After another controversial week off-field for Bath Rugby, eyes turned to the match against Northampton . We were all hoping to move on by playing well enough to erase some of the more painful recent memories.

Northampton was a scary prospect after such poor play from Bath in recent weeks and they started well, with intent. A penalty was awarded to Northampton but the play erupted into a bit of a brawl. Geraghty turned his back to focus on the sticks but his kick was miscued and the score remained at nil all.

Northampton seemed to start the game the better, but they lost too much ball. Bath were struggling most however, kicking away any productive ball into Saints hands. After Northampton were pinged for coming in at the side, Nicky Little kicked to the left hand touch line to set up a lineout in the Saints 22 and Bath at last had a chance to run at the Saints defence. Matt Banahan pushed through the defence to send one of the many blond heads in the Bath team over the line. The ref couldn’t see any grounding off the ball so set up a scrum 5m out in front of the posts. This is where Bath needed to turn the screw if they had any chance against the impressive Northampton team. But of course, they didn’t. Northampton turned the ball over and got rid of it.

Yet another scrum went down and it was Bath who were penalised this time. Geraghty got the three points. Little had a chance pretty quickly to level the scores and thankfully for those Bath supporters listening and watching, took it.

But Northampton soon kicked down field at Chris Ashton ran down the field and his pace beat the Bath defence, and he went over for a try. Unfortunate, as Bath had been playing well for the previous five minutes. The conversion was missed but Northampton lead 8-3. The subsequent kick off was penalised by David Rose when Northampton runners were in front of the kicker. The line out after Little’s kick was deliberately collapsed so Little had a go at goal, but at a tricky angle and he missed. At half time Bath went in knowing they had played better in these 40 minutes than they had in quite a while, but were still losing.

Bath came out with intent as the rail truly began to fall, and Banahan added his considerable weight to a move which –thankfully- sent Hape over the line for a try to level the scores. The conversion looked difficult, but Little nailed it. A lead of two points for Bath after seven minutes of the second half had been played.

The play from Bath sounded more sprightly and inventive than we have seen for a long time. Defence is so important against a proactive team like Northampton Saints and the tackling sounded like Bath meant it for once. The crisis meeting in the week clearly had an affect but with 15 minutes left the West Country’s team attention had to hold.

It slipped pretty quickly when Matt Banahan had a red card brandished at him for deliberately kicking Myler in the ruck. Bath were down to 14 with 10 minutes to go, and that could be the match. Stupid from Banahan but amazingly for Bath the penalty didn’t go through the sticks. Bath were still in the lead and it was extended a few minutes later when Little added three. Finger nails were being bitten down in Bath .

But Chris Aston went over in the corner in the last minute to level the scores and the conversion went over to big cheers from the home fans. It was the extra man that did it- Ashton found a gap that should have been filled by Banahan. It was a truly gut wrenching result because we deserved to win this one.

This was thankfully a much better performance from Bath and the honesty sessions the team and staff had in the week clearly had an effect.

But performance is one thing and winning is another. My heart sank when Banahan was permanently sent off and the result seemed inevitable after that. Thank God Harlequins fought back to beat Leeds , or this would truly be a death knell for our season. A bonus point is something, but this was a truly gutting result.

Referee: David Rose

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