Gallagher Prem: Northampton Saints run riot to defeat Bath 71-48 in second highest-scoring game in history of competition

Northampton Saints ran riot to defeat Bath 71-48 in the second highest-scoring Gallagher Prem game in history.

Eighteen tries were scored in total, with Saints bouncing back from defeat at Bristol Bears last week in spectacular style.

Ollie Sleightholme scored a hat-trick in an astonishing afternoon at Franklin's Gardens in which 119 points were scored.

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"We put our game on the pitch," Sleightholme said on TNT Sports. "We don't want to concede that many points, so we've got stuff to work on.

"It's wicked [to play in this team]. We know we're going to create opportunities. We capitalised on the ones that we got.

"It was very loud. I haven't heard it like this for a while. It's great to be back."

Saints are also at the centre of the highest-scoring game in Prem history when they scored 14 tries to humiliate Bristol Bears 94-33 at Franklin's Gardens in May.

The total of 127 points meant it was the highest-scoring game in the history of English top-flight rugby union, beating the previous record of 118 in Richmond's 106-12 win over Bedford in 1999.

Northampton struck first after seven minutes when Fin Smith glided through a gap for the opener, which he could not convert.

Bath's response was excellent and swift as Finn Russell's off-load sent Arthur Green into space, with his pass inside giving Tom Carr-Smith an easy finish and Russell a simple conversion.

The visitors were over again three minutes later following a tapped penalty as Carr-Smith whipped a pass left for Charlie Griffin to finish in the corner, with Russell converting brilliantly.

The Saints were quickly back in business, though, as some wonderful quick hands led to Tommy Freeman off-loading to James Pater, whose long pass put Sleightholme in the clear, Smith's conversion making it a two-point game.

After Bath had Josh Bayliss sin-binned for killing the ball close to his own line, Northampton took the lead when Smith's pass put Freeman under the posts.

Despite being down to 14 men, Bath hit back hard again as they levelled at 19-19 when tighthead Archie Griffin barged his way over from close range down the right.

And they led when Kepu Tuipulotu broke through some flimsy tackling before putting Green in the clear, although Saints soon squared proceedings once more when their captain, Fraser Dingwall, glided through.

Russell's penalty with the final kick of a breathless first half had Bath 29-26 ahead at the break, and they extended their lead within two minutes of the restart when Carr-Smith set up Green's second of the afternoon.

Saints were momentarily back within three points when Pater ran in after Santi Carreras fumbled Russell's pass, but the Argentinian soon made amends when Russell's looping ball gave him a walk-in.

Back came Northampton again when Josh Kemeny scored in the corner from Alex Coles' pass to make it a dozen tries shared between the two teams in 51 minutes.

And Saints led again when Alex Mitchell scored a lovely individual try by collecting his own kick ahead before Sleightholme's second score brought up 50 points for the hosts.

There was just no let-up as Sleightholme ran in under the posts to complete his hat-trick, with Bayliss pulling a score back for Bath before Smith's strong carry allowed Coles to get in on the act.

There was time for one more try as more quick hands from Rory Hutchinson and Anthony Belleau put Freeman in for his second, and Northampton's 11th, of an extraordinary afternoon.

Dowson: High-scoring clash due to 'different mindset'

Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson thinks high-scoring matches is due to teams shifting in mindset in recent years.

Dowson said: "There have been some rule changes from a kicking point of view that's opened the game up and the best ball to play off is broken field, counter-attack turnover ball. You get a lot more of that.

"I think the ability of teams now - all teams - have an appetite to move the ball on the counter attack first before kicking first, so I think there's a different mindset.

"I think risk is being rewarded more often and there's the actual skill level of the playing group.

"You can talk about the underfoot conditions, the way it's being refereed, all that sort of stuff, you're still seeing tons of turnover at the breakdown.

"We don't want it to be 99-88 - not basketball, and I hear that in the media from some coaches - but we also don't want 9-3, so we've got to find a balance in how we run the game.

"But at the moment there are lots of Saints fans happy."