By saracensfan62
March 21 2026

Well, So much for easing back in gently. Not an easy report to write I’m afraid. Bath returned to the top of the Premiership table with an emphatic 62-15 dismantling of Saracens at the Rec, with nine tries scored in front of another capacity crowd in Bath. It was meant to be a season-defining fixture. It was. Just not quite in the way we’d hoped. Scotland's Finn Russell kicked 17 points from seven conversions and a penalty and barely needed to break a sweat. Too easy, most would say.    

First Half

Just having got home, I turned on the tv and was making dinner when Sarries scored first. I did a double take as I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing. Sarries were by far quickest out of the blocks, charging down Spencer's attempted box-kick and working Tobias Elliott clear for a try in the corner after just 70 seconds. Owen Farrell converted and added a penalty after 13 minutes as Bath struggled to find their rhythm. 10-0 up, playing with real intent.
Then Bath woke up. Ollie Lawrence provided the reset with a crash-ball surge to the line, before the tip-on found Will Muir to score in the corner from a five-metre scrum. Russell converted and then delivered a pretty decent 50-22 kick to pile on the pressure, with Josh Bayliss winning the resulting lineout and weaving past three defenders on his way to the line to put Bath 14-10 ahead.

Discipline let us down again. Consecutive penalty awards against the visitors led to Alfie Barbeary punching through from a catch-and-drive for Bath's third. The irony was not lost given a certain AB is joining us next season. To our credit, the wolfpack refused to buckle. Theo Dan broke the line to gain crucial territory, and when the ball was recycled wide, Elliott was on the overlap to score his second in the same corner and make it 21-15. Back in it, just about. But then came the killer blow. Faz threw a pretty flat pass, and, like a book, it was read by none other than Henry Arundell. Questions were raised as to whether or not he was onside (I personally think he was slightly offside but hey ho). A 70-metre interception try sealed Bath's bonus point before the break, with Russell converting and adding a penalty for a 31-15 interval lead. The writing was on the wall.

Second Half

Saracens came out for the second half in determined mood, but when they lost possession right in front of the Bath posts the ball was cleared upfield and skipper Spencer seized his chance to score in the corner. That was effectively that. Russell had no difficulty converting Kepu Tuipulotu's score after 54 minutes as Bath's formidable bench took the game beyond reach.

Any hope of a Sarries comeback was extinguished when Theo Dan was sent to the sin bin with 18 minutes still on the clock, and Sarries also saw two tries of their own go begging — Max Malins spilling the ball and a second attempt held up over the line, although actually it was short and the referee should’ve called for the Bath players to release. Again a fine example of differing viewpoints and opinions. On that note, I thought Sir for the evening, Matt Carley delivered an interesting interpretation of the laws. You can interpret that in whatever way you fancy. The fine margins, that might have made the scoreline somewhat more respectable, really just weren't going our way.

Arundell helped himself to a second as Bath raced in a five-on-one to bring up 50 points, before Russell's dummy pass opened up space for Guy Pepper, and Bernard van der Linde added a ninth in the closing seconds. 62-15 the final score and once again another complete humiliation. Saracens were held scoreless throughout the entire second half. Can’t remember the last time that happened. We have won 4 out of our last 12 games in all comps. We play Bath again in 2 weeks time. If we can hold them under 40 that’ll be an improvement. Not good enough, simply put.

Conclusion

I’m not going to fire criticism at individuals. Nobody on the team played anywhere near the standard that is expected of Saracens. The optimistic view is that we rested Maro Itoje, Jamie George and several other Six Nations returnees, and still competed for the opening quarter against the reigning champions on their own patch. The Elliott double, the early Farrell penalty, the half-time score of 31-15 rather than something worse. There are very faint positives buried in there. And I’m clutching at straws at best.

The honest view? That second-half surrender was deeply alarming. The sin bin, the missed tries, the 47 unanswered points — the familiar patterns of poor discipline and second-half fade are back, this time on the biggest stage. Bath are smack bang in the middle of a brutal run of fixtures, and yet this is exactly what title-winning sides do — they absorb pressure and then destroy you.

The Showdown against Northampton at Tottenham feels like a bit of a disaster waiting to happen. I am anticipating a very heavy loss for that game. Northampton will have rested their internationals so will be fully firing, and we are a long way off the pace right now.