It was a freezing cold day at the Rec-and I mean really cold, the sort of cold you forget exists until you have to sit through 80 minutes of it watching rugby. Bath started powerfully, stating their intent when just a few minutes in, a Michael Claassens break from the base of the scrum lead to a Butch James chip falling into the path of Matt Banahan on the wing. It was exactly the same position on the pitch as the winning try last week, but this week it opened the game. James converted and Bath were seven points up.

It was clear that Bath set out to blast Northampton off the pitch at the start of the game, and for a while they dominated. After a missed penalty, Northampton made up for it by capitalising on David Barnes not rolling away and kicked three points. The gap was re-opened when Northampton were judged offside (a regular occurrence today) and James kicked the penalty between the posts. At a later Bath scrum, the home team were penalised, and Myler kicked between the sticks. It remained tight for much of the first half.

Northampton, offside again, were pinged by the referee, Andrew Small. James, who kicked well today, added three points. Bath hearts briefly froze (not difficult today, mind) when James was charged down, and the ball thundered down into the in goal area, where it was dealt with by Jack Cuthbert. James’ attempt to recover his position was thwarted when a Northampton player seemed to pull his shirt to try and stop him from helping Cuthbert. Much of the rest of the first half consisted of scrums, turnovers and counter turnovers. The half concluded with a missed penalty kick from Cuthbert, who was called upon because the kick was from the half way line. Indeed, he and his giant boot played well today, despite this miss.

A Northampton penalty opened the second half. Bath attacked for the next few minutes, but it was anything but convincing. It was far too complicated and messy, and achieved little. James missed a penalty, but then a much more concerted attack greeted Northampton ’s defence, who deserve praise. They kept out Bath for a long time, but ultimately Claassens hand popped over the line, and the try was scored. The conversion was missed, probably due to the wind, which cut through both the supporters and the kicking today.

Northampton attacked through a series of dull rucks and mauls. Jonny Fantastic was penalised for a high tackle during a slightly more exciting attack, but the penalty was missed.

Sean Lamont was nearly in for a try, but a great tackle from Cuthbert pushed him into touch. After the lineout, Claassens cleared the ball out via a box kick. Harrison, Browne and Dixon came on for the last 10 minutes, and the scrum seemed immediately stronger. Bath were camped on the try line searching for a third try to seal the game. Peter Short crossed the line, but the try was disallowed for crossing.

Northampton did their best to leave the 22, but a James tackle forced a knock-on from the fleeing Saints players; the subsequent scrum was good from Bath and Claassens capitalised on his forward’s power to pick up the ball and go over for a try. The conversion was kicked by James, who I thought had a great game.

The match concluded with a Northampton try; it looked extremely dodgy to me with the scorer clearly in front of the kicker, but it didn’t affect the result, so I won’t complain (I would otherwise). The conversion was missed.

It wasn’t quite as tight at the end as it was last week, but it was pretty close. Bath were more convincing, but the opposition, although fairly handy, weren’t as formidable as Sale were. Thankfully the cold didn’t affect the result, and it was just about worth me losing the feeling in my toes and fingers to see Bath top the table. Let’s hope we can stay there for a while in the New Year.

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