Fin Smith knocked over a last-minute penalty as Northampton beat league leaders Bath 35-34 in a “phenomenal” game of nine tries.

It was Bath’s fifth consecutive loss at Franklin’s Gardens, but they showed remarkable resilience to recover from being 19 points down to lead with three minutes to go and outscore their opponents by five tries to four.

Joe Cokanasiga scored two tries with Orlando Bailey, Will Stuart and Max Ojomoh also on the scoresheet as Scotland captain Finn Russell converted three and added a penalty.

George Hendy, Fraser Dingwall, James Ramm and Josh Kemeny scored Saints’ tries, with Smith kicking three conversions and three penalties.

“It was a massive relief when Fin knocked the kick over as we had played some really good stuff, but became scrappy in the second half,” Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson said.

“We were 19-0 up, but went into our shells in the third quarter and struggled to exit quickly,” he added. “We obviously will take loads from the win as you can’t coach grit, but there will only be a change in momentum and fortune if we can kick on from here in our next games.”

England wing Ollie Sleightholme withdrew from Saints’ bench with a hamstring problem, but the home side quickly overcame the setback to take the lead after only 80 seconds.

Hendy caught the kick-off to secure an attacking platform before he and Rory Hutchinson combined neatly down the right flank to create a try for Kemeny.

Bath then suffered two further blows in quick succession. Flanker Guy Pepper was forced to leave the field with a leg injury before creative play from half-backs Smith and Alex Mitchell set up a walk-in for Dingwall.

Saints’ explosive start continued with a third try before 13 minutes had elapsed as Ramm powered through the visitors’ defence on a 50-metre run to the line.

Bath needed a quick response and they got one when skilful passing from their backs got the ball to Cokanasiga, who rounded Hendy and scored.

Aided by a number of penalties in their favour, Bath built up their first sustained period of pressure and were rewarded when Bailey brushed aside some weak defending for his side’s second score.

A sixth match try came before the half-hour with Hendy collecting Smith’s chip ahead for Saints’ bonus point before Will Muir departed with a leg injury forcing flanker Josh Bayliss to play on the wing as Bath had selected only one back on the bench.

Just before the interval, the hosts lost the impressive Hendy with an injured shoulder, but they still led 26-12 at half-time.

Six minutes after the restart, Bath were right back in contention when Stuart crashed over from close range but Smith was on target with a penalty to keep the visitors at arm’s length.

However, Ojomoh scored Bath’s bonus-point try to reward a strong burst from Ollie Lawrence and close the visitors to within three points going into the final quarter.

Bath then lost a badly-shaken Jaco Coetzee, but they still took the lead for the first time when Miles Reid charged down a kick from Hutchinson for Cokanasiga to gather and outpace the defence.

Russell missed the conversion as did Smith with a penalty, but the young outside-half put Saints back in front with 10 minutes remaining, courtesy of a 40-metre kick.

Smith then missed with a penalty from inside his own half before Alex Mitchell was sin-binned for a high tackle on Lawrence with Russell knocking over the kick. Smith had the final say when Sam Underhill offended and kicked the winning goal in the 80th minute.

“It was a phenomenal game and certainly an emotional roller-coaster, but we’ll just have to take our two points and move on,” Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan said of his table-topping side. “Saints had so much speed and accuracy early on and converted well in that opening 20 minutes. but then our power got us back into the game.

“The guys are obviously gutted as they fought so hard, but we showed we are tough to beat and if we go anywhere in the world we’ll fight all the way.

“We showed our ability to bounce back when we lost Guy (Pepper) and Will (Muir) to hamstring injuries early on and then later Jaco Coetzee with a head injury.”

Read More