Bath defy Brew red card as front row muscle Saints out of contest

November is shaping up to be a month for destructive scrummaging, and Bath followed the lead of South Africa by shoving Northampton into submission.

Defying a 48th-minute red card for wing Aled Brew, delivered by referee Ian Tempest after a forearm to the throat of Saints full-back George Furbank, the hosts ended up fairly comfortable victors.

Set-piece dominance and dogged defence stifled Northampton. With just nine minutes left, after Zach Mercer had darted over from the base of another powerful scrum, Bath’s starting front rowers left to a rousing reception.

Beno Obano, Tom Dunn and tighthead prop Will Stuart, who had earlier shunted across the whitewash for what he called a “one-metre flop-over special”, certainly deserved it.

“I’ve been coming to games at the Rec for a long time,” Stuart Hooper, the Bath director, said. “It’s a while since I’ve seen a front row get a standing ovation like that. They put a huge amount of diligence and accuracy into what they do. You need that in the Premiership.”

Northampton arrived with three wins from three league outings and were ahead within 90 seconds when James Grayson charged down opposite number Rhys

Priestland and outstanding Saints centre Rory Hutchinson pounced.

Grayson extended Northampton’s advantage to 8-0 with a penalty. Bath forged a half-time lead thanks to Will Chudley’s solo try and the boot of Priestland.

Ironically, Brew’s dismissal proved a catalyst for Bath. Northampton surrendered a promising line-out and Stuart burrowed over to make it 15-8. Although Tom Wood’s try brought Saints close on the hour, loosehead Ben Franks was sent to the sin-bin as the hosts exerted pressure. That forced Chris

Boyd to bring on 21-year-old Toby Trinder, and Bath scented blood. A pivotal 12-minute period of scrums – punctuated by penalties, freekicks and resets – splintered Northampton and brought another yellow card for tighthead prop Paul Hill. Eventually, Mercer scored.

Boyd suggested that Saints would have been better off conceding points at the start of that period.

“We’ve got to learn to bite our mouthguard and hold in,” he said. “They weren’t trying to play the game. They were trying to scrum for penalties.”