Bath hang on for first home win as Saints’ Dan Biggar misses final kick

Crisis? What Crisis? After the opening night shambles at Bristol, Bath moved into the play-off positions by coming from behind to defeat Northampton in the wind and rain at the Recreation Ground, but the Saints came within a few centimetres of securing a draw when Dan Biggar’s conversion hit the right-hand post with time up.

Northampton were in control for much of the first-half but Bath should have been leading at the interval. Freddie Burns missed a 25m penalty from just to the right of the posts a minute before the break, having earlier levelled the scores against the run of play with an 80m interception try.

Northampton were leading 7-0 through Cobus Reinach, who hacked to the Bath line after Piers Francis’s pass had been knocked on by Burns, but both sides struggled to hold on to the ball in the persistent rain. The England captain, Dylan Hartley, struggled to find his targets in the lineout, missing them five times out of 16, but Bath tended to give the ball back after they had received it.

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Northampton deployed their powerful Australia wing Taqele Naiyaravoro on the left wing rather than the right this week. It meant he was marking Semesa Rokoduguni rather than Joe Cokanasiga, who was this week named in the England squad. If the intent was to get the ball to him more often, with most teams more comfortable passing from right to left, it did not work because his only meaningful touch in the first period came when he appeared on the right in the opening minute.

With handling mistakes abounding and the scrum, which Bath shaded, tending to end in a penalty or free-kick, there was little continuity. Northampton had the majority of the possession and territory but created little while Bath, whose attacks were scarce, saw Burns miss two penalties as well as a 60m drop goal with the last kick of the opening half that fell some distance short of its target.

Bath took the lead for the first time after 55 minutes when Burns kicked a penalty conceded by Teimana Harrison for not rolling away after a tackle. The No8 was trying his best, after being knocked off his feet having made a tackle but, pinned to the ground, was unable to.

Bath sealed their fourth victory in five Premiership matches over Northampton 18 minutes from the end when Burns retrieved his own chip and Elliott Stooke’s long pass found Cokanasiga in space. The wing ran for 30m and slid for another 20 for his third try of the campaign.

Northampton rallied and Biggar kicked a penalty to leave them with a bonus point to hold on to. They wanted more and were pressing for a draw at the end when they had a lineout five metres out. Hartley had by now been replaced by Mike Haywood but Stooke stole the ball.

Bath looked like holding on, but from the next lineout Northampton worked space on the left for Tom Collins to score in the left-hand corner. It left Biggar with a conversion from the left wing with time up. He hit the post and the Saints slid to 10th in the table.