wasps were the form team before the lockdown, winning their previous three Premiership matches, including a 50-point thrashing of Saracens. Five months off would have threatened to derail that sort of momentum but there was little evidence of it – Wasps notably sharper and hungrier than their hosts. Biggar kicked Northampton into a 3-0 lead but Wasps jolted into gear and Bassett had the first try of the match after his side’s two playmakers, Jimmy Gopperth and Jacob Umaga, combined to put him away. Biggar added another penalty but Wasps were soon over again. Dan Robson darted towards the right, fed Zach Kibirige who exchanged passes with Thomas Young. Wasps were held up but were awarded a scrum close to the Northampton line and after a strong run from Matteo Minozzi, Willis was over. In the absence of any supporters, Biggar’s frustrations were all the more audible but a colossal hit from Malakai Fekitoa on Fraser Dingwall only served to emphasise just how much Wasps were on top, even if another on the same player led to a yellow card for the All Black centre. Northampton’s Alex Mitchell – another being closely watched by Jones – darted over five minutes into the second half but while that brought Saints back to within a point, Harris’s close-range pushover try re-established breathing space for Wasps. Another key turnover from Willis, with Northampton pounding away on the Wasps line, was followed by a penalty from Lima Sopoaga but when the New Zealander was sent to the sin-bin and David Ribbans was bundled over with nearly 20 minutes to go, Northampton’s tails were up. Another Biggar penalty brought Northampton to within three but his mistake allowed Sopoaga to reply in kind. Saints were chasing by this stage and were put out of their misery with three minutes to go when Young sparked a move in his own 22 that ended with Bassett going over again for the bonus point. “You can’t afford to leak set-piece tries and they got two,” said Northampton’s director of rugby, Chris Boyd. “We were just a bit sloppy with our execution – I honestly didn’t see that coming.”