Bath 25-14 Northampton

Bath (13) 25
Tries: Banahan, Claassens 2 Cons: James 2 Pens: James 2

Northampton (6) 14
Try: Kruger Pens: Myler 3

Claassens wriggles clear of the Saints defence to go over for a try

Two second-half Michael Claassens tries helped Bath beat Northampton and return to the top of the Premiership after London Irish lost earlier in the day.

The home side led 13-9 at the break after Matt Banahan's second-minute try.

But scrum-half Claassens crossed after 54 and 74 minutes with Butch James converting one of the two tries to set Bath on their way to victory.

Lock Juandre Kruger crossed in the corner in the final minute but it was little consolation for Northampton.

Banahan gave Bath the perfect start when he latched onto James's grubber kick for the opening try, although the fly-half missed with the conversion.

Stephen Myler put Northampton on the board with a penalty on 14 minutes only for James to reply almost immediately.

Dylan Hartley was held just short of the line on 19 minutes but when Bath prop David Flatman was penalised at the resulting scrum, Myler made it 10-6 with his second penalty, only for James to extend his side's lead after the visitors were offside at a ruck.

Myler pulled the score back to 13-9 soon after the restart with a 45m penalty before Bath worked their way towards the visitors' line and Claassens dived through a gap and stretched out an arm to score.

James could not convert but after Bath introduced Justin Harrison and Daniel Browne off the bench they suddenly had the advantage up front and it was Northampton who were struggling.

Claassens claimed his second try off the back of a scrum six minutes from time and James converted but Saints had the final say when Kruger collected Myler's chip to go over.

Bath head coach Steve Meehan:

"I don't think we will be overly pleased with that performance. There were improvements in certain areas compared with last weekend's win over Sale.

"Individually there were some fine performances but there is more to work on.

"That was the best performance by Claassens for some weeks. He's like an extra back rower in that he has the ability to get to the breakdown but he's been looking for scoring opportunities. His tries today, though, were also the result of good work by his forwards."

Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder:

"If you look at the tries, their first was a bit soft. In the first 15 minutes today we weren't quite at the races.

"It was frustrating to come away with nothing. It's little things - every time we scored we then seemed to concede. But Bath are a good side with good strong forwards."

Bath: Cuthbert; Maddock, Crockett, Hape, Banahan; James, Claassens; Flatman, Mears, Stevens, Hooper, Short, Beattie, Lipman, Faamatuainu.

Replacements: Fuimaono-Sapolu for Hape (61), Higgins for Banahan (63), Bemand for Claassens (75), Dixon for Mears (68), Bell for Stevens (75), Harrison for Hooper (68), Browne for Faamatuainu (61).

Northampton: Reihana; Diggin, Clarke, Downey, Lamont; Myler, Dickson, Tonga'uiha, Hartley, Murray, Fernandez Lobbe, Kruger, Easter, S Gray, Wilson.

Replacements: Spencer for Myler (70), Foden for Dickson (55), Smith for Tonga'uiha (66), Day for Fernandez Lobbe (66), Hopley for Easter (70).

Not Used: Shields, Mayor.

Att: 10,600

Ref: Andrew Small (RFU).