Sam Underhill embodied the bristling defiance of Bath – his tackles were shuddering

One issue with becoming an England regular is that people tend to crane their necks and peer past you towards the next shiny thing. Forget the incumbents and the proven operators, it is more stimulating to ponder what someone else could do.

Even in defeat, Sam Underhill’s ferocious performance for Bath against Northampton Saints was a reminder, for those who needed it, of the openside flanker’s enduring class. He embodied the bristling defiance of his club, who came so close to pulling off an immense victory in the wake of Beno Obano’s red card.

To cope without their starting loosehead prop, and to keep slugging for an hour with 14 men, Bath first needed to solidify the set-piece. They did that by sacrificing Alfie Barbeary to bring on Juan Schoeman immediately. Then, against an intrepid attacking side in Saints, they required a combination of mobility and stopping power in defence to help them stifle the pace of Northampton’s phase play.

If the latter is what you are after, Underhill would probably be among the first players on the planet that you would call upon. Sometimes, tackle tallies do not paint a complete picture because quality can be more important than quantity. Underhill ended up with 13, according to Stats Perform’s first count. Only Thomas du Toit recorded more in the whole game. Most of Underhill’s tackles were shuddering interventions that arrested the impetus of Saints.

In the 13th minute, before Obano was dismissed, Alex Mitchell tracked a back-line move and picked up George Furbank’s offload. Just as the scrum-half appeared to have a chink of light, Underhill arrived on the scene and folded his England colleague. Three phases later, Bath forced a turnover and broke away.

On the verge of half-time, as Northampton searched for a try that would give them a 10-point lead, Underhill hurled his body into a desperate stand that eventually earned a breakdown penalty. Four minutes into the second period, Saints fired Burger Odendaal towards Finn Russell. Underhill shot across the channel and chopped down his target. Odendaal needed to withdraw because of a knee injury.

When Northampton finally scored their third try, thanks to George Hendy’s mazy run and more instinctive support play from Mitchell, Underhill was off the pitch. Having passed his head injury assessment, he returned to the fray with Saints 25-21 ahead.

These days, pigeonholing Underhill as merely a defensive destroyer is primitive. In the 55th minute, from a line-out that could have been awkward for Bath, he stormed away from his own try-line and smashed through Curtis Langdon. Since missing out on the initial World Cup squad last year, a decision that stunned peers, the 27-year-old appears to have branched out, as Courtney Lawes has done superbly.

After a phenomenal display in the third-place play-off against Argentina at that tournament, which he featured in as an injury call-up, Underhill demonstrated his resourcefulness during the Six Nations. In the skinny win over Wales, with England down to 13, he scrummaged at lock for Ben Earl’s decisive try. Against Ireland, he flipped an offload to Maro Itoje in the build-up to Furbank’s finish (watch video below). Later, Underhill soared to gather a line-out with his left hand. Generally, his jackalling has seemed more threatening as well.

Almost a decade since England were ridiculed for lacking classical openside flankers, they have a surplus. Ben and Tom Curry have been in this week’s training camp, nudging Guy Pepper out of the reckoning. Will Evans has not had a sniff, while Jack Willis remains ineligible despite his heroics for Toulouse. This is all before you consider that Earl could slip back to seven from eight.

There are many options, and an understandable curiosity about unleashing tyros like Chandler Cunningham-South elsewhere in the back row. And yet, as he watched this weekend, Steve Borthwick will have been extremely pleased to be able to rely on Underhill to take on Japan and New Zealand this summer.

As for other England candidates, Ben Spencer oozed class. His cross-kick for Will Muir’s try was reminiscent of Antoine Dupont, which is the biggest compliment one can pay to a scrum-half. Tommy Freeman, awesome in the air and shrewd in defence, scored Northampton’s first try and is bound for many more caps. Furbank’s poise as a playmaking full-back was underlined once more.

For anyone wondering about potential bolters, Hendy is understood to have admirers in the England set-up. A loping runner, he offers something different and stripped Orlando Bailey to seal it. Underhill, though, has graduated from shiny thing to prize-fighter, and this gripping Premiership decider showed why.