Northampton and Bath were well beaten over the weekend: will Leicester or Exeter force themselves into the top two?
T
here are small but significant moments in every league campaign. Until the weekend it was widely assumed that Northampton and Bath, the two frontrunners in the English Prem, were all but nailed on for home semi-finals and, by extension, would almost certainly meet in the grand final at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham on 20 June.
That could still happen but, suddenly, others are entering the chat. Not only did Saints and Bath lose at the weekend but both were well beaten, 41-17 by Leicester and 35-12 by Exeter respectively. Bath, including their Champions Cup semi-final in Bordeaux, have lost three games on the trot. Northampton were not so much batted aside by the Tigers as unceremoniously flattened.
A deeper dive into the historical stats also unearths some interesting nuggets. The last time Bath lost two consecutive league games under Johann van Graan was in October 2023, when a clutch of players were at the World Cup in France. Northampton, meanwhile, have never conceded as many points away against their East Midlands rivals’ ground in the league as they did on Saturday. The burning question is whether all this is just a blip, or an indicator of something deeper?
