Saracens coach Brendan Venter praised the performance of referee Chris White as his side booked their place in the English Premiership semi-finals with a tense 28-27 win away to Northampton.

Earlier this season, the former Springbok centre was given a suspended touchline ban after criticising referee David Rose.

But the South African insisted he'd made up his mind to congratulate Test official White long before Shane Geraghty's missed conversion late on at Franklin's Gardens saw Sarries to victory and ended Northampton's unbeaten home league record.

Venter, who was especially pleased by the way in which White policed the breakdown, said: "You saw out there how top games are about small margins. But we were courageous, we defended strongly and we played some tremendous rugby.

"You will not see a much better game of Premiership rugby than this, and if Geraghty had kicked the conversion and we'd lost, I'd be saying the same.

"That goes also for Chris White. I made up my mind before the end to congratulate Chris who had a brilliant game in keeping the breakdown working.

"Penalties are not killing the game, penalties are saving the game. We've had a change of approach, a change of interpretation at the contact area, and the rugby is all the better for it.

"I told Chris White of my feelings and I'm glad I did."

Saints boss Jim Mallinder pulled no punches in telling England international Geraghty to improve his goalkicking.

"Shane is a tremendous talent and he had a hand in Ben Foden's try that put us within the conversion of winning.

"He has work to do in terms of goalkicking. If you are playing in the Premiership you have got to be knocking those over. I know he came on as a replacement, but there's work for him to do in this area.

"They (Saracens) deserved to win because they played better than us on the day. But there will be another day."

Elsewhere Bath's revival continued with a 35-19 victory against Wasps at Twickenham that saw the west county club climb into fourth place.

Bath can now deprive Wasps of a playoff spot by beating Leeds at home in a fortnight.

At Twickenham, Bath wing Joe Maddock ran in a hat-trick of tries while England international Olly Barkley added one of his own and kicked 15 points.

"We've come a long way since the first four months of the season," said Bath coach Steve Meehan, whose side were 11th in the 12-team Premiership at the turn of the year.

Reigning champions Leicester will finish top of the regular season table after a 40-22 win at home to Harlequins.

However, coach Richard Cockerill said: "It's very pleasing to finish top of the table. It is a relentless tournament but we haven't won anything yet so we have to keep focused."

But London Irish, last season's beaten finalists, saw their playoff hopes left hanging by a thread after a 34-20 defeat by Gloucester.

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