Saturday 30 April 2016 20:58, UK
Stephen Myler's 72nd minute conversion ultimately sealed a 15-14 victory over Bath for Northampton, but Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder admitted he had come close to replacing the fly-half.
Two Jeff Williams scores inside the opening 20 minutes against the run of play put the home side on the back foot as they went into the interval 14-0 down.
But they scored 15 unanswered points in the second period, with man-of-the-match Teimana Harrison and Mike Haywood touching down either side of a Myler penalty, before the 31-year-old nailed his 72nd-minute conversion to
steal the win.
And Mallinder was left breathing a sigh of relief after the final whistle, as he revealed he came close to removing Myler from the action.
"It was similar to the Leicester game last week, conceding two tries out of the blue," he said. "We were attacking and then we lost two tries and were suddenly 14-0 down.
"But we talked about them having a big set of forwards and tiring in the second half, so we wanted to keep putting them under pressure and thankfully we got the results.
"I was worried all the way through from the first minute to the last to be honest. But we've seen Myler time and time again kick goals like that.
"We were thinking about bringing JJ Hanrahan on to change things up and bring a freshness, but we always had the thought that Stephen was in the groove kicking-wise, and we did well to keep him on.
"I said a few weeks ago that (Teimana) should be in for the full England tour. His carrying is unbelievable. He's not the biggest person physically but he plays well above his weight."
Bath came close to notching their first win at the Gardens since 2000, but Mike Ford was left ruing yet another missed opportunity with his side's ruthless finishing of last season deserting them once again.
He said: "We just lost our composure where we wouldn't have done that last year. It's an issue and one we've got to get right for next season.
"We've been competitive all year, but clearly our confidence of winning those small margin games like today has been tough.
"You can analyse too much and start thinking everything's wrong. Once we couldn't make the top six, we took a deep breath and we've played some good rugby in the past few weeks.
"It's difficult to put your finger on it and there are different factors, but I'm confident that this club will be there or thereabouts next year."
