Rampant Bath blow away 14-man Saracens

Bath will take a five-point lead at the top of the Gallagher Premiership into 2025 after inflicting a record 68-10 defeat on Saracens at a raucous Recreation Ground.

Johann van Graan's side were aided and abetted by a red card to Toby Knight and injuries to fellow flanker Theo McFarland and Tobias Elliott and the concession of a penalty try and a yellow card to Liam Williams – all inside the first 15 minutes – but they were ruthless in making the visitors pay.

Will Muir ran in a hat-trick and fellow winger Joe Cokanasiga scored a brace in a rampant display of finishing, which brought tries for four other players – Thomas du Toit, Cam Redpath, Sam Underhill and Ollie Lawrence.

It only took five minutes for Bath to register their first points when Finn Russell's pinpoint crossfield kick, which was heading into the arms of Cokanasiga, was batted into touch by Williams. Referee Karl Dickson decided that a try would have otherwise been scored and awarded Bath a penalty try, whilst also sin-binning full-back Williams.

Shortly before Williams' time on the sidelines had expired, Saracens lost Knight permanently, the openside making contact to the head of Ollie Lawrence, with force, to leave Dickson with no option but to send the openside from the field of play.

BATH, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 28: Bath Rugby's Ted Hill in action during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Bath Rugby and Saracens at Recreation Ground on December 28, 2024 in Bath, England. (Photo by Bob Bradford - CameraSport via Getty Images)

Monstrous carries by Lawrence and Ted Hill put Bath five metres away from the Saracens try line once play resumed before Ben Spencer chose the perfect pass, as he did for the whole hour he was on the pitch against his former club, for du Toit to power over.

A Fergus Burke penalty finally put Saracens on the board but that would remain their only points until replacement prop Kapeli Pifeleti charged through a weak Will Stuart tackle to score a consolation try with 14 minutes to go.

In between those scores, it was all Bath, with Spencer and Russell dovetailing perfectly as the half-back combination. Redpath cruised under the posts for try number three on 23 minutes after the forwards had done the hard yards before Muir finished off Spencer's blindside run by galloping home from 30 metres.

Bath had the try bonus point in the bag by half-time and they continued where they left off in the second period, with Cokanasiga benefitting from Lawrence's balanced running and wonderful sleight of hand for the fifth try of the match.

Muir collected his second and then Underhill reached out and scored shortly after coming on after good build-up play by back-row colleague Miles Reid.

Pifeleti's try didn't dampen the mood and Bath finished the match in rousing fashion with Lawrence scoring a well-deserved try of his own and Muir getting his hat-trick in a frantic finale to a match that served further notice to the rest of the Premiership about Bath's strength in depth.

Saracens ended the afternoon reeling from the worst reversal in their Premiership history, surpassing a 65-10 loss to Exeter in October 2023.