Northampton Saints U18s came away from Saturday’s Defender PREM Next Gen Academy league fixture with a frustrating 45-26 defeat against last year’s finalists Bath.
First-half tries from Alfie Tedbury and Fin Shields saw the two sides head into the break level on the scoreboard at 14-all.
However, the hosts turned the screw in the second half and used their set-piece dominance to their advantage, and despite a second try by Shields as well as another from returning England U18 Jeremiah German, it was the hosts who came away victors.
On the result, U18s assistant coach Charles Rylands said, “We’ve had a really positive summer block, we challenged the lads at the beginning to improve themselves both on and off the pitch, and I think they’ve done themselves proud.
“On the pitch today, we probably didn’t get the game going that we wanted to secure that complete performance, but there were still some positives to take from that game.”
First-Half
It was Saints who struck first in the game launching from counter-attack. Shields put a kick in behind the Bath defence, which was won back at the breakdown. From there, fast hands on transition allowed the ball to find its way to Tedbury, who dove in at the corner.
The hosts struck back immediately after Bath won back their own kick-off return, eventually squeezing out a penalty out of the Saints’ defence. The fly-half then kicked to the corner, and the rolling maul powered its way over the line.
Saints’ ill-discipline cost them again as Bath kicked to the corner from another penalty, and whilst the initial driving maul was repelled, Bath got the ball out wide to their winger for an easy finish.
Saints would have one more before the half-time break, with Shields sending a classic show-and-go to open up space for him to glide through and go under the posts to take the two sides in all-square at the break.
Second Half
Bath had clear set-piece dominance and were using that weapon as often as possible to their advantage, putting Saints under pressure. The visitors gave away consistent penalties on their own line, and eventually the pressure broke as Bath launched it out wide once again for their winger to finish.
Saints finally had field position inside the red zone, and after consistent pressure, Bath gave away a penalty from which Shields took a quick tap and broke through himself for his second.
Bath responded immediately, catching their own kickoff, putting Saints under seige from the off and crashed over from short range.
The hosts had begun to turn the screw, winning Saints’ own lineout on halfway, and launched into a counterattack with a hole opening for the replacement prop to run through.
Saints' final score of the afternoon came from some excellent athleticism and a bit of luck as the kickoff came straight to a high-flying right in German, who went in at the corner untouched.
Bath rounded off the game with a further two tries, both from small errors from Saints, allowing Bath possession and field position that saw the visitors take away a single point from the match.
Line-ups
Bath Rugby U18s: 15 Rupert Jones, 14 Henry Middlehurst, 13 Hamish Kennedy, 12 Aston Barrington-Hibbert, 11 Tom Meredith, 10 Zach Nicholson, 9 Oscar Harrison; 1 Will Jordan-Willis, 2 Malachi Randolph, 3 Josh King, 4 Maxwell Carter, 5 Lex Vrettos, 6 Will Dawson, 7 Ewan Ross (C), 8 Georgia Faosiliva.
Replacements- 16. Henry Sui, 17. Noah Harding, 18. Miles Wilson, 19. Ben Loosmore, 20. Ben Allen, 21. Milo Powell, 22. Freddie Corbett, 23. Harrison Lane.
Saints U18s: 15 Fin Shields, 14 Jeremiah German, 13 Charlie King, 12 Oliver Jones, 11 Alfred Tedbury, 10 Milo Innes, 9 George Grewcock; 1 Toby Seaman, 2 Charlie Utting, 3 Ben Jones, 4 Archie McHarg, 5 Callum McBride, 6 Seb Dare (C), 7 George Simmonds, 8 Henry Nath.
Replacements- 16 James Slater, 17 Oliver Surley, 18 Rupert Kiy, 19 James Peasley, 20 Howie Barnett-Vincent, 21 Fred Oliver, 22 Kai Manson, 23 Finn Westley.