'Patchy' Northampton brush Bath aside - and set sights on tougher tests ahead

Northampton made short, clinical work of an out of sorts Bath with a six-try beating but Chris Boyd remains realistic about the European battles that now lay ahead for his men.

The director of rugby had the look of a glass half empty man after a bonus-point win lifted his side into third in the Premiership. He knows full well that Racing 92 will pose much more a serious and more rigorous threat in the opening round of Champions Cup games on Friday night.

Boyd said: "I was really happy to get five points but it was just a six out of ten performance. We were very patchy and it certainly wasn’t vintage. We went to sleep at times and we spoke about being a bit tougher to closing out things beforehand.

"It’s nice momentum from the two wins but we have a tough European pool with Racing and Ulster games coming up.

"Racing have some sublime individuals and we are going to have to impact the way they want to play to have an impact on them. But we are looking forward to that challenge. It’s a big ask as the French clubs are a dominant force in Europe but we are not going to go belly up into it."

Bath trailed 14-0 early on and when things are going against you on the field they seem to get worse, as the West Country men lost both half-backs, Danny Cipriani and Ben Spencer to injury within 25 minutes of the start. And life failed to get any happier for a team struggling for confidence and cohesion.

Rory Hutchinson exchanged passes with Tommy Freeman before the wing received it back and burst over the line with no rival insight. Dan Biggar added the extras.

Freeman finished another flowing, decisive move in the left hand corner after lock Dan Ribbans' fine quarter-back style pass over the top of onrushing Bath defenders leaving Courtnall Skosan the chance to send Freeman through.

Bath responded with England flanker Sam Underhill crashing over from close range but centre Fraser Dingwall looked set to cross after darting through a large gap but was hauled down a few yards short of the target. Yet he managed to feed the ball to prolific South Africa No 8 Juarno Augustus who strolled over unchallenged.

Bath lost Danny Cipriani for an HIA which he failed after taking a blow and then scrum-half Ben Spencer had to be helped off with an upper leg injury a few minutes later. Saints mounted more pressure the line and Augustus easily slipped his way over for his second and the bonus point try.

Biggar converted while prop Lewis Boyce gave the visitors a minor boost in confidence by forcing his way over for a second Bath try just before the break. Hopes of clawing their way back into the contest grew further when Saints had hooker Josh Matavesi sin-binned for foul play at a ruck and then blindside prop Will Stuart crashed over.

Yet Saints responded rapidly with wing Skosan dashing across for another on the left to stop any potential panic setting in. Skosan soon scored his second, sauntering over in acres of space following a George Furbank cross-field kick. The England full-back Furbank converted and Saints subsequently rose up to third in the table.

Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper admitted: "We had a few players ruled out during the week. We lost Josh McNally in the warm-up and then Danny and Ben so quickly in the game...sometimes you wonder what is going on. But the one thing I can't complain about is the players commitment and effort. "

Match details

Scoring sequence (Northampton first): 5-0 (Hutchinson try), 7-0 (Biggar con), 12-0 (Freeman try), 14-0 (Biggar con), 14-5 (Underhill try), 19-5 (Augustus try), 21-5 (Biggar con), 26-5 (Augustus try), 28-5 (Biggar con); 28-10 (Boyce try), 28-12 (de Glanville con); half-time; 28-17 (Stuart try), 28-19 (de Glanville con), 33-19 (Skosan try), 38-19 (Skosan try), 40-19 (Furbank con).

Northampton: G Furbank; T Freeman, F Dingwall (rep: T Litchfield, 70), R Hutchinson, C Skosan; D Biggar (rep: O Sleightholme, 63), A Mitchell (rep: T James, 70) A Waller (rep: N Auterac, 45), S Matavesi (rep: J Fish, 59), E Painter (rep: P Hill, 45); D Ribbans (rep: A Coles, 70), A Moon (rep: A Ratuniyarawa, 45), K Wilkins, L Ludlam (c), J Augustus.

Bath: T de Glanville; S Rokoduguni, W Butt, M Ojomoh, W Muir; D Cipriani (rep: G Hamer-Webb, 23), B Spencer (rep: O Fox, 26); L Boyce (rep: W Vaughan, 68), T Dunn (rep: J du Toit, 59), W Stuart (rep: D Rae, 50); M Williams (rep: E Richards, 43) , C Ewels (c) (rep: R de Carpentier, 62), T Ellis, S Underhill, J Bayliss (rep: N American, 75).

Referee: K Dickson