{"id":392312,"date":"2026-04-10T22:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T22:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/392312\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T22:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T22:37:08","slug":"champions-cup-bath-43-41-northampton-saints-ted-hill-try-completes-fightback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/392312\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions Cup: Bath 43-41 Northampton Saints &#8211; Ted Hill try completes fightback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bath came from 21 points down to beat Prem leaders Northampton and reach the semi-finals of the Champions Cup in a breathtaking clash at the Rec.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Northampton were in sensational attacking form from the off, scoring five tries in the opening half hour as the top two sides in England delivered an amazing first 40 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Bath were not knocked out and scored four of their own before half-time as the sides shared 61 points before the break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The hosts&#8217; strength in depth from the bench proved the difference in the second period as Northampton could only manage two penalties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And a late yellow card under heavy pressure for Saints talisman Henry Pollock proved decisive as replacement Ted Hill drove over to give Bath their first lead with five minutes left.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They held on to seal a famous win and set up a huge match against either Bordeaux Begles or Toulouse in the last four.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Exhilarating, high octane, entertaining &#8211; this was the modern brand of rugby which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cjd9m3p55y7o\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">made the Six Nations so captivating<\/a> in an 80-minute nutshell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Whether Bath can beat the French giants playing such rugby remains to be seen but the English duo served up a first 40 minutes in particular which will live long in the memory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pollock was involved &#8211; as he so often is &#8211; right from the start, driving over to give Saints the lead after a very early yellow card for Bath number eight Miles Reid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fraser Dingwall capitalised on a superb Saints attack to score the second try within six minutes before Tom Dunn barrelled over to reduce the deficit just moments later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Northampton looked like scoring in every attack and Tom Lockett and Josh Kemeny stunned the home crowd with quick tries to put <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c9vgd008jppo\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last year&#8217;s beaten finalists<\/a> 28-7 up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Finn Russell kicked through and dived on the ball to score for Bath, but when wing Ollie Sleightholme marked his 100th Northampton appearance with a fifth try in the 29th minute it looked like Saints would be reaching a third straight semi-final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The pace of Henry Arundell and the power of Francois van Wyk brought two quick Bath tries before the half-time whistle though and the momentum had swung the way of the hosts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Kepu Tuipulotu mauled over to make it a five-point game and while Fin Smith&#8217;s boot kept the visitors just about ahead, a wave of pressure made a Bath score feel inevitable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pollock ignored the cries of referee Andrew Brace to release a tackle and paid the price with another yellow card, and moments later Hill drove over to level the scores.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Russell had the final word with his boot as the home crowd celebrated a sumptuous comeback and a first appearance in the last four in 20 long years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bath came from 21 points down to beat Prem leaders Northampton and reach the semi-finals of the Champions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-392312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}