FORD FIESTA DRIVES BATH
Fly-half puts the boot into Saints as coach Blackadder puts end to comedy of errors
IT would appear Mr Blackadder has a cunning plan.
Bath’s new director of rugby watched his side dominate Northampton to such a degree that it was hard to believe the contest was still alive when replacement Rhys Priestland kicked the ball into touch to close out the game.
Two late tries from Saints’ South African replacement Nic Groom added gloss to the score. In truth, Saints were a very distant second. Indeed, Bath’s George Ford was on top form here to kick four penalties and two drop goals to ease his side to victory.
In Todd Blackadder’s first game in charge, the former Crusaders head coach turned out a well-organised, determined and resilient XV which saw the visitors win at Franklin’s Gardens for the first time in 16 years. It was only their second ever win here in Premiership history.
The visitors even shrugged off the hammer blow of losing big-money signing Taulupe Faletau with a knee injury barely 13 minutes into his first appearance.
Ford, who came close to following his father Mike out of the door after he was sacked in the summer, before Bath’s owner Bruce Craig intervened to say his prized asset was not for sale, shrugged off the horrendous end to last season to marshal his side superbly.
‘I’m just impressed with him as a young man,’ said Blackadder. ‘He showed out there he can put all the distractions behind him and get on with his rugby.
‘We haven’t talked about the past and he and the squad are more focused on the future. A real focus this week was the challenge of winning here where we have not won for a long time and the players delivered on that.
‘In that first half the players absorbed so much pressure and old Georgie kept the scoreboard ticking away. We still had a lot of belief at half-time and the first 20 minutes after the break was outstanding, we played some great footie.
‘Our forward pack worked so hard. I told them at half-time we were winning this game because of our forward pack. We put a lot of pressure on their line-out which was one of their weapons and worked really hard defensively. ‘There is a really good framework here. There is not a lot you want to change, just a few tweaks, a little bit of belief, some systems and new ideas and making sure we have the culture right.’ While Faletau, who Blackadder expects to be out for a fortnight with medial knee ligament damage, was the high-profile arrival at the Recreation Ground this summer, it is scrum-half Kahn Fotuali’i who could make the biggest difference to his team’s fortunes. The Samoan No9, in his first game for Bath since moving from the Saints over the summer, returned to Franklin’s Gardens and produced a high-class display alongside Ford.
For Northampton, the alarm bells will already be ringing. Director of rugby Jim Mallinder will be concerned at his side’s lacklustre display, while their set piece was poor and his son, Harry, had a torrid time in the wet at fly-half.
Mallinder senior bristled at suggestions he could have made a more pragmatic selection by picking the more experienced Stephen Myler when he saw the weather forecast. ‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing,’ he said.
‘It was difficult. He [Harry] had some good touches and did a few good things, but it’s always going to be tough, particularly in conditions like that. We haven’t had any rain in training and it’s a completely different game when it rains. We are all learning but there were some positive aspects as well.’
He will, however, be concerned at just how little his side offered in treacherous handling conditions. England captain Dylan Hartley was uncharacteristically wayward at the line-out, while Saints scrum came off second to Bath, especially as the game wore on.
With the visitors 18-0 up with only seven minutes to play, Bath were almost out of sight when replacement scrum-half Chris Cook added to his tally of three yellow cards from last season with another here.
Down to 14 men, Bath’s defence became leaky and Groom crossed twice in the dying minutes to give his side the remotest sniff of a chance. In truth, it would have been a travesty had they turned it around.
‘We want to get our balance right between our attacking and defensive game and we will be swapping and changing throughout the season,’ said Mallinder.
‘Defensively we were very strong, generally they didn’t create any chances and we were putting them under a lot of pressure, but attacking-wise we still have some things work on.’
239 PENALTIES conceded by Saints last season. Poor discipline cost them again yesterday
NORTHAMPTON: Foden (North 39); K Pisi, G Pisi (Myler 57), Burrell, Tuala; Mallinder, Dickson; Waller (Ma’afu, 61), Hartley (Clare 65), Brookes (Hill 52); Lawes; Paterson (Dixon 71); Wood, Picamoles, Gibson (Harrison 52).
BATH: Homer; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Clark, Banahan (Cook 64); Ford, Fotuali’i (Williams 64); Catt (Auterac 65), Batty, Thomas; Ewels, Attwood; Garvey (Sisi 61), Faletau (Ellis 12), Denton.