Reality has come home for Sam Burgess. The hype that greeted his arrival from rugby league last autumn and his expected, quick promotion to the England squad has faded and on a cold day against the leading side in the Premiership, he cut a frustrated figure waiting, mostly in vain, for the ball.
He went looking for it and tried to get involved, but has moved from a sport where he was regularly involved in matches to one where play passes him by for long periods. He was at outside-centre on Saturday, but Bath won so little possession after the opening 20 minutes that he may as well have been seated in the stands.
Burgess tried to bring some order to the few attacks Bath mustered, once kicking tactically after a particularly shapeless passage of play, but the home side were without more than half their first-choice back division and lacking a conductor, played without rhythm.
“In the last two weeks we have had a plan to get Sam in the game from set-pieces and we have not delivered,” said the Bath head coach, Mike Ford. “We are lacking a general to get him into the game in phase play and it is disappointing. He is very positive and he is getting to understand that you do not get many chances in a game, four or five compared to 20 in league, so you have to deliver when you get an opportunity.
“We’re not saying that by April he’s got to be the best centre in the country or anything like that. We’ll take it game by game and the more he plays, the better he’ll get. He realises the hype that greeted his arrival. I think he had a perception that he’d come in and pick up the game straight away. Things frustrate him: the scrums and the time the ball is out of play. He’s standing around getting cold. He has to deal with it all and then take his chances.”
Bath’s defeat, their second of the season to Northampton and their first back-to-back in the Premiership since December 2012 after the previous week’s reverse at Saracens, weakened their hold on second place. Failure to beat Exeter at Sandy Park this weekend could see them drop out of the top four, something that seemed improbable before the start of the Six Nations, although they are now missing the likes of George Ford, Jonathan Joseph and Anthony Watson.
“They are away with England for a reason – they are the best,” said the Bath captain, Stuart Hooper. “The game at Exeter is massive for us because we want a top-two finish and a home draw in the play-offs. We cannot afford another defeat to a team near us in the table.”
Bath had the perfect start with Olly Woodburn scoring a try in the second minute and Tom Homer following it up with a penalty. Northampton, like their hosts, were without a number of leading players, but have learned how to cope with international windows and the way they shut out Bath in the second period, after tries by James Wilson and Mike Haywood gave them an interval lead, was masterly.
Ford said it would be difficult for anyone to catch Northampton, who have a nine-point lead at the top, but the Saints’ director, Jim Mallinder, is looking no further than his side’s next match, at home to Harlequins. “We are in a good position but we have not wrapped it up,” he said. “We started poorly but ended up putting in one of our best performances of the season.”
Bath T Homer; Rokoduguni, Burgess, Eastmond, Woodburn; Devoto, Young (Stringer, 59); James (Auterac, 53), Webber (Batty, 53), Thomas (Palma-Newport, 70), Hooper (capt), Day, Garvey (Fa’osiliva, 53), Louw, Fearns (Houston, 53).
Try Woodburn. Con Homer. Pens Homer 2.
Northampton Wilson; K Pisi, G Pisi, Stephenson, Elliott; Myler, Dickson (capt; Fotuali’i, 59); A Waller (Corbisiero, 48), Haywood, Denman (Mercey, 68), Craig (Dowson, 30), Day, Manoa, Clark, Dickinson.
Tries Wilson, Haywood. Con Myler. Pens Myler 3. Sin-bin G Pisi.
Referee G Garner Attendance 13,349.
