It’s a little way off yet, but a date for the new 2015 diary: Saturday 21 February is when Bath and Northampton, the sides threatening to stretch away a little at the top of the Aviva Premiership, go head to head.
It might not settle anything because both will be looking ahead to the semi-final and final dates in May, but going into the second half of the regular season you can guarantee that that Saturday at the Rec will be tasty as two sides, currently separated by a point after 11 rounds, confront each other with their contrary mindsets.
Take a look at the league table and there’s barely a fag paper between them. Both have won nine and lost two. Northampton have scored 342 points and conceded 188, while Bath’s figures are 345 and 190. Tries for and against go 42/21 to 38/20. But how those statistics confuse rather than inform. Northampton and Bath are chalk and cheese.
If you have any doubts, looks back at Saturday’s highlights. A week after inflicting a record home defeat on Gloucester, Bath took a four-try bonus point off Exeter, not so long ago Premiership leaders themselves and still third in the table when they ran out at the Rec to face a side intent on ripping it up.
For those of us who were around in Newcastle when Kevin Keegan reigned at St James’ Park, there is an element of those days at the Rec; the “love it, love it” days when Keegan reckoned his side could afford to concede three goals because they would score four. Heady days, but with George Ford running from under his own posts, Kyle Eastmond and Jonathan Joseph weaving patterns in midfield and Anthony Watson looking deadly every time he got involved from full-back there were times when Exeter looked as though they might be torn apart.
This hybrid union/league style that Bath are developing with Eastmond and Ford equally at home as first receiver and playmaker is a delight to watch and will put bums on seats, but does it win matches? Against lesser sides most certainly, but after 50 minutes against Exeter, the scoreline at the Rec was 14-14 and it wasn’t until the big men – Dave Attwood, Davey Wilson – arrived from the bench that the game was settled.
Instead of deft touches (and mistakes; both Exeter tries came from Ford forcing things) we had a stolen lineout and a 30-metre rolling maul.
Compare and contrast with Twickenham later that day when Northampton beat an all-singing all-dancing Harlequins despite having the ball in their hands for less than a quarter of the game. Harlequins made 48 tackles, Northampton 156. Quins carried 164 times, Saints 46. Impressive stats, but the only one worth its weight was Harlequins 25, Northampton 30.
If Bath are evolving and still a little way off where they want to be or knowing where they want to be – how for example does Sam Burgess fit into the game as currently seen by Ford and Eastmond? – then Northampton know where they are and look pretty happy about it.
Not so long ago there were plenty, me included, who thought Northampton a bit one dimensional. How they relied on Soane Tongauiha and Brian Mujati, the props who seemed to start every game and play 75 minutes. There was plenty of broadsword and only a little rapier, but things have changed, possibly as a result of Alex King, the guy who used to pull the strings when Wasps were winning Heineken Cups, joining from Clermont Auvergne.
During the King era at Franklin’s Gardens we have seen the brothers Pisi – George in the centre, Ken on the wing – become more influential. Ben Foden is close to his sharpest and Stephen Myler, another recruit from league and therefore someone who had to go through the learning process that Burgess faces, has added multiple dimensions to his game. And of course there is no point in recruiting George North and playing the limited muscular game.
The big men still have their say, of course they do, but it is within a more formal union pattern– and it works. Tries for Northampton in 11 games, 42, as against the 38 for Bath and while the bells and whistles may be making a din at the Rec, Franklin’s Gardens is rarely less than sold out.
However, there is one aspect of what Jim Mallinder is doing that will particularly impress other head coaches and directors of rugby. Building a team is one thing, keeping it together is another – and doing it while you are defending a title is like juggling six balls while speeding downhill on a unicycle.
In the last couple of weeks Northampton have announced a raft of re-signings. OK, we know that Toulon are claiming Samu Manoa, but given that this is a World Cup year and a time when sought-after players tend to “review” their career paths, Mallinder has done brilliantly to hold on to Myler, George Pisi, Courtney Lawes, the Wallers Alex and Ethan, Calum Clark, Luther Burrell and especially his captain Dylan Hartley, apparently much wanted in France.
And that meeting in February? Northampton by a whisker. And it’ll be fun.
