Saints drain Bath's hopes

Bath's push to qualify for next season's Heineken Cup suffered a serious blow as they went down 26-6 at home to Northampton.

The Saints shook off the midweek suspensions of skipper Dylan Hartley and Calum Clark to run out comfortable winners at the Recreation Ground, pushing them back into the top four in the Aviva Premiership.

A penalty try and Ryan Lamb's boot gave the visitors a comfortable half-time cushion and they made sure of the victory when former Bath hooker Andy Long dived just after the hour mark.

All Bath managed in reply was a pair of penalties from Stephen Donald, who only recently resumed training after seven weeks out with knee ligament damage, but found himself immediately restored at fly-half.

Hipkiss returns

Dan Hipkiss also returned for the hosts, making his first start since September, but even his comeback, as well as the recall of winger Matt Banahan, couldn't help Bath catch fire in attack.

They saw nothing of the ball in the first 10 minutes and then conceded a five-metre scrum that led to them being punished by referee Martin Fox.

The official twice awarded Northampton penalties for collapsing the drive before going under the posts to signal for a penalty try, converted by Lamb.

From Northampton's next attack it took a last-ditch tackle by Matt Carraro to deprive Chris Ashton and the cover was back to shove Christian Day into touch at the flag.

Bath managed to win the line-out but could not escape the Saints stranglehold and the pressure was rewarded by a 24th-minute penalty from Lamb.

Donald missed a straightforward penalty to get the home team on the board after 30 minutes but did succeed almost immediately afterwards with a much more difficult attempt.

The New Zealander then almost set up a try by gathering his own grubber kick, but Ryan Caldwell could not get his pass away and, with no advantage gained from an offence back at the line-out, Donald kicked a penalty.

However, Northampton finished the half strongly with Lamb first dropping a goal and then knocking over a penalty out wide on the right to make it 16-6.

Bath came close to scoring a try at the start of the second half when Banahan kicked ahead for Carraro, Ashton getting there first but appearing to palm the ball dead. Although the TV match official was able to rule that no Bath player had managed to ground the ball, the winger escaped sanction.

Cynical infringement

Still, when Northampton's Mark Sorenson was sent to the bin for a cynical infringement, Bath seemed set to get themselves back in the contest.

Full-back Nick Abendanon looked as if he would score after rescuing a faltering attack but opposite number Ben Foden cut him down just short.

The seven-man Saints pack then wilted at a scrum but No.10 Donald was wide from 45 metres, his third missed penalty of the evening.

Lamb made no mistake when he was presented with a similar opportunity, however, and Bath's hopes drained away when replacement flanker Guy Mercer was sin-binned on the hour.

It took the Saints just three minutes to cash in, Long coming up with the ball after the Northampton pack drove over from a line-out. Stephen Myler added the conversion to take the lead to an unassailable 20 points.