Saracens director of rugby Alan Gaffney feels it will take a good team to stop Bath winning the Guinness Premiership title.
Bath coach full of praise for Lipman following hammering of Sarries
Saracens director of rugby Alan Gaffney feels it will take a good team to stop Bath going all the way after seeing them crush his side 66-21.
The hosts were in red-hot form at the Rec, scoring nine tries in a one-sided rout that was over as a contest by half-time with the score at 45-0.
Centre Olly Barkley amassed 31 points, including two tries, to help Bath book a Guinness Premiership play-off berth.
They will now hope to carry on in the closing weeks of the campaign as they bid for a first league title since 1966, with Gaffney left in no doubt that they have what it takes to be crowned champions.
Offload game
"It is going to take a very good defensive side to hold them out," Gaffney said.
"You have got to slow down their offload game - Bath are the best team in the Premiership at offloading in the tackle - although Wasps could possibly do that.
"But there is no doubt Bath are going to be in there with a shout. In my coaching career, I don't think I've ever had 66 points scored against me.
"We have shipped something like 20 tries in our last three league games against Gloucester, Wasps and now Bath.
"We allowed Bath to dominate and we let them play at a pace they wanted to and we couldn't live with them."
It was a stunning result considering Sarries had pushed Munster all the way just six days earlier in the Heineken Cup semi-finals.
Bath coach Steve Meehan admitted he had wanted to test out their opponents in defence after such a hard game the previous weekend.
"We wanted to test Saracens in defence, and this was always going to be a really big ask for them after their European semi-final just six days ago," he said.
"When I was assistant coach at Stade Francais, Nick Mallett used to say you could tell how motivated a side were by their defence."
Meehan was also quick to sing the praises of flanker Michael Lipman, who rounded out an outstanding individual display with two tries.
"He made some bone-crunching tackles, and there is a real intensity about his game at the moment," he added.
"We know he is good on the ground, and we know he is good over the ball. He is just an outstanding forward."
Bath could clinch a home play-off with a victory over arch rivals Gloucester at Kingsholm next Saturday.
