Match Centre: Northampton Saints 45-26 Bath

Northampton Saints 45-26 Bath, Cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens

Northampton Saints scored four second half tries as they went on to beat Bath Rugby 45-26 in the latest round of the Gallagher Premiership at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

The win has taken Northampton to the third place in the table while Bath continue to languish at the bottom.

The opening minutes saw Josh Bayliss put on a try-saving tackle to deny Northampton scoring and soon he combined with Miles Reid to send Tom de Glanville over the line in the 7th minute with Ben Spencer converting to make it 0-7.

The response from the Saints came in the 12th minute as Robbie Smith dived over at the back of a maul and Fin Smith's conversion levelled the scores. The Saints went on to the lead for the first time in the 18th minute when Juarno Augustus touched down following a dummy drive from a maul.

Nevertheless, the Saints were down by a player temporarily as Paul Hill was sin-binned in the 23rd minute for infringing close to his own line and Bath capitalised with Tom Dunn going over from the back of the maul to level the scores.

As the break was approaching, Smith with a penalty goal ensured the Saints had a 17-14 lead at the end of the opening half.

The start of the second half saw Angus Scott-Young burrowing over and they soon went into the ascendancy with Bayliss sent to sin-bin for a collision in the air as Smith completed his second to help the Saints claim the bonus point making it 31-14.

Dunn was the beneficiary of another strong away maul as his second try helped Bath gather some hope which came down dashing as Tom Collins went over following a brilliant counter attack from the Saints.

The final six minutes saw Tom Doughty and Grayson trade tries as the Saints completed another victory to continue their battle for a play-off spot.

Team line up:

Northampton: Ramm; Collins, Proctor, Dingwall (c), Freeman, F Smith, James; A Waller, R Smith, Hill, Salakaia-Loto, Moon, Scott-Young, Graham, Augustus.

Reserves: Cruse, E Waller, Petch, Nansen, Matavesi, Braley, Grayson, Hutchinson.

Bath: De Glanville; Hamer-Webb, Joseph, Ojomoh, Gallagher, Bailey, Schreuder; Obano, Dunn (c), Rae, Attwood, Van Velze, Bayliss, Cloete, Reid.

Reserves: Doughty, Schoeman, Jonker, McNally, W Spencer, B Spencer, Butt, De Carpentier.