By
Shaun Wren
Bath
10 Saracens 23
David
Strettle was celebrating his 100th game for Saracens as he
helped his side beat Bath at The Rec to move them to top of the
table, for 24 hours that is.
The
win also marked the end of Bath's 20 match unbeaten run at the Rec, a
record started after losing to the London side 22-0 back in December
2012.
If
you thought the Six Nations clash between England and Ireland was
great for the neutral, then this game comes very close to beating it.
Before
the game had even kicked off there was drama for Saracens as Charlie
Hodgson pulled up in training. A late change saw Alex Goode move to
fly-half and Duncan Taylor coming off the bench.
The
first half was high tempo from the kick off and within five minutes
George Ford missed the chance to give his side the lead after kicking
his penalty wide of the posts.
The
game became more frantic as both sides were showing great skill and
teamwork between the forwards and backs. Both teams had the
opportunity to score a try but the defensive lines were holding up
and it took 18 minutes to get the first points on the board for Bath.
Ford
was able to find his range to give the home side the lead but it
lasted 90 seconds as Goode stepped up to draw the game level.
However the West Country side looked to have scored the first try of
the game as Matt Banahan's quick line out pass to Peter Stringer was
ruled forward.
Then
on the half hour mark, Saracens did score the first try, after Joel
Tomkins broke away from Ford's tackle. Offloads from Tomkins and
Taylor opened up space for Chris Wyles, whose great juggling did just
enough to beat the Bath defence to go over the try line.
The
game wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down, with Bath lock Dave
Attwood pulling off two big hits on Sarries duo Steve Borthwick and
Mako Vunipola.
Unfortunately
it wasn’t enough to stop the away side from scoring before the
break after Ollie Devoto was unable to collect a pass. Goode saw
the opportunity and broke the Bath defensive line. Taylor hacked the
ball down field and with Bath unable to regroup, Brad Barritt's
superb cross field kick was easily picked up by Strettle who did the
rest, with Goode adding the conversion.
Early
on into the second half and Stringer was taken out by flanker Jacques
Burger and it was that sort of night for the hosts who fell further
behind after 54 minutes with Goode showing his kicking skill with a
drop goal to extend his sides lead by 17 points.
But
with Burger’s subsequent high tackle on Anthony Watson, the South
African was sin binned to give Mike Fords troops a numerical
advantage and they looked to have scored a try but Schalk Brits put
his full body under the ball to hold it up.
Luckily,
the hosts were awarded with a penalty try after Sarries forwards pack
collapsed the scrum under their posts and Ford wasted no time kicking
the conversion.
Goode
killed any hope of Bath winning the game by kicking another penalty
and then Wyles became the second Sarries player to be sin binned for
an illegal tackle, well an American football tackle, on replacement
wing Semesa Rokoduguni.
This
game showed the gap in the table proving poignant between Bath and
the Saracens. But if Bath take this defeat as motivation and try and
win their next four games they will secure a play off place in the
Aviva Premiership.