Saints give Lawes perfect farewell with final victory

Let the Saints be canonised again. A decade on from their last Premiership triumph, Northampton are champions of England once more, Courtney Lawes hoisting the trophy aloft before heading to France with one last special Twickenham memory to savour.

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

Northampton 25

Bath 21

Lawes bids adieu after 17 years of sterling service that have seen him evolve from a lithe lock into the most complete blindside flanker in the world. This was a farewell said in fitting fashion to a legend of club and country.

And how Northampton needed his calm and character to survive a final that eddied this way and that. The contest may not have hit the heights some expected, but any fears that the encounter would be flattened by Beno Obano’s 20th-minute dismissal were misplaced. How Bath, down to 14 men for an hour, battled, their brains and bravery unquestioned, even if they were ultimately defeated.

Come the last, George Hendy was Northampton’s unlikely hero, conjuring a wonder try before ripping the ball free from Bath hands in the corner to seal a hard-fought victory that Saints will celebrate long into the summer. This may not have been a performance that they will remember fondly, but there can be no denying they merit this title having led the way for so much of the season and having ended a Saracens era in their semifinal.

The nerves of a rare Twickenham trip seemed to play on the minds of two sides recently untested on this stage. Even Bath’s Finn Russell, who has previously patrolled this place like his own palace, struggled to settle in the opening 20 minutes, the Scottish fly-half’s first strike from the tee an ugly duckling that landed somewhat short and left of the posts.