Bath excellent value for first Champions Cup win since January 2018
Bath got their Investec Champions Cup campaign off to a flyer at The Rec when a powerful second-half showing turned an 8-14 interval deficit into a deserved 37-14 bonus point win against Ulster.
With the hosts on a 10-game losing streak in this tournament stretching back to January 2018, this victory will be seen as massively significant for a club that now has Johann van Grann in charge.
Riding high in the Gallagher Premiership this season, there would have been huge pressure on the league’s second-place team to take their domestic form into Europe and, apart from the four-minute brain fade in the first half where the conceded converted soft tries to Billy Burns and Nathan Doak, they were great value for their success.
They will be especially pleased with how their scrum played its dominant part in the triumph after they recently splashed out to get the surface stitched to make it firmer.
What did for Ulster in the end was the 65th-minute yellow card picked up by Matty Rea, a numerical advantage that helped Bath to score two tries to build on their then 18-14 lead, and they wrapped it all up with a late walk-in with Ulster disillusioned and defensively gone missing.
The high-scoring, seven-try contest was initially one for the purists, though, with plenty of too and from but zero points. A pair of errors from Stewart Moore, as well as the concession of a free at the game’s first scrum, meant Ulster came away empty-handed from their first bout of pressure.
However, Bath lacked precision as well as Finn Russell missed his 14th-minute penalty after Will Muir’s dancing feet had them menacing the try line with a series of pick-and-go.
The stalemate continued for another 13 minutes until the home side finally made the breakthrough. Turning down the option of a kick at the posts, they scrummed down five metres out and, off the back of it, Ben Spencer threw a monster left-to-right pass that had Joe Cokanasiga in at the corner for an unconverted lead.
Their momentum continued. A left-footed Russell chip was gathered by Cameron Redpath whose inside pass was caught and kicked ahead by Spencer, who was only narrowly beaten by Rob Baloucoune in the race to the loose ball as it rolled over the try line.
Bath settled some minutes later for penalty points from Spencer to reward one of numerous rollicking Ollie Lawrence breaks, but the impression that this contest was going all the way of the English side was shattered by two converted Ulster tries in a four-minute spell that will be a video nasty when reviewed by the hosts.
They inexplicably switched off momentarily in defence, Lawrence limply kicking a loose ball instead of diving on it and it deflected off Burns who couldn’t believe his luck as he picked up and ran in unopposed.
Then, when a Gallagher kick was blocked by Moore, the Ulster counter from their 10-metre line was sublime, the sweep ending with James Hulme giving the assist on the 22 to Doak, who celebrated by the uprights.
The Bath chat at the break was likely to have been sharp and straight to the point and their riposte came six minutes after the resumption, Tom Dunn fastening onto the back of an unstoppable maul and Spencer adding the tricky conversion for a 15-14 lead.
OTT from Ben Spencer, and Joe Cokanasiga puts @BathRugby on the board! ?#InvestecChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/HAlb25zeZ4
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) December 9, 2023
A bench-busy Ulster were now on the back foot but while Spencer had the accuracy for penalty points from a ruck set up by the impressive Alfie Barbeary, he was wayward following a scrum infringement.
Not that it ultimately mattered. The Irish side were unable to dilute the pressure and with sub Rea binned with 15 minutes remaining after Lawrence was held just short of the line, a sequence of penalty-winning scrums eventually led to replacement tighthead Thomas du Toit driving over from close range on 69 minutes after Barbeary had tried to crash in off the back of the set-piece.
Spencer’s conversion stretched the gap out to a two-score margin, 25-14, and the situation quickly got bleaker for Ulster with Cokanasiga racing in for his second unconverted try after a sweet Lawrence canter and one-handed offload off scrum ball after the visitors had fluffed their restart kick.
There was still even more to come and the game was restored to 15 versus 15, Gallagher walking in for his team’s fifth try, a score excellently converted by Redpath from the touchline.
"We stitched the pitch…"
– Johann van Graan was thrilled that the remedial work Bath did on their soft Rec pitch gave them a stable surface to get stuck into Ulster at scrum time. #BATvULS #InvestecChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/TvRwlSUsBC
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 9, 2023
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments