Staying dry in Bath

That was quite the most unusual rugby game I have been to, possibly ever and certainly in a long time.

For a start we were playing Bath in Bath in the sun. It threatened to be typical Bath weather with a sharp rainstorm at 1ish but by the time we had meandered from our apartment into the city the rains had moved away to spoil someone else’s afternoon. 

With a home semi-final in the bag Dowse had wisely chosen to rest some key players for this trip and give those returning from injury some game time. Bath, on the other hand, had it all to play for, a win would secure a play off spot and depending on other results they could sneak second place.

And to cut a long story short – their full-strength side notched up the full five points and ran in some lovely tries. Saints boys never gave up, and in some cases almost seeming to be trying too hard and forcing the issue. But we weren’t nilled and managed to score a couple of tries, including an absolute cracker by Tom Seabrook with another of his trademark athletic dives in the corner.

The last ten minutes or so of the game were noticeable by the murmur around the ground as people sat staring at their phones willing the score from Barnet not to change – Sarries were losing 10-20. This meant that not only did we finish top but Bath would claim second slot and Sarries would be shoved into fourth place behind Sale. Bristol, Quins and Exeter all finishing out of the top four.

And so it came to pass with the final whistle we were top of the league, despite a thumping loss, so we were happy, Bath were in second place so they were happy – smiles all round!

The Bath supporters around us were a delight as they enjoyed their team having a blast on the pitch and we all united in supporting Sale for the afternoon. Special mention to the two young boys in front of us at their first premiership game – they had Bath shirts on but were actually from Exeter – no, I don’t know either, but between them they had a great knowledge of the Saints players too. Ollie Sleightholme was their particular favourite.

Talking of Ollie, he had a quiet afternoon by his standards, although he moved up the Ollie-ometer of angry when Finn Russell had a dig at him when there was an outbreak of “handbags” – don’t think he’ll risk doing that again!

So onwards to a home semi under Friday night lights – the game sold out within hours. We need to bring our “A” game as the 16th man – remember another Friday night in May ten years ago? Here’s hoping we can do it again and march into that final!

Photographs from Saturday, as ever, provided by Claire Jones aka Red Hat Photography. And to see and or hear the Photographer and your correspondence talking things Saintly rugby – have a listen to Ladies Wot Pod.

And if you want to see posts and discussions from fellow Saints’ fans hop over to Saints Sinners on Facebook.