Bath had not beaten Northampton for four years but they were defending an 11-month unbeaten home record in the Premiership. Both sides were shorn of their leading England players, either through unavailability or injury, and it was the home side who missed their regulars most, blowing an early 10-point lead, losing their shape and failing to muster a bonus point.
Two of the discards from England’s elite squad, Lee Dickson and Stephen Myler, dictated play for the champions, especially in the second period when they pinned Bath back and the home side, whose outside-half, George Ford was sitting on the sidelines, had no one to take the wheel and steer them into the Northampton 22. Sam Burgess was left to flounder in the midfield where his inexperience was exposed.
Before the start of the Six Nations, Bath’s place in the top two, and a home draw in the play-offs, looked set, but defeats to Saracens and Northampton in successive weeks, their first back-to-back in the Premiership this season, has left them exposed. If they lose at Exeter on Saturday and other results go against them they will slip out of the top four.
It looked different for Bath in the opening quarter. They were ahead in the second minute, more by accident than design in a portent of what was to come. Kyle Eastmond’s near-fumble wrong-footed the defence and Semesa Rokoduguni had a clear run to the line only to be hauled down by Jamie Elliott. When the home side then worked a two-man advantage on the left, Tom Homer’s pass to Ollie Woodburn went behind the wing who had enough time to pick up, keep his feet in play and make his way over the try-line.
Homer then kicked a penalty after Northampton had been routed at a scrum, but that was as good as it got for him and Bath. They started to struggle at the lineout and Calum Clark became the most influential forward at the breakdown. When Alex Corbisiero came off the bench early in the second-half, Saints won the battle up front. Bath lacked ideas and when Eastmond slipped off a tackle on Tom Stephenson, James Wilson had the room to ride Devoto’s challenge and score in the corner, although it took the television match official, Keith Lewis, a couple of minutes to establish that the act of touching the ball down had come fractionally before the full-back’s foot scraped the touchline.
Dickson started the attack by spotting two front-row forwards, Paul James and Rob Webber, in front of him and running into the gap between them and the scrum-half was involved in Northampton’s second try, playing with his head up while Bath’s vision was misty. The way Saints created the space for the hooker Mike Haywood to take an inside line and flummox the cover contrasted with the narrowness of Bath’s approach.
Northampton have become used to losing players during international windows. There was a time when they were vulnerable in November and the second and third months of the new year, but they have experience to complement the players who have come through their academy. Bath had a young outside-half, two former rugby league players in the midfield and a new arrival at full-back. A lack of understanding was always going to be costly against the leaders and champions.
A race to finish in the top two has now become a battle to remain among the top four with the space behind Northampton becoming congested. While Bath were outplayed, what deepened their disappointment was their failure to secure a bonus point despite playing for the last 10 minutes against 14 men after George Pisi, for the second time in a month, was sent to the bin for taking out a player in the air, in this case Rokoduguni.
Homer missed the resulting penalty, his fourth failure, and although Bath gained a foothold in the Northampton 22, they were too haphazard to turn it to any advantage. While Eastmond was dangerous when running on to the ball from deep, nothing came from his forays after Rokoduguni’s early lapse.
Northampton’s scoring in the second half was confined to three Myler penalties, but they did no more than they had to and knew how to win. Bath had started like the month of March, full of howling, but they ended with barely a puff and quickly need to find their second wind.
• This article was amended on 22 February 2015 to correct the name of Bath’s first try scorer
