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Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson thinks high-scoring matches such as his side’s big 71-48 win over Bath is due to a change in the thinking of teams in recent years.
Eighteen tries were scored in a remarkable contest at the DPD Stadium in Franklin’s Gardens which became the second highest scoring game in Gallagher PREM history.
While Saints celebrated at the end, the tally Bath conceded equaled the record amount conceded in the 71-17 drubbing they suffered against Saracens in October 2021
Dowson said: “There have been some rule changes from a batting point of view that have opened up the game and the best ball to play is a broken field, a counter-attacking ball. You get a lot more of that.”
“I think now the ability of teams – all teams – to have an appetite to move the ball first on the counter-attack before they strike first, so I think there’s a different mindset.
“I think the risk is more often than not rewarded and there’s a real level of skill in the playing group.
“You can talk about the conditions underfoot, the way it’s refereed, all those things, you’re still seeing tons of changes at the breakdown.
“We don’t want it to be 99-88 — not basketball, and I hear that in the media from some coaches — but we also don’t want 9-3, so we have to find a balance in how we run the game.
“But there are a lot of Saints fans who are happy at this point.”
Northampton scored 11 tries in the defeat in attack, with Sleightholme scoring a hat-trick and Fin Smith, Tommy Freeman (two), Fraser Dingwall, James Pater, Josh Kemeny, Alex Mitchell and Alex Coles also crossing.
Tom Carr-Smith, Charlie Griffin, Archie Griffin, Arthur Green (two), Santi Carreras and Josh Bayliss replied for Bath’s over.
Their director of rugby, Johann van Graan, said: “I thought both teams started with a lot of speed.
“We scored some good tries, they scored some good tries, we scored the extra point in the 33rd minute, and one of the themes of the game was that we gave them a lot of tries through our mistakes.
“We’re up 29-26 at halftime, we’re shooting in the second half, we’re up 10 points, we came out of the scrum contest, we dunked the ball and they kicked it out, so we gave them a lot of turnovers.
“In minutes 50 to 60 we lost a penalty and in the end in 80 minutes we received two yellow cards (for Bayliss and Ollie Lawrence), which cost us.
“In the end, they punished us for our mistakes. We’ve had some fantastic battles over the years and they outplayed us in the last 20 minutes of the game.”