The ridiculous comeback happens so often in the Premiership now, when must we stop calling them ridiculous? Rugby never used to be like this. But yet again we have seen a team seemingly dead and buried rouse themselves from the most hopeless of positions to take a win at the death.
Northampton were gone with an hour gone, 31-12 down, a Ben Spencer pair of tries surely having won the match for the home team. So Northampton scored four tries in the last 15 minutes. Obviously. Mike Haywood’s try at the death, with Bath down to 13, was awarded only after consultation with the TMO. Just to add to the drama.
Technically, Bath finished the match with 12, because as the last try was awarded, so was a yellow card to Semesa Rokoduguni for kicking the ball out of Jarno Augustus’s hand after the tackle. Haywood had pounced to touch down at the next breakdown. And so the Saints kept up their chase for the top four, the bonus point taking them ahead of Exeter, who play at Saracens on Sunday.
“I thought the season was over,” said Chris Boyd, Northampton’s director of rugby. “I’m proud of the character shown by the guys to come back at the end, but that was a horrible first 60 minutes.”
He was not wrong. Three consecutive bonus-point wins had hauled Northampton back into contention, but for this match the heart of their team had been ripped out.
Dan Biggar has started his suspension after last Saturday’s red card; Courtney Lawes, Dave Ribbans and Fraser Dingwall are injured. Still, Saints are nothing if not alive to opportunity. An early Matt Proctor try against the run of play boded well. But Bath otherwise dominated the first half. The wind at the Rec was brisk and capricious. The home side seemed to make better use of it. In particular, Jonathan Joseph, generally looking a million dollars as ever, tormented the visitors with a series of vicious chips. One of these bamboozled Alex Mitchell, and Max Clark was over to draw level. Bath won 13 lineouts in the first half to Northampton’s one.
On the half-hour, Danny Cipriani drifted blind at a position secured from the latest attacking lineout to put over Will Muir. Bath had a lead, which Cipriani extended to 10 with a penalty at the break. Northampton pulled themselves together to mount a dress rehearsal of a comeback, when Augustus scored from a driven lineout. But that comeback was short-lived.
Spencer’s quick blindside tries seemed to kill off the contest just shy of the hour. First, he went blind from a Bath driven lineout, then he profited from a spinning, swirling up-and-under. Tommy Freeman could not quite judge that one, Muir hacked on, and Spencer dashed to the corner.
Cue the real comeback. Mitchell knifed through in the 65th minute for Saints’ third, before his break five minutes later scattered Bath’s defence again. Freeman picked a beautiful line to round Joe Cokanasiga for the bonus-point try.
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James Grayson’s conversion pulled Saints to within seven. Josh Bayliss was forced off with five to go, but Bath had used all their replacements. Northampton went for the corner and drove a lineout to force the penalty try. Jaco Coetzee saw yellow. That was 31-31.
With two minutes remaining, Northampton ran and ran. From a position deep in their 22, they worked their way deep into Bath’s, exploiting the extra men down the left. It seemed as if they had knocked on, when Augustus was scythed down, but Haywood touched down anyway.
Luke Pearce consulted his TMO. Rokoduguni had kicked the ball out of Augustus’s hand. The try was awarded after all. Another scarcely believable comeback complete.