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Investec Champions Cup

Bath make short work of Edinburgh in Champions Cup battering

104 days ago

BATH, ENGLAND - JANUARY 16: Bath Rugby's Alfie Barbeary celebrates during the Investec Champions Cup match between Bath Rugby and Edinburgh Rugby at The Recreation Ground on January 16, 2026 in Bath, England. (Photo by Bob Bradford - CameraSport via Getty Images)

Bath finished top of Pool 2 in the Champions Cup with a ruthless 63-10 victory over Edinburgh.

Edinburgh went in front with an early penalty from Ross Thompson but Bath soon took control of the game when Thomas du Toit powered over the line and Finn Russell added the extras before the hosts extended their lead further with a penalty try.

Beno Obano then went over with Russell converting and although Piers O’Conor scored Edinburgh’s first try of the game after finishing a well-worked team move, which Thompson converted, Tom Dunn grounded to bag the bonus point for Bath.

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Russell kicked another successful conversion to hand the hosts a 28-10 lead at the break and Joe Cokanasiga added to their advantage in the 56th minute after charging down the right wing before cutting in to cross.

Ben Spencer touched down only four minutes later and a miserable evening for Edinburgh continued as Henry Arundell went over.

Bath continued their ruthless display in the final 10 minutes as Cokanasiga bagged his second try of the game and Max Ojomoh crossed, with Russell converting both to complete a perfect night from the tee and a dominant Bath performance.

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Comments

6 Comments

Eric Elwood 104 days ago

So much for the optimistic soundings about the quality of pool stages from Dallaglio.

Edinburgh sent the B team for a last pool match qualifier. They are safe. It makes sense given how easy it is to qualify. In the Heineken cup rules Edinburgh would now be eliminated and humiliated. Shop 60 points? Its ok, only a Champions Cup qualifier, we were safe. At least, less of the criticism of SA teams now. They have a 24,000 km round trip.

fl 104 days ago

Edinburgh are like 99% safe but there are some permutations that could lead to them missing out, which would be quite the commeuppance!

I am always surprised that teams don’t take the group stage matches more seriously given how much the seedings matter. Last year of 14 knockout games (excluding the final, played at a neutral stadium), 11 were won by the home (higher seeded) sides. The year before 12/14 went to home sides.

Ultimately, they need to find a way to better reward teams that take cup competitions seriously. Currently, a team that makes the final of the Champions Cup would fail to qualify for next year’s comp if they finished outside of the top 8 of their domestic league, which creates a really perverse incentive structure.

They could do something like, reduce the tournament to 16 teams, qualify the top 4 teams from each league, plus the top 4 teams (not already qualified) from the previous champions cup. Then seed teams in the pools on the basis of performance in last year’s CC.

fl 104 days ago

Absolutely immense from Barbeary. One of the most underrated players in England imho, and very unlucky not to have had any opportunities for the national side.

Obviously the 5-sevens strategy works best at the moment and he can’t be shoehorned into the starting lineup, but he deserves time to train with the squad, and to possibly get a run out against Wales or Italy.

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