Bath stuns Northampton

Bath spent 75 minutes chasing a game they never led, then Ted Hill crashed over in the 76th minute and Finn Russell’s conversion made it 43-41 at the Recreation Ground on Friday night. The win sent Bath into the Investec Champions Cup semi-finals for the first time since 2006. (skysports.com) (epcrugby.com) Northampton looked like they might bury it in the first 21 minutes, scoring four tries and building a 28-7 lead. Henry Pollock scored in the 3rd minute, Fraser Dingwall in the 6th, Tom Lockett in the 16th, and Josh Kemeny in the 22nd as Bath kept missing tackles and field position. (skysports.com) (sports.yahoo.com) Bath stayed alive because they kept turning visits into tries instead of penalties. Tom Dunn scored in the 9th minute, Russell crossed himself in the 26th, and Henry Arundell finished another move in the 33rd, which cut a 21-point hole into something Bath could still see daylight from. (skysports.com) (sports.yahoo.com) The first half still ended 35-26 to Northampton because Ollie Sleightholme scored Saints’ fifth try in the 30th minute and Bath answered once more through Louis van Wyk in the 39th. Eleven tries across the night meant this was less a slow arm-wrestle than two teams trading clean breaks like heavyweight punches. (skysports.com) (sports.yahoo.com) Bath changed the feel of the game after the break with their bench, especially Alfie Barbeary, who BBC Sport named player of the match after his first-half arrival for Sam Underhill. Kepu Tuipulotu’s 58th-minute try pulled Bath within five points at 38-33 and turned the last quarter into a one-score chase. (bbc.com) (skysports.com) Russell then kicked a 67th-minute penalty to make it 38-36, which mattered because it meant one converted try would win it instead of only drawing level. Northampton still had the game in their hands until Pollock was shown a yellow card in the 73rd minute, leaving Saints a forward short at the worst possible moment. (skysports.com 1) (skysports.com 2) Three minutes later, Hill scored the try that flipped the whole night, and Russell converted for Bath’s first lead of the match. A team that had trailed 14-0 after six minutes and 28-7 after 21 had finally dragged itself in front with four minutes left. (sports.yahoo.com) (rugbyisthegame.com) The result landed hard because these were not mid-table survivors stealing one in bad weather. Northampton came in as Gallagher Premiership leaders on 52 points, with Bath one point behind on 51, so this was the top two teams in England playing at full speed with a European semi-final on the line. (bathrugby.com) (premiershiprugby.com) It also kept alive Bath’s biggest season in two decades under Johann van Graan. They had already beaten Saracens 31-22 in the round of 16, and now they move on to face either Union Bordeaux Bègles or Toulouse in May. (epcrugby.com) (sports.yahoo.com) For Northampton, the sting is that this was the third straight season they fell short of the Champions Cup semi-finals. For Bath, the noise at the Recreation Ground on April 10, 2026 came from ending that own wait in the wildest way possible: six tries, 43 points, and a comeback from 21 down against the best domestic team in front of them. (independent.co.uk) (sports.yahoo.com)