Augustus helps Northampton bounce back in Premiership

PREMIERSHIP REPORT: Northampton recovered from an embarrassing defeat at Bristol to pick up a bonus-point 45-26 victory over Bath at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday.

Last week, Northampton suffered their record Premiership loss, 8-62, but they are now back on track for an end-of-season play-off spot.

Saints moved third in the league table with fixtures against London Irish, Saracens and Newcastle still to come.

Robbie Smith scored two tries, while Juarno Augustus, Angus Scott-Young, Tom Collins and James Grayson also crossed, with Fin Smith converting all six and adding a penalty.

Tom Dunn registered two tries for Bath and Tom de Glanville and Tom Doughty were also on the try-scoring sheet with two conversions from Orlando Bailey and one from Ben Spencer.

“We had to show that last week’s result was an anomaly and our boys deserve a bit of credit for the way they reacted,” said Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson.

“It wasn’t an ideal performance but it would have been easy to go into our shell as obviously there were nerves after last week’s outing.

“However we played with a lot of energy and tried a lot in attack but we still have work to do on our defence.”

The scorers:

For Northampton:
Tries: R Smith 2, Augustus, Scott-Young, Collins, Grayson
Cons: F Smith 6
Pen: F Smith

For Bath:
Tries: De Glanville, Dunn 2, Doughty
Cons: B Spencer, Bailey 2

Teams:

Northampton Saints: 15 James Ramm, 14 Tom Collins, 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Fraser Dingwall (captain), 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Tom James, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Sam Graham, 6 Angus Scott-Young, 5 Alex Moon, 4 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 3 Paul Hill, 2 Robbie Smith, 1 Alex Waller.
Replacements: 16 Tom Cruse, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Alfie Petch, 19 Brandon Nansen, 20 Sam Matavesi, 21 Callum Braley, 22 James Grayson, 23 Rory Hutchinson.

Bath: 15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Gabriel Hamer-Webb, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Matt Gallagher, 10 Orlando Bailey, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Miles Reid, 7 Chris Cloete, 6 Josh Bayliss, 5 GJ van Velze, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 D’Arcy Rae, 2 Tom Dunn (captain), 1 Beno Obano.
Replacements: 16 Tom Doughty, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Josh McNally, 20 Will Spencer, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Will Butt, 23 Richard de Carpentier.

Referee: Jack Makepeace
Assistant Referees: Harry Walbaum, Wayne Falla
TMO: Rowan Kitt