Rugby Union Commentary: Bath triumph at the end of flawed show: Saracens display pride before fall to keep lines buzzing between Southgate and Sudbury at climax of Courage Clubs' Championship

ALL HAIL, Bath - though not especially on the flawed show in beating Saracens which gave them a hat-trick of Courage Championships. They had once again to delve those unfathomable depths of collective pride which sustain when their actual rugby is letting them down. Beaten at their own death as a First Division side, Saracens did not look worthy of relegation.

In fact much of Bath's play as the league has been heading to its conclusion has been weary and uninspired, though simply winning has become its own justification and consolation where competition rugby is concerned. At Southgate they fell behind with nine minutes remaining; when it suddenly mattered, two minutes later they were back in front. This is the beauty of Bath RFC, and they have won cup or league trophies 11 times in 10 seasons.

As three years ago they contrived to lose here with the league in their grasp, this was sweet relief (revenge had already been taken). Then, the title went to Wasps, the runners-up now. This season as last, Bath have become champions through their prolific scoring. Vive la points difference: even beating Saracens by only six, 19-13, gained them another five so that their final advantage over Wasps was a whopping 195.

That said, they still nearly blew it, which, given their expectations, would have been the ultimate Bathos. 'When Saracens went ahead I thought we were going to lose but when we needed to do something, somehow we did it. The ending was vintage Bath,' Jack Rowell, the champions' coach, said in wonderment. Even Rowell has never explained how and why his players invariably stir themselves at the crisis-point.

'There may be some clubs buying in players but they can't buy the Bath spirit,' he added spikily. That spirit had been willing but mostly weak during a second half of incessant Saracens pressure. Bath had done reasonably in the first half, replying to Gareth Hughes's left-footed drop goal with two Stuart Barnes penalties and a characteristic try created first by the forwards and then the backs for Jonathan Callard.

But thereafter Saracens might well have done better than a pushover try by Brian Davies converted by Andy Tunningley followed by the right- footed drop with which Hughes eventually put them ahead. Bath went more or less straight down the field for Barnes's third penalty and even ended with the flourish of Callard's second try when Jeremy Guscott induced Tunningley to drop a Barnes garryowen and Phil de Glanville adroitly flicked up the loose ball.

No doubt Saracens were assisted by the heavy training work-out to which Ian McGeechan had subjected his Lions - including four from Bath - the previous day. 'Our key people, I thought they were ill,' Rowell lamented. 'When I heard they'd done two and a half hours' intense, driving play I knew there was no way they were going to cope with the second half.' Specifically it was the Bath pack who deteriorated, to the point of disintegration when Davies scored his try.

Barnes, Guscott, Clarke and Reed were reluctantly given exeats from the Lions weekend, with instructions to be back at Weybridge 'as soon as possible', which was not soon enough to stop the first three indulging themselves in the bungee-jumping that had been laid on behind the Southgate clubhouse.

With New Zealand in mind, this was taking a running jump to extremes, though Barnes said the exhilaration was such that he would be glad of its therapeutic properties after every game. McGeechan, the Lions coach, would surely disagree. 'The bloke up there said 'I bet you're shitting yourself,' ' Barnes said. 'I told him 'not half as much as I was taking that last penalty.' '

At least 3,200, probably the biggest crowd in Saracens' history, crammed in to see him do so. Most were from the West Country, where Bath's Recreation Ground is inadequate for the 8,000-plus who routinely turn up. Help is at hand now that the club has received planning permission for a new stand. This is a reminder of the predicament Saracens have been in for years. Their team are ostensibly too good for the Second Division, though their ability to come straight back up will be undermined if four of Saturday's team - O'Leary (Harlequins), Dooley (London Irish), Tarbuck (Leicester) and Cassell (Harlequins) - go through with intended defections to the First Division.

On this, Saracens are astoundingly phlegmatic, certainly more than when Dean Ryan went to Wasps in 1989 and Jason Leonard to Harlequins in 1990. 'You are being incredibly unrealistic as a London club if you think you're going to go down from the First Division without losing players,' Mark Evans, the Saracens coach, said. 'Even Harlequins would lose players if they got relegated.'

Saracens are also too good for Southgate, where the facilities are no incentive for Cassell and Co to stay. Which is why they have been trying to move out for 21 years. Now, at last, new options are opening up. They could be playing at a new site four miles up the A 111 in Potters Bar in two years if Hertsmere council grant a 125-year lease which would enable the club to proceed with a pounds 1m development.

The council meets on Thursday. With their interest comes others': Waltham Forest council would like Saracens to move to Waltham Abbey, and there is another alternative nearby in the public park that already houses Saracens. In other words even Enfield council, Saracens' present landlord, is interested.

'The trouble is we have been speaking to Enfield for eight years and we've got nowhere,' Bill Edwards, a club spokesman, said. Every Saracen admits the impossibility as long as they are stuck at Southgate of coping with, and catering for, crowds such as Saturday's. Next season, alas, they won't have to.

Saracens: Try Davies; Conversion Tunningley; Drop goals Hughes 2. Bath: Tries Callard 2; Penalties Barnes 3.

Saracens: A Tunningley; D O'Leary, S Ravenscroft, D Dooley, S Reed; G Hughes, B Davies (capt); R Andrews, G Botterman, S Wilson, M Langley, L Adamson, C Tarbuck, B Crawley (A Diprose, 19), J Cassell.

Bath: J Webb; A Swift, P de Glanville, J Guscott, J Callard; S Barnes, R Hill; G Chilcott, G Dawe, V Ubogu, N Redman, A Reed, J Hall, B Clarke, A Robinson (capt).

Referee: F Howard (St Helens).

(Photograph omitted)