Bath Rugby v Northampton Saints

Guinness Premiership Round 10 , 27 December 2008.

The Recreation Ground, Bath

Bath 25, Saints 14

Saints journeyed to The Recreation Ground seeking to go one step better than their draw with Bath at Franklins Gardens earlier in the season. Parents and kids alike, fresh from the annual pressie fest that is Christmas asked themselves, "Can we do it?" Sadly "No we can't", as Bath confounded all our hopes and expectations to win fairly convincingly.

On a cold, bright and seasonally proper day, a cutting East wind blew strongly across the firm green pitch and a full house settled down to watch the gladiators engage in combat.

The line out functioned well too, with returning new boy Juandre Kruger bringing nous as well as height. But the good things up front were undone elsewhere by silly mistakes and lack of penetration through a strong Bath defence. A lot of Donner and Blitzen but Saints needed a Rudolph to lead them to the try line.

Bath opened their account early on when Butch James, as coolly as the weather, slotted a delicate grubber through the Saints defensive line for Matt Banahan to race past a totally confuzzled Paul Diggin to score, with James adding the extras.  7-0 after only 3 minutes.  Eeek!

Although Saints clawed their way back with Steve Myler adding 3 from a penalty, the visitors were not helping themselves, with dropped restart kicks and a lost line out from a penalty gifting possession to Bath on too many occasions.

After another period of pressure by Saints on the home try line and a strong scrum 5 bringing yet another penalty against Flatman, Saints strangely opted for a kick at goal when they clearly had the Bath pack in all sorts of bother. Although Myler added the 3 points it only restored the 7 point gap after Bath has added a penalty earlier. Another 3 came their way soon afterwards as Saints handled in a ruck well within kicking range.

As the half wore on, Saints kept attacking but without reward. Too often promising moves or territory were squandered by lack of composure or plain silly mistakes. Meanwhile, Bath just kept soaking it up.

After the break, Saints narrowed the gap to 13-9 with a Myler penalty when Tonga'uhia was shoulder charged off the ball. However, the mistakes crept back in to cost Saints dear. A bath kick upfield was taken by Digger who passed infield to Bruce Reihana. Unbelievably, Bruce fumbled the ball twice to give Bath field position 20 metres from Saints' line.  They moved right from the scrum, laying siege to the visitors line for several minutes until Claasens shot over the line from short range.

Saints now managed to keep possession for long periods and attacked Bath wherever possible, nearly getting through to the goal line on a couple of attempts. But the lack of finishing power and prowess seen in the first half meant no reward for the visitors despite the efforts of Hartley, Lamont and Wilson to find ways through.

Bath recovered territory again and managed to get the better at a scrum, although they gave away a penalty for holding on. Saints threw long from the line out and passed to Wilson who was hit with a massive impact that looked barely legal. Instead the ref awarded Bath a scrum for Saints throw not being straight and in a blink of an eye, Claasens raced through a wide blind side gap to claim his second and Bath's third try. Butch James added the extras.

Saints to their credit, kept attacking and nabbed a very late consolation try with a cross kick to the right wing where Kruger was lurking to gobble up the ball and the try. Myler missed the conversion as time ran out and the scoreboard reading 25-14.

Bath moved top of the Premiership with this win and Saints stay stuck too close to the foot of the table for this observers liking.

Ref Andrew Small

Teams:

Bath: Cuthbert, Maddock, Crockett, Hape, Banahan, James, Claasens, Flatman, Mears, Stevens, Hooper, Short, Beattie, Lipman, Faamatuainu

Subs: Dixon, Bell, Harrison, Browne, Bemand, Fuimaono-Sapolu, Higgins

Saints: Reihana, Diggin, Clarke, Downey, Lamont, Myler, Dickson (Foden, 65mins), Tonga'uiha, Hartley, Murray, Lobbe, Kruger, Easter, Gray, Wilson

Subs: Shields, Smith, Day, Hopley, Foden, Spencer, Mayor

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