Premiership: Saracens 53-10 Bath

Chris Ashton has now scored six tries in 10 Premiership matches this season

Chris Ashton scored twice as champions Saracens ran in eight tries to hammer Bath at Allianz Park.

Ashton dived over with his signature swallow celebration in a dominant second half from the home side, where Shalk Brits, Brad Barritt and Billy Vunipola also crossed.

That added to first-half tries by Jamie George, Alex Goode and Sean Maitland.

Bath could only manage a single try through Anthony Watson as they suffered their third straight defeat.

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Having been competitive in the opening 40 minutes, Bath were overwhelmed in the second period and now sit three points behind fourth-placed Leicester, whom they meet in two weeks' time at Twickenham.

Saracens kept up their pursuit of a home semi-final and now lie just a point behind Exeter in second.

After George had driven over a rolling maul inside four minutes, Goode began and finished the try of the afternoon.

He freed Ashton, whose inside break sent Saracens into the 22, the move flowed towards the left-hand touchline and Goode dived over in the corner.

Ashton, who is joining Toulon in the summer, scored his two tries in the final 10 minutes as the Bath defence tired.

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:

"Chris was really good, you could see what a clever rugby player he is. He did a lot of things in the game that people don't give him credit for in terms of the attacking kicks used and where he pops up.

"Sean Maitland on our other wing was also good and the two of them gave performances that Warren Gatland might be interested in.

"It was a really good performance. It was a bit mixed in the first 50 minutes - we started well into a strong wind.

"The bench came on and did a fantastic job and we just took our game to a different level in that last half hour. We are going to need that against Glasgow."

Bath director of rugby Todd Blackadder:

"That was really disappointing and it's a low, but I believe we're a better team than that, we just need to show it.

"I think we're mentally strong enough, but you might look at the second half and say no at times. It didn't look like we had a lot of fight when we were going backwards.

"The answers are always within the room. We're not panicking or throwing any playbooks out, but we can't afford any more slip ups.

"Our season isn't over, although this was one of our worst performances. Destiny is still in our hands."

Saracens: Goode; Ashton, Bosch, Barritt, Maitland; Farrell, Wigglesworth; M Vunipola, George, Figallo, Itoje, Hamilton, Rhodes, Wray, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Brits, Lamositele, Koch, Brown, Conlon, H Taylor, Lozowski, D Taylor.

Bath: Watson; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Tapuai, Banahan; Ford, Fotuali'i; Catt, Batty, Lahiff, Ewels, Charteris, Ellis, Louw, Faletau.

Replacements: Brooker, Obano, Palmer-Newport, Stooke, Grant, Cook, Hastings, Homer.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU)

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