ON-THE-WHISTLE MATCH REPORT: Bath Rugby 32-30 Northampton Saints

Rhys Priestland's last-gasp penalty earned Bath Rugby the spoils in a ding-dong battle at the Recreation Ground which also saw Semesa Rokoduguni score a try on his 100th appearance for the Blue, Black and White.

Priestland, who is Bath Rugby's kicker while fly-half George Ford is away on Six Nations duty with England, made himself the hero in the dying seconds to prove that, even if Ford departs Bath for Leicester in the near future, the club will do just fine without him.

Bath raced into a 5-0 lead at the Recreation Ground on Friday night when Paul Grant scored the opening try for the hosts after just ten minutes after good carrying work from Max Lahiff and Tom Dunn. Rhys Priestland could not convert, however.

It briefly looked like the Welshman would live to regret that missed kick when Northampton overturned the score to make it 5-6 via two penalties (in minutes 16 and 25) from Stephen Meyler.

The Blue, Black and White would soon restore their winning position though. First, in the 28th minute, Rokoduguni scored a landmark try - his 48th after a century of outings for the Somerset-based club. Priestland converted this time for 12-6.

Four minutes later Bath were awarded a penalty try, which Priestland convered again to make the score 19-6 in favour of the home side.

On the stroke of half-time Meyler scored his and Northampton's third penalty of the match to keep the Saints marching on at 19-9.

Just two minutes into the second half Priestland extended Bath's 13-point advantage with a penalty of his own but Northampton kept the pressure on throughout.

On the hour mark, Northampton added heat to an ice-cold night at the Rec when Ben Foden went over in the corner for a try that Meyler converted. 22-16.

Substitute Kane Palma-Newport was sin-binned on the 66-minute mark for an offence at the breakdown and Northampton capitalised on being a man up.

Three minutes later Api Ratuniyarawa scored a try to make the score 22-21 but Meyler was spot-on with his conversion kick to have the game in Northampton's favour at 22-23.

With nine minutes to go though another substitute, Chris Cook, swung the game back in Bath's favour. Cook did superbly to kick the ball over a Northampton defender and he had enough pace to latch onto the ball to score the try, which Priestland converted for 29-23.

Northampton refused to give up the gun though and Jamie Gibson added his name to scoresheet with five minutes left via a try of his own. Meyler's impressive kicking game continued and the one-point match was back Northampton's way at 29-30.

There was still time for even more late drama. Priestland missed a 78th-minute penalty which would have made it 32-30 but he missed, much to the disappointment of those rooting on Todd Blackadder's men. 

That agony did not last long though as Priestland atoned for his earlier error, kicking a penalty between the posts with the last touch of the game to earn Bath the points.