BATH IN CLOSE SHAVE
NORTHAMPTON boss Chris Boyd paid tribute to Saints’ resilience as they swept back to the top of the Premiership.
The win came despite a hattrick for Gloucester’s teen star Louis Rees-zammit.
The clamour for a Wales Six Nations call-up for Rees-zammit will intensify after the flying 18-year-old wing took his tally to nine in 11 senior appearances.
But his personal haul was still not enough to stop Northampton.
They successfully hit the reset button after three successive defeats in front of a sellout crowd at Franklin’s Gardens to move to the top of the table.
Boyd said: “We were happy to get away with the win because we came under a lot of pressure – but we held our nerve. The boys weren’t going to go away.
“We know how congested the league is going to get, so you have to scrimp and scrape and grind out victories.
“We have started pretty handily but we know this is really an accumulation phase and we just have to keep accumulating points and staying above those nasty lines across the table.”
Gloucester took two bonus points from their visit to Fortress Franklin’s – where Northampton are unbeaten in the league since
BATH continued their climb up the Premiership table after fending off a spirited second-half Sale fightback.
Two Rhys Priestland penalties gave the Blue, Black and Whites a 6-0 lead at the break and a Jonathan Joseph try extended their lead after the interval to put the hosts in control.
But Akker van der Merwe touched down after a rolling maul, and Byron Mcguigan crossed over in the corner in the space of four minutes as Sale struck back. Priestland’s third kick from the
April – after contributing four tries, three from the lethal Rees-zammit (above).
His searing pace gave Gloucester a seventh-minute lead before he struck again in the 50th minute to finish off a sweeping attack. The hat-trick score came five minutes from time.
But with Piers Francis on target with two penalties in the last quarter Northampton squeezed home.
Francis had taken over the kicking duties when Dan Biggar was replaced at half time with a dead leg, which meant moving George Furbank to No.10 in a backline reshuffle.
Northampton also lost scrumhalf Cobus Reinach to a dead leg, but not before the South tee, from just inside the Sharks’ half, restored Bath’s advantage in the final 10 minutes.
And it was the game’s final say as Bath held out to record their third win in four league games at The Rec.
Stuart Hooper’s men, boosted by the return from injury of Wales No.8 Taulupe Faletau, remain in the mix for a spot in the play-offs.
Hopper said: “We believe that, on any single day, we can beat anyone in the Premiership, but we have to play really well to do that.“
African had raced over for two tries in the space of seven secondhalf minutes to build on Mike Haywood’s touchdown before the break.
Haywood might have had a hat-trick as well in the hectic spell but for Tom Collins being fractionally offside from Ahsee Tuala’s chip in the build-up. In the same madcap period Chris Harris scored for Gloucester, after Mark Atkinson’s offload.
Rees-zammit’s finishing brought a nervy conclusion for Saints, but they just did enough.
Tries: Reinach 2, Haywood. Pens: Biggar 2, Francis 2. Cons: Francis 2, Biggar.
Tries: Rees-zammit 3, Harris. Cons: Cipriani 3.
15,200
Bath 16 Sale 14