Grewcock and Bath go down fighting

Bath 10 Northampton 27

Never mind the quality, feel the fury. The conflict was simmering nicely and came to the boil towards the end of the first half, when two old protagonists renewed hostilities in the most amazing fashion. In the blue corner, Danny "the fighting" Grewcock; in the green, Mark "the hitman" Connors.

They went at each other and Steve Borthwick also became involved. When law and order was restored Connors, the Australian international who was supposed to have joined Bath at the beginning of the season, emerged minus his scrum-cap, which had been torn from his head. Borthwick picked it up and instead of handing it to Connors gave it to Grewcock, who proceeded to rip it to pieces before throwing it on the ground.

The upshot was that Grewcock, Bath's captain, and Connors were sent to the sin-bin, just as they had been in the quarter-final of the Powergen Cup here in January. On that occasion Northampton won 29-28 with Peter Jorgensen scoring a late winning try.

Yesterday the centre scored both of Northampton's tries in an unexpectedly handsome victory. This was a bad day for Bath and particularly for Grewcock, who went off in the 72nd minute after taking a bang to the head. The damage was being assessed last night, although he should be fit for England's match with Scotland at Twickenham next Saturday.

Bath thought they had turned a corner after beating Saracens a couple of weeks ago, but here they ran straight into a cul-de-sac and their form, or lack of it, showed just why they are languishing in the relegation zone. The return of Mike Catt did not provide them with the catalyst they clearly needed; the half-backs Andy Williams and Chris Malone were not in the same class as Matt Dawson and Paul Grayson, while Olly Barkley, taking over from Matt Perry, who failed a fitness test, was uncomfortable at full-back.

Some of their passing was too poor to be true. The forwards battled gamely but they could still have done with Jonathan Humphreys, the Wales hooker who is nursing a shoulder injury.

Grayson, something of an elder statesman nowadays, kicked five penalties out of six and his chip created Jorgensen's first try. Grayson has been restored to the national squad because of the injury to Charlie Hodgson, but England are not in urgent need of a goal-kicker. The stand-off was in good nick, slotting three early penalties after Bath, despite considerable pressure, had drawn a blank. Barkley went close before Catt, from a great position, elected to drop at goal and succeeded only in producing a daisy cutter. He was not at his best and he was not alone.

It was more stop than start in a tedious first-half which flared into life only with the Grewcock-Connors bout. Nor was that the end of it.

Dawson became incandescent when he was late tackled, if it could be called a tackle, by the prop David Barnes. When he got to his feet Dawson was being placated by touch judge Ashley Rowden who, for his trouble, was manhandled by the England scrum-half.

The first half was in the fourth minute of extra time when Grayson's chip to the left-hand corner was smartly touched down by Jorgensen. Barkley, who had kicked a penalty to make it 16-3 at half-time, missed six minutes into the second half before Grewcock again fell foul of referee Roy Maybank. Bath were pressing and had won a penalty in front of the posts when Maybank's attention was drawn to the raised flag of touch judge Andy Melrose. He said that Grewcock had thrown a punch. The penalty was reversed and the Saints drove down field through a searing break by Oriol Ripol, who had come on for Bruce Reihana. It ended in a penalty for Grayson.

The Northampton replacements were working a treat. No sooner had Steve Thompson come on than he produced a powerful run towards the line, and when the ball was recycled to the right Ripol produced a fantastic one-handed pass to enable Nick Beal to release Jorgensen on the overlap for try number two.

The game was now well and truly up for Bath and Grewcock, who sat disconsolately on the bench. After Grant Seely, on for the fiery Darren Fox, was shown a yellow card for persistently infringing, Bath finally mounted a coherent attack, which resulted in Tom Voyce going over at the posts. Even so, Northampton had the last word, Grayson banging over his fifth penalty.

There was no room at the Rec yesterday, underlining Bath's frustration at not being able to develop the ground and increase income. "A minority want to keep Bath as a hallowed museum piece,'' said chairman Andrew Brownsword. If Bath, who have four Premiership matches remaining, go down, and it's still a big if, they won't need a bigger ground.

Bath 10
Try: Voyce
Con: Barkley
Pen: Barkley

Northampton 27
Tries: Jorgensen 2
Con: Grayson
Pens: Grayson 5

Half-time: 3-16 Attendance: 8,200

Bath: O Barkley; E Seveali'i, M Tindall, M Catt, T Voyce; C Malone, A Williams (G Cooper, 54); D Barnes, L Mears (A Long, 65), J Mallett (A Galasso, 65), S Borthwick, D Grewcock (capt: A Lloyd, 72), A Beattie, N Thomas, A Vander (J Scaysbrook, 68).

Northampton: N Beal; J Brooks, P Jorgensen, J Leslie (capt), B Reihana (O Ripol, 40); P Grayson, M Dawson (I Vass 76); B Sturgess (M Stewart, 45), D Richmond (S Thompson, 50), R Morris, M Lord (R Hunter, 76), M Connors, D Fox (G Seely, 69), A Blowers, B Pountney.

Referee: R Maybank (Kent).