Bath claim first home win after edging out Northampton Saints 17-15

Bath Rugby 17-15 Northampton Saints, Recreation Ground
Scorecard

Bath Rugby won their first home of the ongoing Gallagher Premiership season as they came from behind to edge out Northampton Saints 17-15 at Recreation Ground on Saturday.

The teams were equal in the first half of the game with scores levelled at 7-7 but a combination of Freddie Burns and Joe Cokanasiga provided advantage to the hosts and eventually they had a two point lead when Dan Biggar's final conversion kick landed on the post.

The win has taken Bath to the fourth position with 13 points while Northampton Saints are struck at 10th place.

Bath started the game with a setback as Aled Brew left the field in the eighth minute with a broken wrist and Max Wright replaced him. The Saints though had the momentum on their side when Cobus Reinach chased down his own kick and crossed over in the 19th minute followed by a Biggar conversion that made it 0-7.

Bath's response though came from Burns when he intercepted a pass from Reinach to run all over for a converted try with teams heading into the break with scores levelled at 7-7.

Burns got the home side into the lead for the first time with his first penalty kick in the 55th minute and Joe Cokanasiga further extended it when he strolled past the line in the 63rd minute that was improved by the fly-half as Bath had a 17-7 lead with final 15 minutes to go in the game.

Northampton inched closer to Bath's total as Biggar kicked a penalty kick in the 73rd minute and with a minute left in the game, Tom Collins touched down as the gap came down to two points. However, to their disappointment, Biggar's final kick on the goal hit the post allowing Bath to get away with a two point victory.

"Aled's possibly a broken wrist. He'll have to have an X-ray but it doesn't look good. We'll look to make sure we have enough numbers but young Max Wright had a good first game when he came on," said Bath director of rugby Todd Blackadder.

"It was a really tough game - you want to be the team that wins in conditions like that out there.

"I really felt at half-time that while we did not have a lot of territory, we were quite physically dominant. But a little lack of control and poor discipline let them back into it."