Ten-try Bath rout 14-man Saracens for record win

Winger Will Muir scored three of Bath's 10 tries against Saracens

Gallagher Premiership

Bath (28) 68

Tries: Penalty, Du Toit, Redpath, Muir 3, Cokanasiga 2, Underhill, Lawrence Cons: Russell 8

Saracens (3) 10

Try: Pifeleti Con: Burke Pen: Burke

Bath opened a five-point gap at the top of the Premiership with a crushing 10-try victory against 14-man Saracens at the Recreation Ground.

The hosts were awarded an early penalty try, before Sarries saw flanker Toby Knight sent off for a high tackle on 14 minutes and gradually crumbled.

Will Muir then scored a hat-trick, alongside two from Joe Cokanasiga, as Bath did not relent to clinch a record Premiership victory against Saracens.

Thomas du Toit, Cameron Redpath, Sam Underhill and Ollie Lawrence also got on the scoreboard for Bath as they contained Saracens to just one try from Kapeli Pifeleti.

Bath have now won their past six Premiership matches and move 10 points clear of their opponents in fourth, and five clear of second-placed Bristol to underline their credentials as title contenders at the halfway point of the campaign.

Defeat for Saracens is their third in five games away from home this season and the Londoners' trip to the Rec was compounded by a squad quickly knocked out of shape through injuries and indiscipline.

Within minutes, Bath's Alfie Barbeary chased his own kick to leave Saracens' defence scrambling and ceding possession within a sniff of their own line.

Bath fly-half Finn Russell eventually launched a pinpoint cross-field kick towards Cokanasiga in the corner as the waves of Bath pressure continued, and with Saracens full-back Liam Williams beaten in the air, the Wales international knocked the ball into touch and was shown a yellow card, with a penalty try awarded to the hosts.

Saracens' woes continued as flanker Theo McFarland and winger Tobias Elliott hobbled off injured to force them into more early changes, and they saw a Ben Earl try scratched off due to Gareth Simpson's final pass going forward.

Saracens were down to 14 men after only 14 minutes following Toby Knight's red card

But the turning point came only 14 minutes in when flanker Knight was shown a straight red for a shoulder to the head tackle on Lawrence.

Bath scored their second try immediately from the restart following three carries capped off by Du Toit, who powered over under the posts.

Fergus Burke kicked a penalty at the other end to put Saracens on the board. Yet after another penalty went against the visitors and Bath kicked to the corner, when the ball was recycled wide, Scotland playmaker Russell's split-second delay before passing to compatriot Redpath opened a gap for the centre to dart over.

Muir added the bonus point before half-time, as Ben Spencer ran down the blindside from a scrum to catch Saracens unawares before passing to the winger, who sprinted over a tackle into the corner.

Bath were at their relentless best and a stylish behind-the-back pass from Lawrence set up Cokanasiga, who had acres of space to run into the corner.

Muir then claimed their sixth try, galloping again into the corner. And after boss Johann van Graan rang the changes, Underhill weaved left and right and stretched over for a seventh.

Saracens did eventually get over the Bath try line on 66 minutes through Pifeleti but it was little consolation on an afternoon to forget for the visitors.

The win was sealed but Bath still had plenty in the tank as the clock ran down, running in three more tries in the final eight minutes.

Lawrence grabbed the first, chasing the ball in after a kick was charged down, before Muir clinched his hat-trick and Cokanasiga added a 10th try to end Bath's 2024 on a soaring high.

'We must run our own race' - reaction

Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan said:

"At half-time we said 'let's be ruthless in the second half' and we won the second half by 40-7, 10 tries to one. Really happy with the performance.

"Red cards are very difficult, I've got a lot of respect for Mark [McCall] and Jamie [George] and Maro [Itoje] the captain at Saracens, our big thing was to focus on ourselves and not get distracted.

"For me, the telling bit was the last five minutes where we kept going at them and kept wanting to score more. I saw a lot of very happy people at the Rec and that's our main aim, to get better each week.

"The last 24 hours showed us again we must run our own race. You're never as good as they say, never as bad as they say. Long way to go to the end of May and we'll just keep focussing on ourselves."

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said:

"Effectively we were 14 men the whole game and those injuries just made life difficult for us as well.

"To lose Theo McFarland, who's one of your line-out operators, so early, with Toby Knight having been sent off, made life quite difficult.

"Lots of fight from the players but that fight became more individual as the game wore on which sometimes can happen and they were able to take advantage of that.

"That doesn't reflect anything that I've seen so far this year and it's only a problem if you don't do something about it."

Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Redpath, Muir; Russell, Spencer (c); Obano, Dunn, Du Toit, Roux, Ewels, Hill, Pepper, Barbeary.

Replacements: Annett, Van Wyk, Stuart, Molony, Underhill, Schreuder, Ojomoh, Reid.

Saracens: Williams; Elliott, Lozowski, Hartley, Segun; Burke, Simpson; Brantingham, George, Balmain, Itoje (c), Isiekwe, McFarland, Knight, Earl.

Replacements: Pifeleti, Mawi, Clarey, Wilson, Michelow, Van Zyl, Spink, Hall.

Sin bin: Liam Williams (4 mins)

Red card: Toby Knight (14 mins)

Referee: Karl Dickson