Both sides came into this fixture with wins in the last round. The home side and defending champions Northampton Saints, won comfortably 10-35, away at Newcastle Falcons. But the travelling side came into today’s fixture with a recent surge of momentum after their 45-0 dismantling of rugby giants Leicester Tigers, who were blown away by the physicality upfront and the pace of Baths counter-attack but they are yet to beat Northampton Saints in their last 6 attempts with their last victory coming in 2011.

Saints started aggressively and George North as always made inroads into the opposition defensive line, along with the Saints forwards dominating the early scrum. It was a poor kick by George Ford straight to Foden at the fullback position and he dashed through the middle of the visitor’s defensive line. He was brought down was able to get the ball away and as Kahn Fotuali’I tried to get the ball out wide for a certain try Bath fullback Arscott committed an intentional knock on to prevent the try. It resulted in an early sin-bin for the number 15 and a Northampton Saints penalty try after just 7 minutes.

The Franklins Gardens faithful did not have to wait long for the next try with it coming on the 14 minute mark. George Pisi made a break through a gaping hole in the centre of Baths defence and was brought down just 5 metres out. The ball was passed out to Burrell who weighted a perfect pass to Callum Clark with acres of space to walk over the line, Myler as he so often does slotted the conversion straight through the middle of the posts to make it 14-0. Bath hit back quick enough to reduce the deficit to 14-7 with a try through the big man Ryan Wilson who dived over the line from close range. Myler and Ford then added a penalty a piece to the score line by halftime and the halftime score was 17-10 to the home side.

Northampton Saints started the second half just as energetically, as they surged towards the Bath line. Foden again was the catalyst for this attack and lured in the opposition defence before passing off to second row Christian Day, who was able to force his away over the line from close range. Myler added the conversion to make it 24-10. Just minutes later a deep kick from a rushed Bath attack, allowed Saints to run straight back at the out of position defence. Burrell lured in his man and passed off to North who was able to get the ball away just before he got smashed. George Pisi on the touchline was able to force his way over the line for a delightful try, the conversion was added with ease by Myler making it 31-10.

Bath pulled one back on the 60 minute mark as Kyle Eastmond skipped past Saints centre Luther Burrell leaving a two on one overlap. Eastmond drew in Foden and played in Woodburn who jogged over the line. The conversion was added by Ford. Bath who looked dead and buried earlier on in the game scored yet another try late in the game from Auterac from a rolling maul. The Northampton Saints decision to bring on a large amounts of players at once was not paying off, with Ford adding the conversion, making it 31-24 with minutes to go.

Bath threw everything they had at the Saints and with 77 minutes gone Bath had a lineout on the Northampton 5 metre line. They won the lineout and forced another rolling maul towards the line and thought they had got over to score another hugely important try, but skipper Dylan Hartley was able to dive under the ball before it was grounded and held the ball up. The drama continued with Bath having multiple scrums as time expired. Bath had over 16 phases all camped on the Northampton line but the ball was knocked on in the ruck. This resulted in the end of the game and Northampton were able to hold on for a bonus point win.