Premiership: Saracens 37-31 Bath - Sarries return to top after beating bottom side

Saracens's victory against Bath ensures they maintain their 100% record in the competition

Saracens returned to the top of the table after overcoming bottom side Bath in a Premiership thriller.

An early Alex Goode try and three Owen Farrell penalties - all of which came after a Matt Gallagher try and Orlando Bailey penalty for Bath - put Sarries 16-10 up at the break.

Further Max Malins, Elliot Daly and Alex Lewington tries were enough to seal Sarries a bonus-point win.

But scores from Joe Cokanasiga, Max Ojomoh and Wesley White made it tense.

Victory maintains Saracens' 100% record intact, while Bath are left winless at the bottom of the table after six games.

England centre Ollie Lawrence, whose Bath debut came as a loan player after arriving from crisis club Worcester earlier in the month, made his latest start for the Blue, Black and Whites after signing a "long-term deal" with the club after his Warriors contract was terminated.

Forward Fergus Lee-Warner, another Worcester player signed by Bath during the period of financial turmoil at Sixways, came off the bench to make his debut.

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Goode, who joined Maro Itoje in the starting line-up after returning from injury, gave Sarries the ideal start with a dummy and finish out wide for the game's first try inside three minutes.

A fine piece of skill from Gallagher, to collect his own kick over Saracens' defence saw the competition's bottom side hit back minutes later.

Bailey levelled the scores with the ensuing conversion before then slotting a penalty to give the visitors a surprise lead.

Three Farrell penalties to finish the half ensured the hosts led at the break, with Malins adding to the advantage with a try immediately after the interval.

A rampaging run from Lawrence set Cokanasiga up for a stunning reply, but D'Arcy Rae's sin-binning for a high tackle on Ben Earl two minutes later hurt Bath's chances, with Daly and Lewington both going over against the undermanned visitors.

Ojomoh made an immediate impact off the bench to grab Bath's third try and, after Lawrence had a score ruled out by the television match official for a knock-on in the build up, White helped make it a six-point game when he drove over close range.

While Bath continued to heap pressure on with their strong finish, Saracens held on.

'A game we could have lost' - Reaction

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:

"It was a game that shows the Premiership is incredibly competitive and if your attitude is not what it needs to be, you can get pulled into a game that we could have easily lost.

"Whether we deserved to lose or not, I'm not sure, but it's a game we could have lost. It was a very disappointing performance.

"It manifests itself in certain things. You look at how often we were turned over at the breakdown today and I think we had a lot of players that were happy to do the comfortable and big stuff, but not the small stuff that everybody needs to do."

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan:

"This was our best performance away from home, we are very disappointed not to come away with five points.

"We said last week we need to be better - and we certainly were.

"Over the last six rounds we have been the stronger team finishing every weekend. We are getting fitter, getting better conditioned and players are working very hard and believe in what we do."

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Saracens: Goode; Malins, Daly, Lozowski, Lewington; Farrell, Van Zyl; Mawi, Pifeleti, Riccioni; Itoje, Tizard, McFarland, Wray, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Dan, Flynn, Judge, Christie, Earl, de Haas, M Vunipola, Hallett.

Bath: Gallagher; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Redpath, McConnochie; Bailey, Schreuder; Schoeman, Dunn, Stuart; Attwood, Roux, Bayliss, Reid, De Carpentier.

Replacements: Annett, Cordwell, Rae, Lee-Warner, White, Carr-Smith, Worboys, Ojomoh.

Referee: Luke Pearce.