Saracens denied by late Bath try

The Men in Black led 20-13 with minutes left thanks to converted tries from Tomas de Vedia and Richard Hill and two Glen Jackson penalties, but Bath ensured both sides took two points apiece when French international David Bory found the line. Olly Barkley converted to make it 20-20.

The last time Sarries were in this neck of the woods they secured a 13-13 draw with surprise title challengers Bristol, and the West Country proved to be their foil once again.

On the balance of play, a draw was fair result and while Sarries could not muster up another late winner for the second week running, Alan Gaffney was the happier of the two bosses.

Just as they teams emerged from the dressing rooms beneath the clubhouse at a ground they should perhaps rename The Relic, the heavens opened and those hardy Bath fans who paid £30 for the pleasure of sitting in an uncovered stand felt even more short changed by the result at the end of the final whistle.

Barkley got Bath on the board with a fourth minute penalty after Sarries had collapsed a scrum on their own 22 but it was the visitors who carved out the first real attack of the opening exchanges. After shifting the ball across the middle of the park, Kevin Sorrell wasted the opportunity with a woeful forward pass to the waiting Tomas de Vedia.

Barkley made it 6-0 with another penalty after Sarries were penalised for obstruction at a lineout but the game still remained a scrappy affair.

Bath then shot themselves in the foot with an obstruction offence after moving within a metre of the line following some good approach play down the right.

It took 22 minutes for Sarries to finally show what they are capable of with the ball in hand when, after several neat interchanges on the left, Glen Jackson hared down the line before being dragged into touch.

Bath came back strongly and Chris Malone spotted a gap to dive over after Sarries were pinned back. Barkley added the extras for 13-0, prompting the assembled hacks in the press box to predict a seventh consecutive home win for Bath.

But, in a classic example of speaking too soon, Sarries burst into life and Kameli Ratuvou made a brilliant break down the left before he was hauled down by Joe Maddock. He was not released in the tackle and Neil de Kock took a quick penalty which allowed Argentinian winger de Vedia to power over to the left of the posts. Jackson nailed the conversion to become the first Sarries player to tally 500 points in the Premiership.

Sarries then silenced the Bath crowd by sneaking ahead minutes later. Some good pressure saw de Kock fooling the Bath line with a pirouette inside before offloading to Richard Hill for an easy score on the right. Jackson made no mistake with the kick to give Sarries an unlikely lead at the interval.

Bath piled on the pressure in the early stages of the second half but Sarries forced a penalty in front of the posts which Jackson duly converted.

Handling errors started to creep in as the greasy ball coupled with the quagmire pitch started to take its toll on both teams.

The visitors looked to have landed a third try when de Kock collected ran over after collecting Kris Chesney's offload following a great break by the flanker, but referee Andrew Small ruled it out after spotting a forward pass.

However, Sarries made it 13-20 with another Jackson kick as Bath's indiscipline and penchant for knock-ons threatened to be their Achilles heel.

Bath were awarded a penalty after Cobus Visagie tried to slow down play by diving on the ball and Barkley kicked to Sarries' 22.

They then forced a five metre scrum after the powerful Sarries defence held them up on the line, although it was merely delaying the inevitable.

A neat reverse pass allowed French winger Bory to score a rare try and Barkley knocked over the conversion with three minutes left.

Sarries forced their way back deep into Bath territory and, had time not conspired against them, Jackson would have surely lined up a drop-goal that could have sealed another Sarries win.