A fast and furious Prem season was never going to end with a dull whimper. And when the dust finally settled on another frenetic encounter it was Northampton who stood tallest, propelled to their second domestic title in three years by two tries inside four minutes from their red-haired wing George Hendy, the player who also set up Alex Mitchell’s clinching try in his side’s 2024 victory over Bath.It was not always the most error-free of games but the helter-skelter action was never less than compelling. Exeter had edged in front thanks to a 51st-minute score from their captain, Dafydd Jenkins, with Northampton down to 14 men following Josh Kemeny’s yellow card. They reckoned without the energy of Henry Pollock and Hendy’s double whammy which propelled Saints over the line in a rugged encounter on a sweltering afternoon.For a while it appeared the outcome might hinge on a fabulous last-ditch tackle by Campbell Ridl on Mitchell when the England scrum-half looked absolutely certain to score. Saints also had to deal with some ferocious Chiefs tackling, with the Wallaby Len Ikitau leading the charge. It cramped Northampton’s style to such a degree they could seldom replicate the flowing attacking rugby that drove them to the top of the regular season table.Alex Mitchell loses the ball while trying to ground it for a Northampton try. Photograph: Rachel Le Poidevin/PPAUK/ShutterstockThe best attacking side in the Prem against the tightest defence? Only to some degree. “We can’t try and let the game be about Northampton’s attack against our defence because if it gets to that stage you’re probably losing it,” warned Exeter’s Rob Baxter before the game. His point was that the Chiefs also needed to have the courage of their convictions rather than settling for a policy of containment.Having battled their way past Leicester, Saracens and Bath en route to final, the big question was whether the underdogs still had enough energy in their legs. What they also needed to do was start well. Giving Saints a 33-7 lead and battling back to draw 33-33, as they did on the opening league weekend, was not going to work this time. It was distinctly sub-optimal, then, when Ollie Woodburn and Manny Feyi-Waboso got in each other’s way and Tommy Freeman was presented with the simplest of opening tries inside the first two minutes. Nothing much else went Exeter’s way initially, with the loss of their hooker Max Norey to a lower leg injury another untimely blow.Soon enough, though, the momentum shifted significantly. Freeman wide on the right threw a hopeful offload infield which was snaffled by Ikitau who released Ridl for a 45-metre sprint to the line. Chiefs could easily have scored again, with Stephen Varney hauled down just short and then Slade just being nudged aside at the crucial moment as he appeared set to complete a kick-and-chase try.Saints also lost the influential Archie McParland to injury in a crazily fluctuating opening quarter and would have scored a second try themselves had Hendy thrown a slightly more accurate inside pass to George Furbank with the line wide open. The pace was relentless until a water break on 20 minutes gave both sides a much-needed opportunity to catch their collective breath.As at the football World Cup it was not hugely popular with the paying punters, who booed the interruption loudly. It was certainly warm enough to justify a drink but it took a while for the game to recapture its previous electricity. While Joseph Dweba did come close to capitalising on a driving maul it was Saints who scored next, Smith slicing through to score before adding the conversion.Exeter needed to make their hard physical work pay and did so a minute before the interval. It was not especially pretty, with Dweba’s five-metre lineout throw sailing over its intended target, but the ball fell obligingly into the hands of the unmarked Josh Iosefa-Scott who turned and crashed over.It would have narrowed the half-time gap to two points had Henry Slade landed the relatively straightforward conversion but the kick sailed wide, prompting the England centre to do some impromptu kicking practice as everyone else headed for the dressing rooms.George Hendy goes over for a try despite Campbell Ridl’s last-ditch tackle, the Saints’ second score in three thrilling minutes. Photograph: Phil Mingo/PPAUK/ShutterstockThe Chiefs also badly needed to improve their lineout stats, having won only two of their five first-half throw-ins. But Dweba’s first effort of the second half also went astray and Northampton would have taken advantage had Tom Litchfield’s attempted scoring pass to Rory Hutchinson not gone forward.It felt like a major moment, then, when with Kemeny off the field Chiefs went ahead for the first time with just under half an hour to play through the charging Jenkins. This time Slade slotted the conversion and gave Exeter a three-point cushion to try to defend. Pollock, the man of the match, sailed close to the wind with a high challenge on Ridl but ultimately it was Northampton’s Shoe Army who went marching in again.It put the seal on a season that has restored some faith in the financially battered English domestic game. The number of Bath and Leicester fans around the stadium underlined the fact that when the quality of the entertainment is good enough it is worth watching even when your team has been knocked out. For that fact alone we should all be grateful.