GLEN JACKSON came off the bench to engineer a rousing fight-back that saw Saracens rescue two bonus points against Bath on Saturday.

Introduced for the last quarter with the Men in Black starring down the barrel at 37-18, Jackson, making his debut after signing from Bay of Plenty, scored one try and had a hand in another to move Sarries to within an ace of recording a second successive Zurich Premiership tie.

A thrilling break from Ben Skirving almost saw Sarries pull off a miraculous fight-back, but, in the end, they had left themselves too much to do and were forced to settle for the consolation of two bonus points for scoring four tries and losing by a margin of seven or less.

Although Kafer will have been heartened by the sparkling performance of Jackson and the courageous nature of the comeback, he will have been bitterly disappointed with his side's defensive performance. Sarries boasted the third best defensive record in the league prior to Saturday's enthralling match but, without defence coach Mike Ford, away on international duty with Ireland, they conceded four tries in a match for the first time this season.

The first arrived after just eight minutes when Frekkie Welsh, the South African making his debut for Bath, skipped past a weak tackle from Richard Haughton and then cut inside Robbie Kydd to score.

Sarries hit back on 13 minutes when Matt Cairns disrupted a Bath line-out and captain Hugh Vyvyan strolled over to score, and, three minutes later, they were ahead when a trademark cross-field kick from Mark Bartholomeusz landed straight into the hands of Kydd who scored with ease.

Kydd kicked the conversion and then swapped penalties with Chris Malone, but Sarries then handed Bath their second try of the afternoon on 31 minutes when a over-ambitious pass from Bartholomeusz bounced nicely into the path of Andrew Higgins, who hacked on to score under the posts.

Kydd smacked over a penalty to reduce the arrears, but Malone landed a drop goal and a penalty to put Bath in control at half-time.

The visitors then looked out of sight when tries from Welsh and England World Cup winner Mike Tindall in the third quarter put them 19 points to the good, but the introduction of Jackson for Bartholomeusz sparked Sarries into life.

It took the fly-half just six minutes to mark his debut with a try and he then turned provider on 74 minutes with an incisive break that led to a try for his impressive half-back partner Mosese Rauluni.

Jackson kicked the straight-forward conversion to reduce the deficit to just seven and it was his kick for touch, after storming runs from Randell and then Skirving, in the third minute of injury-time that gave Sarries a position in which to secure a draw.

But by hook or by crook, Bath held on and Sarries' sense of frustration, most notably at the performance of the official, was summed up when the normally mild-mannered Vyvyan hurled the ball into the turf at the final whistle.

For a comprehensive match report, plus interviews with Glen Jackson and Cobus Visagie, don't miss Friday's edition of the Watford Observer.