Will Muir grabs hat-trick as Bath pour on style in demolition of sloppy Saracens
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It looks increasingly likely that when the fog of winter lifts, Bath will emerge top of the pile, perfectly placed to launch an assault on the Premiership playoffs. Saracens travelled west aiming to make it four wins from four in December, but were dismissed with contemptuous ease by Johann van Graan’s finely-tuned side. The visitors’ cause was not helped by a pair of early cards, one yellow and one red, but Bath were dominant in achieving their biggest-ever Premiership win against Saracens, with Will Muir scoring a hat-trick.
![[Bath’s Joe Cokanasiga keeps the try tap flowing with their ninth against Saracens]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5ed9d336c58aa2e9e320dd546cfa018a99eba672/105_412_5040_3024/master/5040.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The bonus-point success sends them clear at the top, halfway through the season, and it would be a shock if they do not pay a second straight visit to Twickenham next June. Liam Williams, the visiting full-back, was sent to the sin bin after four minutes and Toby Knight, Saracens’ openside, was sent off for a high tackle on Ollie Lawrence 10 minutes later. That was yet another a split-second defensive misjudgement that resulted in another regrettably unbalanced contest. But it could be argued Bath had already taken a grip on the match, with the cards reflecting the fact, and that certainly applied to the earlier Williams incident.
The self-styled professional bomb defuser saw no option but to pat a sensational, swerving cross-kick by Finn Russell into touch with Joe Cokanasiga lurking behind him. It was both sensible and cynical, and a penalty try after four minutes resulted. Mark McCall, the Saracens director of rugby, had made seven changes and that first score had stemmed from an error by Tobias Elliott under a high kick from the outstanding Ben Spencer.
