Bath grind down Sarries

Bath continued their Guinness Premiership revival with a 16-14 victory over Saracens at a muddy Vicarage Road.

Just 24 hours after Watford's Championship game against Newcastle, the pitch needed to pass a pitch inspection before referee David Rose was able to give the all clear.

Saracens had lost three of their last four matches but knew a win would take them into joint second place in the league with Northampton.

And they started brightly when they pinned Bath down in front of their posts a minute into the game, but Derick Hougaard was hauled down before he could spread the ball.

But Bath were first on the scoreboard after the Sarries' scrum was turned on their own line, Ryan Davis - standing in for the injured Butch James - slotting the resulting penalty.

He could have doubled the lead in the 12th minute when the hosts were penalised at the breakdown, but the kick dipped under the bar.

Van Heerden try

Sarries finally escaped their own 22 after forcing a turnover after from the resulting counter Bath were caught not releasing to give Hougaard the chance to level in the 17th minute from 30 yards.

And the hosts were in front for the first time six minutes later when captain Wikus van Heerden smashed through the covering defence to cross, although Hougaard's attempted conversion came back off an upright.

Davis pulled it back to two points with a 33rd-minute penalty after another offence at the breakdown but Bath were penalised straight from the restart, again for not releasing, and this time Hougaard made no mistake from wide on the right.

But Sarries appeared to have little to offer in the form of attack and they conceded yet another penalty when the scrum went down under pressure, Davis making it three from three to make it 11-9 at the break.

And it was the visitors who took the initiative early in the second half, although Davis somehow missed a simple penalty after Saracens messed up another scrummage.

But the visitors looked far more composed than their opponents and it came is little surprise when they went ahead in the 55th minute following another Davis penalty miss.

Repeated close-quarter infringements tried Rose's patience and when Saracens were deemed to have killed the ball close to their own line, the referee awarded the penalty try.

Saracens hit back moments later when they were awarded one of few penalties that went their way on the day, with Hougaard making sure of the three points.

But that was as good as it got for the home side as Hougaard pulled an attempted drop goal, while Davis could have clinched it when van Heerden was penalised for questioning the referee, but missed his third straight kick.

Hougaard then missed seven minutes from time, his angled kick from the right drifting wide of the far post, and he was given one more chance to snatch the win when Bath pulled down a driving maul, but once again he failed to capitalise.