Two wins from three - and here a bonus point, to boot. What, Northampton must be thinking, is all the fuss about?
The jury waits. Such a summary glosses over the indignity of the one defeat – the humiliation, really – but consecutive wins over the two biggest names in English rugby is enough to be getting on with, should it be felt that rebuilding were required. “You remember what people say,” said Jim Mallinder, Northampton’s director of rugby. “You read things, and it hurts. We needed a reaction last week and got it. This week we’ve shown we’re a difficult team to beat.”
Still a way to go, then, if they have designs on the kind of trophies they have developed a taste for. This was scarcely a swaggering display by potential champions, owing more to brute force and the capitulation of a Bath side battered by injury than to any subtlety or wit.
Bath finished, for the third game in a row, with 14 men. This time it proved too much. Sam Underhill, who was having a superb match in defence, Bath’s sole positive, was knocked out by his 23rd tackle, in the 68th minute. Because it was an open and shut case of concussion, he was not eligible for a head injury assessment (if he hadn’t been knocked out, he would have been), so Bath were unable to bring on a replacement, having used all of their bench. Substituted players can return only in the event of an HIA or blood.
Todd Blackadder, the Bath director of rugby, queried the logic afterwards. This was not Bath’s night, losing Matt Garvey, their captain, and Kahn Fotuali’i on the half-hour to an ever-growing list of injured. Coincidentally or not, they lost their way thereafter.
For large parts, the game meandered dispiritingly, one side, Bath, simply unable to secure any possession, largely because of a line-out that was picked apart by Northampton’s jumpers, while the other struggled to hold on to the copious amounts of ball they won. Such is the Saints’ muscularity, though, the sheer weight of the wave after wave of attack eventually took its toll.
Dave Ribbans, the new South African lock, had a fabulous match, scoring tries either side of half-time and galloping around the park as if he were as fleet-footed as any of Northampton’s backs, which for the most part he was. But not as fleet-footed as Tom Collins. The young winger looks tiny among Northampton’s gargantuan back division but is becoming one of the stars of the season. He sparked the Saints’ first try, dashing blind to slip a pass to Courtney Lawes. Lawes had another great game after his return to form the week before and here extended his considerable frame to score out of Fotuali’i’s tackle.
A pair of penalties by Rhys Priestland actually edged Bath in front just past the half-hour, and Northampton looked frustrated. But a penalty to the corner on the stroke of half-time was driven by the home team, and Ribbans burst through the retreating Bath defence to score Northampton’s second, Harry Mallinder converting from the touchline.
The Saints’ three towering points of reference, their two locks and Lawes, were having blinders. Both locks had enjoyed gallops as well as dominance in the line-out, and Ribbans was off again early in the second half. Then he scored his second, Lawes pinching a line-out and Luther Burrell breaking through the midfield for Ribbans to crash through what was left of Bath’s fractured defence.
Underhill was led from the field in the final quarter, and with him went Bath’s hopes of recovering the 17-6 deficit they were facing at the time. With five minutes remaining, Northampton made the extra man pay. Their heavy runners became too much, and quick hands from Burrell and, particularly Mallinder, put George North over in the corner.
The win moves them to fourth for now, some position from which to be in a crisis, but at the top sit champions Exeter, who have recovered from defeat on the opening weekend themselves to record a second bonus-point win in a row, this one at Worcester, where they won 41-10. London Irish, though, have been unable to build on their successful return to the Premiership, suffering a second consecutive defeat on the road. Sale scored five tries to beat them 36-7 at the AJ Bell Stadium.
Northampton Tuala (Foden 66); North, Horne, Burrell, Collins; Malllinder, Groom (Reinach 74); Waller (Ma’afu 63), Haywood, Hill (Brookes 54), Paterson (Day 66), Ribbans, Lawes (capt), Gibson, Harrison (Ludlam 66)
Tries Lawes, Ribbans 2, North Cons Mallinder 2
Bath Watson; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Tapuai (Clark 58), Banahan; Priestland (Burns 66), Fotuali’i (Allinson 31); Obano (Auterac 54), Dunn (Walker 54), Perenise (Andrews 68), Ewels, Stooke (Phillips 62), Garvey (capt; Grant 31), Underhill, Faletau
Pens Priestland 2
Referee Tom Foley
Attendance 13,533
