Two weeks after Bath’s opening home match of the season had ended in a draw when they conceded a late try and conversion, they again faced the prospect of throwing away victory at the climax when failure to clear their line allowed Tom Collins to plunder a try that presented Dan Biggar with the opportunity to level the scores.
It had been Biggar’s sort of match, incessant rain washing away skills, breeding mistakes and firing resolution. It was the Wales fly-half’s penalty seven minutes from the end that revived Northampton after they had looked spent at 17-7 down and he was involved in the move that ended with Collins scoring after Elliott Stooke looked to have secured victory for Bath by stealing a Saints lineout five metres from his line.
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Collins scored in the left-hand corner, leaving Biggar with a touchline conversion. The silence of the crowd behind the posts hinted that, like Gloucester’s Billy Twelvetrees two weeks before, the 2017 Lion had succeeded, but the ball suddenly veered to the right and hit a post. Time was up and Bath kicked the ball dead to secure their second consecutive victory and move into the top four.
The murk smothering the club after the opening-night defeat at Bristol has lifted to let in some light and allow time for breath, but Bath next face Saracens and Exeter in the Premiership, before encounters with Toulouse and Wasps in the European Champions Cup. In the fickle world of professional sport, glory and crisis sometimes occupy adjoining beds.
Bath were hanging on at times in the first half after Freddie Burns missed an early penalty shortly after the centre Aled Brew had suffered a suspected broken wrist, but for all their possession, Northampton rarely threatened. They kept the ball in hand more than sent it into the air and, on an afternoon when handling was hazardous, it was the wrong tactic, all the more so because they were exposed in the set pieces.
The England captain, Dylan Hartley, was on the field for an hour, one of the more secure handlers on an afternoon of knock-ons, but his throwing into the lineout was unusually wonky. He was off target with five of his 16 throws and Saints looked to have blown their chance of a draw two minutes from time when the replacement hooker Mike Haywood found Stooke and not Courtney Lawes.
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Burns’s first penalty miss came after Northampton’s scrum had disintegrated when Bath had sent it into reverse gear but, despite their set-piece superiority, they spent most of the opening period in their own half. Even so, they should have gone into the interval ahead having fallen behind after 18 minutes to a try by the scrum-half Cobus Reinach that was to sum up the messy nature of the match.
When Piers Francis secured a loose ball and cut inside, his pass to Ahsee Tuala was knocked on by Burns. Reinach hacked the ball to the line and fell on it to score. Ten minutes later, Reinach was on Bath’s 22 looking to free Andrew Symons when his pass was picked off by Burns who ran 80 metres to level the scores.
Burns missed a penalty from virtually under the posts one minute before the interval but became the game’s influential figure after the break, pinning back Northampton with long kicks and playing the percentages. His penalty after 54 minutes gave Bath the lead for the first time and his conversion wide on the left at the start of the third quarter effectively ensured victory.
A prospect before the match had been of two imposing wings, Bath’s Joe Cokanasiga and Northampton’s Taqele Naiyaravoro, with a combined weight of more than 37st, thundering to each other. The latter ended up on the left wing despite wearing 14 because he prefers to hold the ball in his left hand and plant a hand-off on an opponent with his right, but for the second week in a row he was virtually a spectator, touching the ball four times before being replaced on 55 minutes.
He had not had his tracksuit on for long when Cokanasiga extended Bath’s lead. Burns chipped speculatively ahead, knowing that a penalty advantage was being played, and retrieved the ball before Stooke’s long pass found the wing, who was name-checked last week by the England head coach, Eddie Jones, before the autumn internationals. His third try of the campaign followed before Bath, as is their custom, made their supporters fret.
Blackadder signs new Bath contract
Todd Blackadder has signed a new contract, the Observer understands. The Bath director of rugby was under pressure after failing to qualify for Europe last season and, in the light of Leicester’s decision to sack Matt O’Connor one match into the campaign, his position was rumoured to be precarious. Following Bath’s defeat by Bristol on the opening weekend, there was speculation that Bruce Craig, Bath’s chairman, was ready to sack Blackadder if the team had lost at home to Gloucester. However, they salvaged a draw after falling 21-0 down in the first half. Blackadder and Freddie Burns, Bath’s fly-half, strongly rebuffed the rumours after their vibrant win at Harlequins last week, a defiance now borne out by this new contract, which Bath are set to announce on Thursday.