As Archie McParland went under the posts to snatch a late, dramatic win for Northampton Saints, Henry Pollock appeared alongside him and celebrated in his own, inimitable way.

Two weeks ago in Paris the England forward shushed the crowd, only for it to backfire as the French snatched victory at the death.

This time, though, Pollock – and Saints – would not be denied. Pollock shadow-boxed in front of the Saracens crowd, a nod to the fact he has signed a sponsorship agreement with Matchroom, run by Eddie Hearn – the man behind Anthony Joshua and one of the biggest players in the fight game.

After the match, Pollock mistakenly said he had signed for “Matchmaking” but that was a rare misstep on an otherwise fine night that had appeared to be slipping away from Saints after a fast start when they went two scores clear.

With the scores locked at 14-14 with 10 minutes of an attritional contest remaining, Fergus Burke looked to have clinched a gritty win for the hosts after knocking a penalty through the uprights.

But Northampton, as they have done countless times this season, stuck a dagger in Saracens’ hearts. Their aura of invincibility might have been bruised in large periods of this match – with their two first-half scores cancelled out by Saracens’ wolfpack – but it just about remained intact. After his two-try performance, McParland, their lively scrum-half, was hailed as a consummate professional by Phil Dowson, the Northampton Saints’ director of rugby.

After being pumped by Bath last weekend, Saracens welcomed back England captain Maro Itoje to their side for their marquee clash with the league leaders at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as part of the “Showdown 6” bonanza. The England captain was one of four changes Mark McCall made after his side’s shellacking at The Rec, in which the Saracens’ head coach admitted his side had looked “shellshocked”. If their fans were expecting a response, they were left disappointed early on.

Saints have led the way this season and they set about dismantling Saracens’ porous defence with their crisp off-loading game. They smelled danger when Theo Dan was cleared out on the halfway line in a tag-team effort from Curtis Langdon and Mani Iyogun, which was the impetus the visitors needed for their opening score with Tom Litchfield cutting a sumptuous line to fly over.

For all of Saints’ attacking enterprise, they fed off Saracens’ mistakes and punished them with their support runners. When Owen Farrell’s touch-finder fell short, Saints crafted a superb second through their fiery half-back partnership, with Fin Smith throwing a dummy pass before exploiting a gap and sending McParland on his way under the posts. It was 14-0 inside 14 minutes and could have been more had Litchfield not been penalised for crossing, which resulted in Pollock’s effort being chalked off.

Just as it looked like it was getting ugly for the hosts, enter Rhys Carre – the man who broke the internet during the Six Nations. When the marauding Welshman bulldozed his way into Saints’ 22, his team-mates fed off his energy and mounted an attack. Elliot Daly arrowed a pass out wide to Tobias Elliot, who shrugged off three defenders to glide over.

Saints struggled to manage the momentum swing, during which they lost their chief architect Smith after the fly-half failed a head injury assessment. Before they knew it, Carre was at it again – this time producing a one-handed offload to Nick Tompkins to set another attack in motion – before giving the visitors absolute grief at scrum time. Somehow, Saints survived a trio of Saracens’ scrums five metres from their own try-line to just about hang onto a seven-point lead at the break.

Saracens, though, began worming their way back into the contest and their bench brought an injection of pace and power that they lacked in a lacklustre first half. When Pollock illegally stripped Tompkins of the ball deep inside Saints territory, the hosts opted for the corner and this time took their chance. Dan barrelled over and the subsequent Farrell conversion brought the scores level.

Saints, who shifted George Furbank to fly-half in Smith’s absence, were struggling without their talisman, while Tommy Freeman was uncharacteristically quiet. They had Pollock to thank for preventing a third for the hosts, as Hugh Tizard, who reassembled something of a circus act as he juggled the ball over the whitewash, was ambushed by a mop of blonde hair.

Saints endured further misfortune when Trevor Davidson, who was on as a replacement, limped off injured, but their heads refused to dip. They mounted a head of steam and JJ Van der Mescht was somehow held up deep in the corner and, even after Farrell’s penalty, they had enough nous to get over the finish line after Litchfield – the man who started the show – broke through to set up McParland at the death, and spark Pollock’s celebrations.

Match details

Scoring sequence 0-5 Litchfield try, 0-7 Smith con, 0-12 McParland try, 0-14 Smith con, 5-14 Elliot try, 7-14 Farrell con, 12-14 Dan try, 14-14 Farrell con, 17-14 Farrell pen, 17-19 McParland try, 17-21 Hutchinson con.

Saracens E Daly; T Elliott, L Cinti, N Tompkins, R Segun (M Malins 70) ; O Farrell (F Burke 69), C Bracken (I van Zyl 65); R Carre (E Mawi 51), T Dan (J George 51), M Street (M Riccioni 51), M Itoje, H Tizard, T McFarland (N Isiekwe 65), A Onyeama-Christie, T Willis (N Michelow 56)

Northampton Saints G Furbank; T Freeman, T Litchfield, R Hutchinson, J Ramm; F Smith (F Dingwall 29), A McParland; E Iyogun (D Fischetti 26), C Langdon (C Wright 55), L Green (T Davidson 50), T Lockett (C Munga 72), E Prowse (JJ Van der Mescht 50), J Kemeny (C Chick 66), T Pearson, H Pollock. 
Replacement J Weimann.

Referee A Woodthorpe. Attendance: 47,700.