Bath put Saints on the skids
BATH made it three wins on the spin since lockdown to move up to fourth in the Premiership with victory at Frankin’s Gardens.
With the sides level at half-time, Bath scored two second half tries through Tom de Glanville and Ruiradh McConnochie.
It was only Bath’s second win in their last 19 trips to Northampton, and it lifted them above Wasps in the battle for the play-offs.
However, highly-rated 20year-old, De Glanville – son of former Bath and England captain Phil – injured his neck in the process of scoring.
Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper said: “We are making sure we look after Tom the best we can. He took a hit, and credit to him for scoring the try. But thoughts are with him at the moment.
“Northampton are a fantastic attacking team and the boys put in for each other out there – it was an incredible effort putting their bodies on the line.”
Wales stand-off Dan Biggar cancelled out Bath’s opening three points from Josh Matavesi in a stodgy first half that saw Saints flanker JJ Tonmks yellow carded on 19 minutes.
Saints weathered the deficit but in the secondhalf Bath found an extra gear.
Full-back De Glanville got over in the left corner on 57 minutes for his second try in five days after he scored his first in the Premiership in last Saturday’s win over Leicester.
Ahsee Tuala spilled replacement scrum-half Ben Spencer’s bomb and De Glanville latched onto the pass over the top to slide home.
McConnochie extended the lead ten minutes later, cashing in on a handling error by Sam Matavesi, brother of Bath fly-half Josh. The twice-capped England winger, who had been on the pitch only five minutes, juggled the ball but held on to dash over from 30 yards out.
Former Wales fly-half Rhys Priestland, who came off the bench to deputise at 15 for the injured De Glanville, rounded off the scoring with two successful kicks, converting McConnochie’s try and landing a late penalty.
Northampton, still to record a home Premiership win since the turn of the year, changed the entire side from Sunday’s 27-3 win at London Irish.
Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd said: “We’re conceding too many too easily, and not scoring enough ourselves, so we need to rectify both ends of the field.
“Fundamental mistakes, accuracies, poor executions. When the pressure comes on at the moment we’re just not able to get our game going, either offensively or defensively.
“We have to go back to the drawing board, we’ve dug a hole for ourselves and we’ll see how this young group responds to this.”