Tommy Freeman hat-trick topples Bath and sends Northampton to Prem summit
The champions have been mugged at home by the team they deposed.Well, not quite the team.Northampton rung the changes for this match, but the understudies proved the stars of the show to terrorise their hosts.Six tries, a hat-trick for Tommy Freeman and the lead, no less, of the Prem for good measure.The bookies gave Northampton a 20-point head start for this one.
In the end it was Bath who needed it,Bath were at full strength, the Saints some way short of it, but this will surely prove one of the performances of the season,“I’m lost for words,” Freeman said,“There’s been a lot of rotation and a lot of people wrote us off, but we just wanted to leave nothing out there and take every opportunity,”If only they had been allowed to.
Northampton were unlucky not to have won by more, after three tries were ruled out, a couple of them very harshly.Both sides had changed 10 players from their comfortable wins last weekend, but Bath had strengthened their side, while Northampton left a host of first-teamers at home.The Saints are the sort of club whose backup players thrive in this environment.Hard, flexible and above all smart, they seemed to relish their underdog status.The scores were level at the break, but that was something of a travesty, what with those disallowed tries.
Freeman, making his first Prem start since October, was selected at outside centre and scored the first try in only the third minute, picking a superb line off an attacking lineout to stroll over in style.Which was when the officials turned nasty.From the restart, Joe Cokanasiga seemed to tap the ball back.Rory Hutchinson – the epitome of hard, flexible and smart – controlled it expertly to send Edoardo Todaro away.But during the Italy wing’s run-in the touch judge told the referee, Craig Maxwell-Keys, that Cokanasiga’s tap-back was actually a Northampton knock-on.
Maxwell-Keys blew his whistle before the try was scored.A shame they did not wait and then check, because replays suggested the touch judge’s call was wrong.Bath set up a sustained attack from the resultant scrum, and Thomas du Toit was cleverly worked over from a tapped penalty a few minutes later.A 14-0 lead to the visitors thus became 7-7.And then 14-7, when Tom Dunn went over from a second lineout to the corner, in the 15th minute.
Mark McCall hailed Tomos Williams as a “great, great player” after the Wales international underlined the quality that Saracens can expect by shining for Gloucester in a 30-21 Prem defeat against McCall’s team at Kingsholm.The 30-year-old British & Irish Lion created two of Gloucester’s three tries and was a constant threat in a first appearance since Saracens announced their high-profile signing on Christmas Day.“He is a great, great player,” the Saracens rugby director said of Williams (pictured laying the ball off for Arthur Clark's try).“He didn’t really have the best platform today, but everyone can see his quality every time he attacks.”Saracens ended a run of three-successive league defeats by seeing off Gloucester in bonus-point fashion.
The flanker Theo McFarland inspired a first Prem win since mid-October by scoring two of his team’s four tries, while the hooker Theo Dan and the scrum-half Ivan van Zyl also crossed, with the fly-half Owen Farrell kicking two penalties and two conversions,McCall said: “Overall, it was one of our better 80-minute performances,Today was good, but we have had inconsistent days,We could have beaten Bath and we could have beaten Exeter and been in a slightly different position to where we are,Today was important because have lost a few in a row and it was important to come down here and get a result.
”Gloucester had their moments – notably through first-half touchdowns for the locks Freddie Thomas and Clark, plus a late Will Knight try – with Ross Byrne converting all three scores, but they ultimately slipped to a seventh loss from eight Prem games this season.To compound Gloucester’s frustration, they lost wing Ben Loader – a pre-season signing from the South African side the Stormers – after 15 minutes of his comeback game following injury.Gloucester's rugby director, George Skivington, said: “We are creating some pressure and some good line-breaks and then just not finishing them off.That is a sign of not quite connecting – we have not quite got the experience at the moment to get across the line.“On the flipside, the boys stayed in the fight the whole game.
They were desperate to try and get a losing bonus point at the end and never threw the towel in," PA MediaBath looked powerful at that point but not convincing,Early in the second quarter, Northampton, down to 14 after a yellow card for Ed Prowse from a head collision, struck again,Archie McParland found a gap round the fringes and ran to the posts,The excellent Anthony Belleau, in for Fin Smith, landed the conversion to equalise.
Northampton thought they had scored again before the break.Belleau turned the ball inside to George Hendy to launch Freeman at the posts.Callum Chick touched down in the follow-up, but the TMO drew attention to a marginal call at the previous ruck.Whether Beno Obano was impeded in defence of the ruck is a moot point.He did not seem to be aware of it himself.
The pattern continued into the second half,Bath scored a third try – Du Toit again, from a tapped penalty again – and Northampton had a third disallowed,Hutchinson’s try was awarded initially,This time the TMO rightly drew attention to the fact Hutchinson was inches short,Bath De Glanville (Carreras 57); Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh (Harris 31), Arundell; Russell, Spencer (capt; Carr-Smith 72); Obano (Van Wyk 57), Dunn (Frost 65), Du Toit (Griffin 65), Roux (Hill 57), Molony, Bayliss (Pepper 57), Underhill, ReidSin-bin Frost 66Tries Du Toit 2, Dunn Cons Russell 3Northampton Hendy; Todaro, Freeman, Hutchinson (Lumley 77), Ramm (Sleightholme 74); Belleau, McParland (James 77); Iyogun, Smith (Walker 67), Davison (Millar Mills 62), Prowse, Munga, Chick (capt), Graham, PollockSin-bin Prowse 13Tries Freeman 3, McParland, Pollock 2 Cons Belleau 4 Pen BelleauReferee Craig Maxwell-KeysThereafter, the Saints were anything but short.
They were imperious.Bath twisted and turned in the storm of running rugby unleashed about them for the final half an hour.Freeman had his second after more sumptuous approach play, before Henry Pollock scored the bonus-point try in spectacular style.Henry Arundell was somehow forced to spill the ball on the attack by Chick, the Saints’ understated captain, and Hendy was away on the counter, finding their less understated back-row forward in support.Bath fell away.
Pollock was over again, from an attacking lineout with 15 minutes to play, before Freeman’s coup de grace,At the end of more free-flowing rugby, Freeman almost taunted Cokanasiga, standing up the former England wing and restating his own credentials as the current one,Imperious is the word,The champions were stunned,
Shoppers shun UK high streets despite lure of Boxing Day sales
Fewer shoppers have headed to UK high streets in search of Boxing Day bargains, with central London suffering a significant decline in visitors as many decided to shun the traditional start of the sales.Footfall at the country’s high streets and shopping centres fell on Friday morning, running slightly behind last year, according to figures from the monitoring company MRI Software. Across all UK retail destinations footfall slipped by 0.3%.Following on from a decline in Boxing Day activity in 2024, there were 2
AI boom adds more than half a trillion dollars to wealth of US tech barons in 2025
A stock market boom in artificial intelligence companies has added more than half a trillion dollars to the wealth of America’s tech barons in the past year, data shows.The top 10 US founders and bosses of some of the world’s largest technology companies saw their finances swell to nearly $2.5tn, up from $1.9tn, in the year to Christmas Eve, according to figures from Bloomberg.Elon Musk, already the world’s richest man, has again proved to be one of biggest winners as the AI gold-rush has pushed US stock markets to record highs
How Las Vegas police ended up with a fleet of free Tesla Cybertrucks
The Las Vegas police department rolled out a new fleet of tactical vehicles to city streets last month: all Tesla Cybertrucks. The steel cars, wrapped in black-and-white vinyl, come decked out with warning lights and flashing sirens on the roof. They seem to be heftier, more angular versions of a traditional police car. Las Vegas is the first city in the US to grant its officers access to a battalion of the futuristic trucks, which have become synonymous with the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, the richest person in the world.“They represent something far bigger than just a police car,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a recent press conference showcasing the vehicles
Apple seeks to appeal against £1.5bn ruling it overcharged UK customers
Apple is seeking to overturn a landmark £1.5bn court ruling on behalf of millions of UK customers, which found the company overcharged them for years in its App Store.The iPhone maker has applied to the court of appeal to challenge a verdict that campaigners heralded as the start of a “tidal shift against big tech”.It is one of a cluster of cases heading towards trial in 2026 as consumers realise the mounting cost of paying up to 30% commission – what campaigners call the “Apple tax” – on apps and in-app purchases, which more people rely on for activities from fitness to dating.The appeal, if allowed, involves one of several class action suits against Apple and Google in which consumers, small businesses and entrepreneurs are demanding over £6bn in combined compensation
Bowen and Curtis bag famous home win in Welsh National with Haiti Couleurs
It is seven years and counting since Native River became the last horse trained in Britain to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but the beleaguered home team has conceivably emerged from the first two days of the Christmas programme with not one, but two realistic contenders for next year’s race, after Haiti Couleurs put up a magnificent performance to win the Welsh Grand National here under 11st 13lb on Saturday.Or, as Haiti Couleurs’ connections might prefer it, England has a chance with Friday’s King George winner, The Jukebox Man, and Wales has a shout with Haiti Couleurs, who is trained by Rebecca Curtis in Pembrokeshire and ridden by Sean Bowen, the champion jockey, who was born just down the road from her yard.Bowen gave another demonstration on Haiti Couleurs of what is now his trademark ability to seize the initiative in a race and not let go. His mount was a little free behind the pace on the first circuit, and despite his big weight and the distance still left to travel, Bowen did not hesitate to allow him to stride on into the lead.Haiti Couleurs did not see another rival from there, and there were definite echoes of Native River’s front-running performance under a similar burden in this race in 2016, 15 months before his Gold Cup victory, as the eight-year-old powered clear with O’Connell turning for home and then held him at bay with an unflinching gallop from two out
Bristol survive scare but Newcastle off the mark in Prem as Spencer seals bonus
In the end Bristol had too much. A display of equal parts grit and skill by Newcastle threatened a huge festive upset in the freezing-cold south-west, but two tries by the elusive Louis Rees-Zammit and some classically fluent attacking by Pat Lam’s buoyant team eventually enabled them to overpower their spirited visitors.After the Bears ruined Harlequins’ Christmas at Twickenham last Saturday, sticking 40 points on the London club in Big Game 17, they were widely expected to ease to victory against the Prem’s bottom side, who were yet to muster a bonus point after seven matches. The question seemed to be not if Bristol would win, rather by how many.But the work Newcastle are doing under the head coach, Alan Dickens, now assisted by the former Wales international Stephen Jones, is beginning to bear fruit
Scottish whisky market slides into supply glut amid falling sales and US tariffs
Why my mum’s scotch eggs are my Twixmas essential
Crunchy, tangy and fun: nine summer salad recipes to make this Christmas
No more kitchen martyrs – a guide to sharing the load at Christmas
A meat-free Christmas: Chantelle Nicholson’s French mushroom pie, caramelised pear pud and more
10 of the best Australian sparkling wines for every budget