Match Report: Northampton Saints 35 –34 Bath Rugby

A last-minute Fin Smith penally helped Northampton Saints start 2025 with a crucial five-point win over league leaders Bath Rugby at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens. 

A blistering first half saw six tries registered as Saints roared to a bonus point through scores from Josh Kemeny, Fraser Dingwall, James Ramm and George Hendy, with Bath staying in the fight through Joe Cokanasiga and Orlando Bailey tries.

Bath landed two blows in the third quarter with Will Stuart and Max Ojomoh tries sandwiching Fin Smith’s first penalty; and while Cokanasiga added his second of the afternoon and Finn Russell pulled Bath two points ahead with just minutes to play, an overtime penalty from Smith sealed the five-point win for Northampton. 

FIRST HALF:

Saints flew out of the blocks to score three tries in the opening quarter-of-an-hour to open a commanding 19-point lead.

Not even two minutes had elapsed when Smith launched a wide pass that was tipped on by a Bath fingertip. Rory Hutchinson reeled in the ball and combined with Hendy to lob inside for Kemeny to step infield for his fourth try for the Club.

The men in Black, Green and Gold fired a warning shot for their second as Hendy’s break from deep led to a Ramm chip ahead that prompted some desperate backtracking defensive action. 

There was no stopping the hosts on their next attacking foray as Smith chipped brilliantly in behind and regathered. A rapid recycle ensued allowing Alex Mitchell to snipe with a diagonal run and send a looping pass to put Dingwall over in the right corner. 

A third would follow soon afterwards from a lineout on halfway as Australian Ramm pulled in a testing pass and weaved his way inside and out to ground to the right of the posts, with Smith adding a second successful conversion.

Bath narrowed the gap with a two-try response as Cokanasiga dived over in the right corner after Saints failed to cleanly deal with the kick-off, then Bailey did well cutting back inside to reach over and set up Russell with a simple conversion.

Saints wrestled back the momentum with the half’s sixth try that secured them a bonus point from the game, ten minutes before the break. Once more it was majestic play from fly-half Smith as his neat grubber bounced perfectly for Hendy to catch, spin and dot down before the cinch Stand.

Table toppers Bath showed their pedigree once more and dominated the final ten minutes of the first period but couldn’t unlock a stubborn Saints defence, led by Smith’s seismic shot on Miles Reid after busting a gut to get back in position to repel the Bath flanker.

SECOND HALF:

A few seconds before the break, Saints lost Hendy to a shoulder injury and five minutes upon the restart saw Alex Coles and Temo Mayanavanua clash heads and both required a head injury assessment – both of which led to their permanent removal from the pitch.

Shortly after the restart of that unfortunate collision, Bath landed their third try of the game as Stuart pounced to the right of a close-range ruck. Russell added the conversion only for Smith to nervelessly slot a 45-metre penalty to re-establish a two-score advantage.

Bath remained the aggressors and got their reward as Saints had a clearance charged down and a deft offload allowed Ojomoh to glide over with Russell closing the gap to three points with a third of the game remaining.

And the away side eventually did stretch ahead on the hour mark, as a charged-down Hutchinson kick landed for Miles Reid to feed Cokanasiga and the winger sprinted for the line for Bath‘s fifth score.

A missed Smith penalty just after was swiftly redeemed by the young fly-half when Hutchinson was hit high to put Saints back in front. But another high tackle, this time from Alex Mitchell, meant the scrum-half saw a yellow card and put Saints down to 14 men for the final three minutes. Russell duly put Bath two points up with the resulting penalty. 

But Northampton stayed well and truly in the fight until the final whistle and when Bath went off their feet at the breakdown, Smith stepped up to land a nerveless penalty kick with the clock in the red and kick 2025 off with a win. 

Saints head back into the Investec Champions Cup next weekend, as the men in Black, Green and Gold travel to Stade Francais on Saturday 11 January (kick-off: 6.30pm local time). 

LINE-UPS:

SAINTS: 15 Hendy, 14 Freeman, 13 Dingwall (c), 12 Hutchinson, 11 Ramm, 10 Smith, 9 Mitchell; 1 West, 2 C.Langdon, 3 Davison, 4 Mayanavanua, 5 Coles, 6 Kemeny, 7 Pearson, 8 Augustus.
Replacements: 16 Walker, 17 Haffar, 18 Green, 19 Lockett, 20 Pollock, 21 Scott-Young, 22 McParland, 23 Sleightholme.

BATH: 15 Bailey, 14 Cokanasiga, 13 Lawrence, 12 Ojomoh, 11 Muir, 10 Russell, 9 Spencer (c); 1 Obano, 2 Dunn, 3 Stuart, 4 Roux, 5 Molony, 6 Pepper, 7 Reid, 8 Barbeary.
Replacements: 16 Tuipulotu, 17 Van Wyk, 18 Du Toit, 19 Ewels, 20 Underhill, 21 Schreuder, 22 Bayliss, 23 Coetzee.