Bath Stun The Saints With A Right Good Hammering

By Glen Leat
September 20 2003

Bath stunned the pre-season joint Championship favourites with a three try 24-6 stuffing at the Rec. This wasn't just an important victory for Bath it was possibly the dawning of a new era as the forwards showed awesome power and the backs were gagging to run the ball at every opportunity.

Bath stunned the pre-season joint Championship favourites, Northampton Saints, with a three try 24-6 stuffing at the Rec. This wasn't just an important victory for Bath it was possibly the dawning of a new era as the forwards showed awesome power and the backs were gagging to run the ball at every opportunity.

The Northampton Saints supporters, sitting at the end of the very attractive new Virgin Mobile stand, watched in despair as Olly Barkley made up for his lack of prowess with the boot by (literally) running rings round the Saints defence to score Bath's second try. As the Bath fans went wild the chants of "Oh when the Saints.." stopped for good.

Barkley's potential Bath try of the season followed an earlier score by Lee Best after Nick Beale had made a real hash of clearing his lines, only to find MIchael Lipman scooping up the ball and setting up his former Bristol teammate to score the opener.

Throughout the game the Bath forwards dominated line-outs and scrums, with several line-outs taken by the Bath pack on the opposition throw. The Bath front row were mean and ferocious and hit their opponents in the tackle and with the ball with the sort of power that was sadly lacking all last season. Forwards coach Michael Foley must be licking his lips in anticipation of the players he has to work with this year.

From the way Steve Borthwick and Rob Fidler supported each other in the line-outs and open play you would have thought they had grown up together as juniors. The aerial catches from Borthwick on the Saints' restarts were something to behold: not only was he airborne for what seem liked an age but the height he reached meant the Saints forwards just could not challenge him and if they did they were liable to concede a penalty. On this form Danny Grewcock will have to work hard to force his way back in the side after the World Cup is over.

The Bath backs look energetic and excited to be on the pitch, though several times I worried over the lack of covering defence as all of them joined the attacking moves and on several occasions Northampton hacked the ball up field to expose Bath's soft underbelly. The late withdrawal of Matt Perry may have contributed to this weakness but his understudy, Jamie Williams, did all that was asked of him and certainly looked comfortable when receiving the few high balls Northampton managed to kick.

I love having Brendan Daniel in our side, he leaps around like a salmon and chases like a kid playing "piggy in the middle". His enthusiasm for the crowd as he walked off the pitch was that of a born and bred Bathonian and this lad with the rolled down socks will be a fans favourite by Christmas.

A half time score of 13-3 really did not reflect Bath's dominance and had Barkley been successful with his place kicks and Chris Malone's halfway-line drop goal attempt not hit the post Bath could have been 20 points clear.

The second half continued with Bath dominating every phase of play, though there was quite a bit of frustration as Martyn Wood seemed to be very slow to get to the game and this saw the Saints grab Bath ball at several Bath rucks. Nevertheless Wood worked well with a much more confident Malone and it was great to see a scrum half throw consistently good passes to his fly half: not something we were used to with Cooper and Williams!

Northampton had nothing in their kit bag to change the pace or outcome of the game and it was a measure of their frustration that both Darren Fox and Chris Budgen were sin binned for infringing at rucks. They really were a team lost for direction and clearly missing their World Cup and injured stars. Shane Drahm tried his hardest to pick up the pace but had no one around him to make a difference, all he could was slot home two penalties.

Bath finished off things with a try right on the death when a cross field kick was palmed down to replacement Scott Gray to take the final score to 24 - 6, but they could have grabbed a very late fourth try to gain that valuable bonus point had Isaac Feaunati passed out wide to men on the overlap following his bullocking run upfield from the half-way line. I noticed on several occasions throughout the game that Feaunati was less than keen to offload the ball when Bath men were in support and this could have be costly, but that's nitpicking on a day to enjoy and a result to savour.

Well done Bath, today you were a team to be proud of. We're on the up and a win at Sale next week may just make a few Directors of Rugby stand up and take notice!

Finally... I have to say the Rec is looking much better with the new East Stand and I think the whole ground issue could be addressed by keeping the Hampton Stand and the new East Stand as they are, building a new club house with seating in front of it and replacing the West Stand with a new structure that provides a riverfront restaurant. This would ensure the temporary structures remain temporary and the rugby club encroaches on the Rec no more than it has for the past 20 years. Bingo, everyone's happy!

However I am not so keen on the lack of leg room in my seating in front of the West Stand. It is almost impossible to let anyone out of a row to get a drink (or whatever) and this will become very irritating over the season. Why is it that only those people who need several pints or several pees during a match are sat in the middle of a row: is there some law of physics that makes this so?

Let's have a look at the latest league table.

Scorers

Bath: Williams, Best, Crockett, Barkley, Daniel, Malone, Wood, Flatman, Humphreys, Bell, Fidler, Borthwick, Beattie, Lipman, Fea'unati. Replacements: Martens, Mears, Stevens, Kydd, Knox, Scaysbrook, Gray.

Northampton: Beal, Sleightholme, Tucker, Leslie, Reihana, Drahm, Robinson, Sturgess, Richmond, Budgen, Williams, Lord, Connors, Fox, Soden. Replacements: Miles, Morris, Phillips, Seely, Howard, Hyndman, Ripol.

Referee: Dave Pearson