Nothampton Kept Faith and Unplugged Bath

Northampton Saints 31 – 24 Bath Rugby

Ben Foden’s fantastic performance helped Northampton Saints secure a bonus point victory over Bath Rugby and it was too close to call as the Aviva Premiership champions had to cling on at the end.

The fullback was in sizzling form in both attack and defence as the England International was on hand in every try for the Saints and made a try saving tackle. As a penalty try, Calum Clark, Christian Day and George Pisi were enough to see of the visitors from staging a dramatic fightback.

Bath were unable to show the same sort of performance, which destroyed Leicester in the record breaking victory last week. Despite David Wilson, Olly Woodburn and Nick Auerac crossing the try line but they were still sort as they couldn’t secure their first win at Franklin’s Gardens.

The host flow out the blocks and in the sixth minute with Foden cutting through the Bath defence and in the next phase the ball was passed out wide and even though Bath fullback Luke Arscott tried to intercept Kahn Fotuali’I pass referee Tim Wigglesworth sent Arscott to the sin bin for a deliberate knock on and awarded a penalty try.

The visitors were struggling and getting overpowered by the Northampton scrum and wasn’t too long till they doubled their lead as Pisi stepped in and slipped and slid out of tackles and when the centre got to the Bath five metre and Clark had a simple run the with Stephen Myler adding the extra points it had the home side with a 14 point lead.

It took Bath until 20 minutes to get their first score of game and it was great build up play from the forwards as their ball carrying pushed Saints back when George Ford inside passed to Wilson and the prop was able to reach for the try line after getting tackled.

Ford’s conversion was cancelled out by Myler’s penalty who made it 17 – 7.

The 21 year old was then able to cut the lead to just 7 points after he converted a penalty and just before half-time Myler’s missed the chance to extend the Saints lead with another penalty but Northampton still went into the break 17 – 10 up.

It didn’t take too long into the second half for the hosts to regain a 14 point lead as the forwards kept hammering the opponent’s defence and on the five metre line the ball went wide and Day crashed over in the left corner and Myler converted.

Before the hour mark Pisi got the bonus point for the champions after Ford’s clearance was picked up and it was Foden’s counter attack which blew up the West Country club’s defence and with five quick passes to Pisi who cut back into the inside and brushed off two tackles and then showed his strength to score.

After the hour mark Bath started the fightback as Ford’s cut-pass to Gavin Henson opened a gap and his simple pass to Woodburn brought the score back and it looked like the visitors could get a draw with 10 minutes left replacement prop Auterac grounded the ball after a good driving maul from the lineout and as fly-half Ford converted the score was back down to 7 points.

With the clock ticking down Bath looked to have clinched the critical try after another driving maul but the grounding wasn’t clear and the video referee couldn’t award the try and the Saints went marching on.

Scorers

6 Mins – Penalty Try – 5 – 0
6 Mins – S.Myler (Con) – 7 – 0
14 Mins – C.Clark (Try) – 12 – 0
15 Mins – S.Myler (Con) – 14 – 0
20 Mins – D.Wilson (Try) – 14 – 5
20 Mins – G.Ford (Con) – 14 – 7
25 Mins – S.Myler (Pen) – 17 – 7
33 Mins – G.Ford (Pen) – 17 – 10
47 Mins – C.Day (Try) – 22 – 10
48 Mins – S.Myler (Con) – 24 – 10
52 Mins – G.Pisi (Try) – 29 – 10
54 Mins – S.Myler (Con) – 31 – 10
59 Mins – O.Woodburn (Try) – 31 – 15
60 Mins – G.Ford (Con) – 31 – 17
69 Mins – N.Auterac (Try) – 31 – 22
70 Mins – G.Ford (Con) – 31 – 24