Worcester could only muster a penalty from outside-half Fin Smith as Diamond’s efforts to fire them up were quickly doused by their opponents.

They had twice turned down what would have been eminently kickable penalties but their desire to seek tries foundered against some sterling defence.

Northampton followed Worcester in chasing the opening score by opting for Biggar to bang a penalty into a corner. They won and drove the subsequent line-out for Scotland Six Nations squad member Hutchinson to celebrate his 26th birthday in style by dancing his way through a shoddy defence to score with Biggar converting.

Worcester winger Perry Humphreys was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on but referee Ian Tempest ruled against awarding a penalty try. However, Saints punished Warriors with Matavesi being driven over for an unconverted try.

And it got worse for the broken Warriors as the impressive Mitchell didn’t hang around in exploiting a glaring gap to cross with Biggar converting.

Biggar tapped over a penalty early in the second half to extend the lead to 19 points. It seemed too easy but Worcester momentarily exploded into life with Scotland prop Rory Sutherland and former Wales centre Ashley Beck scoring unconverted tries to narrow the gap to eight points.

However, Northampton reasserted their authority with substitute hooker James Fish grabbing their fourth try for Biggar to successfully convert.

“I was pretty happy with the first half and we are very pleased to get five points aways,” said director of rugby Chris Boyd.

He paid tribute to the commitment of Biggar, saying: “He came out of the Wales camp on Wednesday and trained with us on Thursday. Dan continues to be the ultimate professional for us. That’s what you get and why you are paid big bucks. He will enjoy being Wales captain.”

Match details

Scoring sequence: 0-5 Hutchinson try,0-7 Biggar con, 3-7 Smith pen, 3-12 Matavesi try, 3-17 Mitchell try, 3-19 Biggar con, 3-22 Biggar pen, 8-22 Sutherland try, 13-22 Beck try, 13-27 Fish try, 13-29 Biggar con.

Worcester: B Searle; P Humphreys (A Hearle 71), F Venter, A Beck, D van der Merwe; F Smith (O Williams 28), G Simpson, (W Chudley 55); R Sutherland (E Waller 61), N Annett (B Cutting 71), C Judge , (J Tyack 51), J Batley, A Kitchener (J Clegg 28), K Hatherell, T Hill, M Kvesic (S Vailanu 51).

Northampton: A Tuala (M Proctor 60); O Sleightholme, F Dingwall, R Hutchinson, T Collins; D Biggar(J Grayson 71), A Mitchell; A Waller (E Iyogun 55), S Matavesi (J Fish 62), P Hill, D Ribbans, A Ratuniyarawa, T Wood, T Harrison, J Augustus (A Coles 58). 

Referee: I Tempest.

Attendance: 6,876