Courtney Lawes was delighted to have a fairytale ending to his 17 years of service at his boyhood club, skippering Northampton Saints to their first Premiership title since 2014.
Northampton scrum-half Alex Mitchell scored the winning try with seven minutes remaining after Bath had come from behind to lead despite the dismissal of prop Beno Obano for a high tackle 21 minutes in.
Lawes, who now departs for French Pro D2 side Brive after making 283 appearances across 17 seasons since joining Northampton as an 18-year-old, admitted his side were far from their best but the England centurion revelled in his dream ending.
He said: “I’m still livid from the game, I don’t think we could’ve played any worse but what a way to go out. I’m over the moon. Seeing these lads grow, especially this year, has been really special.
“I’ve been on both sides of it and sometimes when you receive a red card it can galvanise you as all of the pressure goes onto the team with 15. We didn’t fire on all cylinders but we did enough to win and that’s all that matters. Finn Russell is such a good player and Bath were a great team today putting us under a lot of pressure.
“This is huge for me. I couldn’t have thought of a better way to go out. We didn’t go all the way in Europe but the amount of growth we’ve had this season is second to none. This is definitely the most talented, high potential team I’ve ever been a part of at Saints.
“I owe a lot to the club, an awful lot actually, and it’s always my pleasure and my honour to come out on that pitch and I’m delighted that I was able to do that for one final time.”
Bath fly-half Finn Russell was distraught at the full-time whistle as his side came up short despite a mammoth display with 14 men but is excited about the club’s future.
He said: “It’s not sunk in yet. We can be really proud of the performance in those circumstances. I’d imagine 20 minutes in people would have written us off especially after a couple of quick tries but today showed the character we’ve built this season and the belief. This shows what we’ve got to look forward to in the next few seasons.
“It’s tough to take but it’s a performance we’re proud of. After the red card we had to deal with the situation in front of us, in those times you’ve got to adapt and you’ve got to grow. It’s tough for Beno but the courage and bravery shown was outstanding.”
George Hendy became the first ever replacement to win the player of the match award in a Premiership final and the 21-year-old couldn’t believe the impact he made coming off the bench to assist the match winning try, as well as securing a vital turnover at the death.
He said: “My emotions are all over the place. Before the game they were full of nerves but now I don’t really even know what to think. We tried to continue to be us and we didn’t want to change the way we played all season. We knew that by the end of the 80 minutes if we had put our game onto the pitch we would be happy. It’s even better we got the result.
“If you would have told me at the end of last year how this season would go, I would have bitten your hand off and called you a liar. All I can do is be thankful for the opportunity and all the other lads because this has been a full 60-man effort.”
Saints DoR Phil Dow-son said: “It was on a knife edge with 60 minutes gone and as a coaching group, we were scratching our heads because all the momentum was with Bath.
“With 10 minutes to go, we got a little bit of magic from George Hendy and we went up a gear. We managed to get a bit of momentum and we managed to get some ball out of the breakdown and that just about got us over the line.”
Bath head coach Johann van Graan said: “What a game of rugby from our side, we were tough to beat today but congratulations to Saints, I can’t be more proud of my team. To play for 60 minutes with 14 men in a final makes it extremely difficult but we are one group united, we’ll stick around Beno Obano.”
Northampton prop Alex Waller, playing his last game at the club after 15 years, said: “It wasn’t our best performance of the year by any stretch, but hey, a win’s a win and I’ll take that as my last ever game. I’m going to celebrate and then disappear into the sunset.”
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