Northampton strengthen grip on top of Prem after thrilling win against Bath

If only these two could play each other every week. Having wowed the rugby world a fortnight ago with their Champions Cup quarter-final at the Rec, scoring 11 tries between them, here they went one better and scored 12. Six each, obviously. The scores were level as the clock ticked red. The crowd were as breathless as the players.

And then, alas, the winning moment came not from a moment of brilliance – although Fin Smith tried it with his dummy and drop-goal attempt. He missed that, but the television match official had spotted one of those agonising high tackles by a tall man on a dipping, slightly shorter one. Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi it was who clipped the bustling Henry Pollock on the chin. Smith did not miss the subsequent penalty, the first penalty taken at goal, the last kick of the match.

Tommy Freeman scored a hat-trick to pull him one shy of Ben Cohen on the list of Northampton try-scorers – and we thought his third had won the match, another brilliant move setting him free through the outside-centre channel, where he combined with Tom Litchfield to score with barely five minutes to go. But Bath struck again in those last five minutes, Kepu Tuipulotu driving low round the fringes of a ruck.

Surely these two will meet again in the Prem final in June. That match will be a sell-out if there is any justice – or just sense – in the world. The Saints are now in the driving seat, opening up a four-point lead over Bath at the top of the table with four to play. But that is mere detail. This was no occasion for stale numbers.

The easiest prediction to make of any match was that this one would involve tries. And so it did. Both sides love a good try at the best of times, but with Bath fielding a second/third team with their Champions Cup semi-final in Bordeaux next weekend in mind, that extra bit of give had been engineered. None of the Bath reserves is afraid of the tryline. Nobody stood to lose much by throwing the ball around.

Ollie Sleightholme breaks clear to score Northampton’s third try against Bath. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

Northampton may or may not have had revenge on their mind for that extraordinary quarter-final a fortnight earlier, by which Bath found passage to France. At least Northampton can now, as they say, focus on the league. They chose not to rest any players, so we knew they would score tries too. And the sun was out.