NORTHAMPTON — Northampton Saints outgunned Bath 71-48 in a high-octane 18-try thriller at home, the second-highest scoring match in English top-flight history. The hosts ran in 11 tries to Bath's seven as the sides surpassed 100 points with 15 minutes still to play before Saints streaked clear to bounce back from defeat by Bristol a week ago and inflict a first loss of the season on the visitors.
Ollie Sleightholme led the rout with a hat-trick and Tommy Freeman added two tries, with Fin Smith, Fraser Dingwall, James Pater, Josh Kemeny, Alex Mitchell and Alex Coles also crossing and Smith adding eight conversions. For Bath, who made 12 changes for the fixture, Arthur Green scored twice while Tom Carr-Smith, Charlie Griffin — on his Premiership debut — Archie Griffin, Santiago Carreras and Josh Bayliss each scored once, with Finn Russell kicking five conversions and a penalty.
Rory Hutchinson fed Smith for the opener before Russell's brilliance created Green's break for Carr-Smith to reply, and Charlie Griffin put Bath ahead before Sleightholme levelled. Freeman dived under the posts after Bayliss was shown a yellow card for repeated infringements, Archie Griffin rolled over under two tacklers to hit back, Kepu Tuipulotu barged through midfield to set up Green for 26-19 and Dingwall cancelled it out before Russell's penalty on the stroke of half-time gave Bath a narrow lead.
Green doubled his tally quickly after the restart, but full-back Pater pounced on Carreras' dropped ball to steal possession and sprint the distance to the line and Carreras atoned with a try of his own. Northampton then turned the screw despite Bath unloading their bench of big-hitters, as Kemeny scored in the corner, Mitchell collected his own grubber kick for a solo showpiece and Sleightholme capped a superb move that saw Saints turn the ball over by their own line and sweep up the pitch before completing his hat-trick four minutes later.
Bayliss briefly kept Bath in touch to close the gap to 57-48, but Coles barged over and Freeman rounded off a blockbuster afternoon in the closing stages. The 119 points fell just short of the record in the English top flight — the 127 points shared in Saints' 94-33 win over Bristol in May.