Defiant 14-man man Bath fall agonisingly short to Northampton Saints in the Premiership final

Valiant 14-man Bath came up agonisingly short against Northampton Saints in their first visit to the Gallagher Premiership final in nine years, losing 25-21 at Twickenham.

Bath's hopes of ending their 28-year wait to be crowned champions of England should have ended in the 22nd minute of the game when England international Beno Obano was shown a straight red card for a high tackle, but they remained in the fight until two minutes into the red.

The loosehead prop was given his marching orders after catching Northampton number eight Juarno Augustus on the chin with his shoulder having lined up the big ball carrier from some distance out. Referee Christophe Ridley and his officials looked for mitigating circumstances but found none and were forced to reduce Bath to 14-men for the remaining 58 minutes of the game with the scores tied at 3-3 at the point of his dismissal.

Saints struck quickly after Obano departed with George Furbank slicing through the middle of the defence to fracture the West Country side and then provide a scoring pass for Tommy Freeman to touch down. Ollie Sleightholme then kicked through and regathered his own kick to extend the lead, but another short-range finish from Bath prop Thomas du Toit, converted by Finn Russell saw the sides go in at 15-10 at the break.

Early in the second half, Russell and Smith exchanged penalties as Bath largely outplayed Northampton who struggled to get their attacking game going. Then, playing with a penalty advantage, Ben Spencer launched a devastating cross-field kick for Will Muir to go up into the air with George Hendy to compete for. The Saints winger knocked the ball backwards and Muir dotted down for a try to level the scores at 18-18, with Russell unable to convert from wide out on the left.

But a Russell penalty poked Bath into the lead on 66 minutes. However with eight minutes remaining Saints’ devastating backline finally cut loose. Replacement George Hendy cut off his wing with a burst of pace and power before passing inside to Alex Mitchell to finish the slicing attack. Furbank added the extras.

Bath attacked until the death but the game ended after 82 minutes with Orlando Bailey having the ball ripped from his grasps 10m out after his side had defied the odds for an hour to stay in the fight. The wait for silverware goes on, but the future is bright.

Northampton Saints: 15 George Furbank, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Burger Odendaal, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Ollie Sleightholme, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Alex Mitchell; 1 Alex Waller, 2 Curtis Langdon, 3 Trevor Davison, 4 Alex Moon, 5 Alex Coles, 6 Courtney Lawes (c), 7 Tom Pearson, 8 Juarno Augustus

Replacements: 16 Sam Matavesi, 17 Emmanuel Iyogun, 18 Elliot Millar Mills, 19 Temo Mayanavanua, 20 Sam Graham, 21 Lewis Ludlam, 22 Tom James, 23 George Hendy

Bath Rugby: 15 Matt Gallagher, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Cameron Redpath, 11 Will Muir, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben Spencer (c); 1 Beno Obano, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Thomas du Toit, 4 Quinn Roux, 5 Charlie Ewels, 6 Ted Hill, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Alfie Barbeary

Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Elliott Stooke, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Miles Reid

Referee: Christophe Ridley

Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce and Anthony Woodthorpe

TMO: Tom Foley

Attendance: 81,699