Following their 9-17 loss to Northampton at The Rec in September Bath were keen for a second win in the East Midlands in eight days and Head Coach Brian Ashton made quite a few changes from the team that trotted out to face the Leicester Tigers last week.

After another dodgy start for Bath from a kick-off, with Williams allowing the ball to bounce near his posts and Chris Malone struggling with his clearance, it was the visitors who had the first scoring opportunity but Andy Higgins was just prevented from touching down in the corner by  Steve Thompson after five minutes. Similarly Northampton spurned a chance of their own to score a few minutes later when they were penalised for not releasing the ball having driven towards the Bath five metre line. These two moves set the tone for the nip and tuck nature of this game.

As with the previous two matches against Leicester, the Bath front row struggled with their scrummaging with David Flatman being cited several times by referee Rose for dropping his shoulder following constant pressure from his opposite number, Pat Barnard. The visitors also struggled with their other set piece discipline and the home supporters were clearly unhappy about Pieter Dixon's slow build up to every line-out and questioned the accuracy of his line of throwing.

Bath took the lead after 18 minutes with a try through Salesi Finau after their forwards drove up through the middle of the pitch, sucking in the Saints' forwards and as the visitors were within touching distance of the Northampton line they whipped the ball wide for Finau to score. Malone's touchline conversion was caught and pocketed by the wind to keep the score at 0-5.

Ten minutes later Northampton drew level through a bit of brilliance from Carlos Spencer. Taking the ball from Mark Robinson out of a Saints' scrum the former All Black blindly flicked the ball inside knowing his fellow countryman, Bruce Reihana, would be on his shoulder and the full-back ran in to score. A successful conversion from Reihana gave the home team a 7-5 lead. The Saints' full-back had a chance a few moments later to increase his tally but he scuffed the kick.

Northampton then broke a few Bath hearts with their second try in five minutes. Again the score came from a scrum but this time England winger Ben Cohen received the ball to run in for a simple try. A touchline kick from Reihana took the score to 14-5 after 33 minutes and Bath looked to be in trouble.

Chris Malone had an opportunity to reduce the deficit just on half-time with a 45 metre penalty but in such windy conditions Bath couldn't expect their super-boot to get them out of trouble. Northampton had a late flurry on the Bath line as the sweet teas were being poured out in the changing rooms and Bath hung on to keep the score to 14-5 at the break.

Steve Borthwick's team started the second half in attacking mood and were close to scoring a try but Jon Clarke was penalised in front of the Saints' posts for being off-side as he  intercepted a pass. Olly Barkley successfully kicked the penalty following the replacement of Chris Malone with Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu at half-time. Two minutes later Bath scored their second try. A quick penalty in their twenty-two saw Andy Williams adventurously grab the ball and dash 30 metres up-field, he off-loaded the ball to Crockett who fed Barkley to set up Maddock for the score. Barkley's conversion saw the visitors regain the lead at 14-15.

However, despite struggling to get out of the blocks throughout the opening 10 minutes of the second half Bruce Reihana scored his second try on their first attack to give Northampton the lead once again and take the score to 19-15. Barkley took the game back to a one pointer with his second penalty after 56 minutes and grabbed the lead five minutes later after the Northampton back row broke too quickly from a scrum.

Bath were odds on to score their third try with 10 minutes left after their pack rumbled its way to within three metres of the Northampton line but the ball popped out of the ruck on the home side and Sean Lamont dashed away to put the Bath defence under tremendous pressure and they had to concede a kickable penalty to halt the attack. Amazingly Reihana's pot at goal fell short to keep the visitors in front by two points. Bath were then denied another scoring opportunity as referee Rose decided that Andy Higgins hadn't released the ball when he was on the Northampton line.

Northampton regained the lead and grabbed a bonus point with five minutes to go as Mark Easter dashed up the blind side to score their fourth try. Carlos Spencer missed the conversion so the scoreboard stayed at 24-21. 

Bath had to hang on by their fingernails in the final three minutes to keep their losing bonus point safe as Northampton peppered the goal line with attacking moves and a late Bath penalty enabled a clearance dash upfield by Finau but a knock-on saw the game end with the home side winning 24-21.

Bath had many chances to win this game, as had Northampton to extend their lead and it would have been a brave person to predict the eventual winners throughout the last quarter of the game.

Referee: David Rose

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon