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Late Alex Mitchell try seals Premiership title for Northampton

By PA
Northampton's Alex Mitchell pounces for the crucial score (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Northampton were crowned Gallagher Premiership champions at Twickenham after a late try by Alex Mitchell secured a 25-21 victory that ended Bath’s defiant response to Beno Obano’s red card.

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Obano was sent off with almost an hour of the final left to play for a high tackle on Juarno Augustus which referee Christophe Ridley said presented a high level of danger with no mitigation.

Bath sacrificed Alfie Barbeary to bring on replacement prop Juan Schoeman, stripping them of a second key ball carrier and in theory the ability to play anything more ambitious than a spoiling game, yet they rallied courageously.

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    Tries by Tommy Freeman and Ollie Sleightholme inflicted some initial wounds, but they recovered to hit back through touch downs from Thomas du Toit and Will Muir and the boot of Finn Russell to lead 21-18 with 13 minutes left.

    Northampton have been the Premiership’s standout team this season, operating with multiple strings to their bow but primarily a cutting edge in attack, yet they went into their shells as Bath took control.

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    Avg. Points Scored
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    It took the tackle-busting ability of 21-year-old replacement wing George Hendy and support work of Mitchell to eventually break their opponents, who saw Sam Underhill lead a remarkable defensive effort.

    Hendy was named man of the match as Northampton said a triumphant farewell to Courtney Lawes, Alex Waller, Lewis Ludlam and Alex Moon, but Bath’s side was also full of worthy performances including half-backs Ben Spencer and Russell.

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    Russell’s first significant act was to send an ugly penalty kick wide of the left upright, drawing a frown from the Scotland playmaker, but he was more successful with his second attempt.

    George Furbank was clattered in contact as a nervy set-piece battle gave way to tentative outbreaks of attack, but Northampton were unable to find any space in the the well drilled Bath defence.

    As the second quarter approached Saints patiently advanced deep into opposition territory, allowing Fin Smith to land a drop-goal, before the match tilted against Bath with Obano’s exit.

    The impact was almost instant as Northampton plundered their first try, Lawes threading a pass out of contact to Furbank and the England full-back worked his magic, gliding into space and sending Freeman over.

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    Furbank provided the assist for Sleightholme to score in the left corner, but Bath hit back when du Toit squeezed over from short range in a major victory for their pack.

    A Russell penalty early in the second-half reduced the deficit to two points and Northampton then knocked on as they looked to capitalise on a precious position close the whitewash.

    Russell and Underhill double tackled Burger Odendaal, forcing the South African to limp off, and having absorbed a Smith penalty Bath struck next when Muir touched down Spencer’s crossfield kick.

    Even Furbank produced a handling error as Saints’ foundations began to shake, a pinpoint 50-22 from Russell adding to the pressure.

    Russell sent over his third penalty and Bath’s resilience then shone through as they soaked up waves of Northampton attacks before winning a scrum penalty close to their own 22.

    Saints lost Smith to injury in another hammer blow, but his half-back partner Mitchell came to the rescue as Hendy used his strength to bust through multiple tackles before finding England’s scrum-half in support for the decisive score.

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    N
    NH 8 minutes ago
    'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

    Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

    16 Go to comments
    J
    JW 23 minutes ago
    Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

    Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


    Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


    No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


    So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


    The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

    68 Go to comments
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