Bath Need To Win Two In A Row

Supporters
By Glen Leat
March 13 2003

After losing narrowly in the Cup at the end of January when they should have won, Bath will be looking to build on their excellent performance against Saracens as they face up to Northampton for the third time this season. So far for Bath it is played two lost two against the Saints so a win is due.

Northampton Saints head coach Wayne Smith has decided to rest prop Tom Smith after playing 22 games out of 26 for the Saints with his place being taken by novice prop Brett Sturgess and Welsh Second Row Steve Williams is also having some time off. It would be easy to be offended by this bit of cockiness by Smith as he underestimates the power of the Bath pack but I'll take any help available as we must win this game.

The Bath players will have been really frustrated with the one point loss to the Saints in January after watching them thrash London Irish in the Cup semi-final recently, but for the help of referee Steve Lander we could all be looking forward to a trip to Twickenham at the end of May. Having said that, Lander could have done us a favour as we can focus all our attention on Premiership survival.

Mike Catt has been confirmed in the starting line up at centre alongside Mike Tindall with Irish success Kevin Maggs moving to the wing. The drama queens amongst us will be pleased to see Elvis Seveali’i starting on the opposite wing to Maggs though the rugby experts will be disappointed if Jonathan Humphreys fails to pass a late fitness test because the Welsh skipper has been a massive motivational force in a much improved Bath pack this season.

Bath are now two points ahead of London Irish in the table, from a game more, while Newcastle, whose mini-revival came to an end with defeat at the hands of Wasps, are now bottom. Every game is, as they say, a mini-final in itself and we know how good we are at finals!

Come on Bath let's win two on the trot for the first time in 12 months.

Click on to the Northampton Saints site for their perspective on things.

Click here to link to a classic match between Bath and Northampton.

In preparation for this clash let's have a look at a few recent statistics:

Biggest Win

Player Greats

Last Meetings (Bath scores first)