1
Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper believes his side have put their dismal European campaign behind them after an emphatic 38-10 victory over London Irish.
ADVERTISEMENT
The west country side were out of sight by half-time at the Madejski Stadium, scoring five tries before the break courtesy of Beno Obano, Will Chudley, Anthony Watson, Semesa Rokoduguni and a penalty try.
Tom Homer’s second-half score was icing on the cake and the win lifts Bath to seventh in the Gallagher Premiership table, leapfrogging ninth-placed Irish.
The manner of the victory was the perfect tonic to a poor Champions Cup challenge, where Bath have lost all four of their games so far in Pool Four and are already eliminated with two rounds to go.
“There’s been lots of discussion externally and internally, but the lads have been absolutely spot on,” said Hooper.
“There’s a huge amount of belief among this group about what we’re doing and where we are going.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We always knew there was going to be some serious challenges over the last month, and today was no different. It was great to see the lads go out then and deliver, and it’s all come off the back of some really hard work.
“The Champions Cup group was always going to be tricky for us, but we can now focus on the Premiership.
“We’ll turn around the learning from today before tomorrow morning, and the preparation for Sale will start as soon as the guys come in in the morning for their recovery.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Hooper also played down injuries to England wing Watson and flanker Sam Underhill, both of whom left the field before full-time.
“He (Watson) got a slight niggle towards the end, but we’ve managed him carefully and he’s also looked after himself the right way,” he added.
What an incredible highlight reel this is on the Welsh youngster.
The cousin of
@taulupe@bvunipola
@mako_vunipolaA serious rugby prospect! #WelshRugbyhttps://t.co/weqmiIAPtv
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 22, 2019
“With regards to Sam, again we took him off because of a slight knock but he’s absolutely fine and he’ll be OK for next weekend.”
In contrast, London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney warned his side they need to sharpen up or they could be quickly sucked into a relegation battle.
Irish have won two of their six Premiership matches since returning to the top flight but Kidney admits they were taught a harsh lesson after starting slowly.
“If you don’t start right in games like this – we knew they’d be raring to go with the tough start they’d had – you make it very difficult on yourselves,” said Kidney, whose team scored a consolation try through Adam Coleman.
“The first half just wasn’t us, and they won pretty much every collision. It’s easy to write this off as ‘one of those days’ but there’s things that happened today that were in our control and if we don’t fix them, ‘this kind of day’ will happen again.
“We have ground to make up now, but because of the way the season has been truncated so far, it only feels like the league is beginning now.”
Press Association
Comments on RugbyPass
Will rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
2 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
2 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
3 Go to comments