Bath Rugby v Saracens Saturday 3^rd May 6pm

Current Form

·        Two teams meet in Saturday’s televised game after experiencing different emotions as a result of last weekend’s European semi-finals.

·        Bath triumphed in the Challenge Cup against Sale at the Rec last Saturday to book their place in the Final and become the first team ever to play in successive Finals. After losing to Wasps in 2003 and Clermont Auvergne in 2007 they will be looking for a win at the third time of asking when they meet Worcester on 25^th May. Similar to Worcester, Bath could not attract their Guinness Premiership average crowd of over 10000 and had to settle for a disappointing 8216.

·        Back in the Premiership, Bath won at Worcester last time out and are second in the table, 3 points behind leaders Gloucester. They must win on Saturday to give themselves the chance of a home play-off place when they visit Kingsholm on the last day of the season.

·        Bath have played 10 matches at home this season, winning 9 and losing to London Wasps.

·        Saracens put in a fantastic 80 minutes of rugby and pushed Munster all the way before going down 18-16 in Sunday’s Heineken Cup semi-final at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

·        They lost to Wasps in a high scoring Premiership match a week last Sunday and now find themselves in 8^th spot in the league. After the highs of this season’s Heineken Cup, they will be playing in the European Challenge Cup next season.

·        Saracens have played 10 matches away from home this season, winning 4 and losing 6.  

History

·        Bath and Saracens have met 25 times in the league since 1995.

·        Bath have won 11 and Saracens 12 with 2 matches ending in draws.

·        The 2 draws have been the last 2 matches played at the Rec.

·        Matches played at Bath have been very even with Bath winning 5, Saracens 5 and the 2 draws.

·        Saracens beat Bath 26-20 at Vicarage Road in January.

Trends and Trivia

·        Bath have won 14 matches from 20 played this season, the most by any team in the Premiership.

·        In the last 8 seasons they have only won more than 14 matches in a season once, in 2003/04 when they finished top of the league table with 18 wins from 22 matches.

·        Bath have scored 50 tries in the Premiership this season. The last time they scored more was in 2000/01 when they scored 72.

·        21 of Bath’s 50 tries this season have been scored by their wingers, the most in the division.

·        Bath have only conceded 11 tries in the first-half of their matches in the Premiership this season, the fewest by any team. They have only conceded 3 tries in total in the opening 20 minutes of their 20 matches which is incredible.

·        The forward pack of the opposition have only scored 5 tries against Bath this season, the lowest number conceded by any club in the competition.

·        Olly Barkley has scored 136 points for Bath this season. He was also their top points scorer in 2001/02 with 129, 2002/03 with 155, 2003/04 with 219 and 2006/07 with 185.

·        Matt Banahan has scored 9 tries for Bath in this season’s Premiership and is level with Lesley Vainikolo and Tom Varndell as the league’s leading try scorers. The last Bath player to score the Premiership’s most tries in a season was Iain Balshaw in 1999/00.

·        Michael Claassens, Peter Short and Shaun Berne have all played in 19 of Bath’s 20 Premiership matches this season.

·        Bath’s average home gate in the Premiership this season is 10446. They have had a 10600 capacity crowd 7 times and their lowest attendance was 10010 for the opening game against Worcester.

·        Heineken Cup and EDF Energy Cup semi-finals apart, Saracens have had a pretty average season in the Guinness Premiership winning 10 and losing 10 of their 20 matches to date.

·        Saracens have scored 52 tries in the Premiership this season. They scored 56 last season which they could beat and record their highest number of tries scored in a season since scoring 63 in 2000/01.

·        Saracens have scored 10 tries from the full back position this season, the most by any team in the league.

·        Saracens and Bath have this season won the most rucks in the Premiership, made the most passes in the Premiership, made the most clean breaks and gained the most metres.

·        Glen Jackson has scored 175 points for Saracens in the Premiership this season and only Charlie Hodgson has scored more. He was the Premiership’s top scorer last season with 272 and if he was leading scorer this season he would be only the second player after Andy Goode in 2003/04 and 2004/05 to top the points in consecutive seasons. Goode scored 115 of his 266 points in 2003/04 for Saracens.

·        Adam Powell and Francisco Leonelli have both scored 6 tries in the Premiership for Saracens this season. Leonelli has only played in 10 matches and failed to score in his first 8. He has scored hat-tricks in his last 2 matches, against Leeds and London Wasps at home, and is the only player to score 3 tries in a Premiership game twice this season.

·        Rodd Penney and Ben Skirving have both played in 19 of Saracens’ 20 Premiership matches this season. Kris Chesney did not play in the last Premiership match against London Wasps and he has played 18 this season. He has now made 196 appearances in the Premiership and is one behind Simon Shaw of London Wasps in the race to become the first player to appear in 200 Premiership matches.