Bath break Northampton hearts on one of European club rugby’s great nights

It would be doing Bath a massive disservice to suggest they were all route one as they demonstrated with their third try which was strike play perfection. The scrum was solid and Redpath felt Russell, who faked pumped once to draw a gap to send Henry Arundell scurrying under the posts.

Then right on half-time came a try that both coaches identified as a key momentum shift as shortly after Smith missed a penalty to touch, replacement Francois van Wyk was driven over. Russell missed leaving the game tantalising poised at 35-26 to the visitors. After the madness of the first half, Smith took the first conservative decision of the game, by kicking a penalty in front of the posts. However, Saints were reduced to 14 men when JJ van der Mescht was sin-binned following repeated offences in the 22. Bath kicked to the corner and piled what seemed like half of Somerset into the maul with replacement Kepu Tuipulotu grounding the ball. Russell’s conversion made it a five-point game.

Another Smith penalty gave Saints a modicum of breathing space but that was wiped out by Russell’s penalty before a grandstand finish featuring Pollock, inevitably, and Hill’s try which will be celebrated long into the night.

Match details

Scoring sequence 0-5, Pollock try; 0-7 Smith con; 0-12, Dingwall try; 0-14, Smith con; 5-14, Dunn try; 7-14, Russell con; 7-19, Lockett try; 7-21, Smith con; 7-26, Kemeny try; 7-28, Smith con; 12-28, Russell try; 14-28, Russell con; 14-33, Sleightholme try; 14-35, Smith con; 19-35, Arundell try; 21-35, Russell con; 26-35, Van Wyk try; 26-38, Smith con; 31-38, Tuipulotu try; 33-38, Russell con; 33-41, Smith pen; 36-41 Russell pen; 41-41, Hill try; 43-41, Russell con.

Bath T De Glanville (S Carreras, 52); H Arundell, O Lawrence, C Redpath, W Muir; F Russell, B Spencer (B van der Linde, 74); B Obano (F van Wyk, 29), T Dunn, (K Tuipulotu, 52), V Sela (T Du Toit, 47), Q Roux (T Hill, 47), C Ewels, G Pepper, S Underhill (A Barbeary, 32), M Reid (R Molony, 66).

Northampton Saints G Furbank; T Freeman, R Hutchinson (T Litchfield, 74), F Dingwall, O Sleightholme (G Hendy, 66); F Smith, A McParland (A Mitchell, 59); D Fischetti (E Iyogun, 47), C Langdon (C Wright, 17), C Kundiona (E Millar-Mills, 47), T Lockett (Van der Mescht, 68), JJ van der Mescht (E Prowse, 67), J Kemeny, T Pearson (C Chick, 27), H Pollock.

Referee Andrew Brace. Attendance 14,509.