Bath Rugby 13 Sale Sharks 16

By Whaley Shark
December 4 2011

 Saturday morning, close to the shortest day of the year, a throat like sandpaper thanks to man-flu caught from a guy at work (thanks, Roy!), do I really want to trek all the way down to Bath which, we have been warned repeatedly, will be rammed with Christmas shoppers? 

Well, I am really glad I did, even though I am now snotty and horrible today. You couldn’t have asked for better playing conditions- dry with some spells of winter sunshine- but our early play seemed inhibited, and Bath had almost all the territory for the first ten minutes. Indeed, our one foray towards the Bath line led to a knock-on and Bath scrum, a 50 metre break down the right wing to our 22 and a grubber into the corner, which we hoofed into touch. We then conceded a penalty at the resulting line-out to go 3-0 down.

A fairly even passage of play followed, ending in a Bath foray down the right, a defensive mess at a ruck in our 22, and Claassens nipping over near the posts. With the conversion, we were 10-0 down with only quarter of the game gone. For the rest of the half, Bath definitely had the upper hand but some pretty fearsome defending kept them out. Olly Barkley missed a penalty attempt and, a few minutes later, Nick Macleod missed from half way. The last action of the half was a Bath drop goal attempt which fell short.

I guess a few words were exchanged at half time, because we seemed a good deal livelier in the second half. Nick Macleod missed with a long range penalty, then slotted an easier one to get us off the mark. We then set up camp inside the Bath half, harassing Bath into making errors and disrupting their line-out. Eventually, we nicked the ball after a scrappy Bath line-out and Tony Buckley rolled into their 22 with Bath defenders hanging off him like baubles on a Christmas tree. We worked the ball swiftly left for Quates to run it in, and Nick Macleod got the extras to tie the scores.

Bath started to find their feet, sneaking back into the lead through an Olly Barkley penalty, although two or three deep touchfinders from Quates kept the worst of the pressure off and, as the game approached the last ten minutes, a strong run by Andy Powell gave us momentum, we pushed into the Bath 22 and they gave Nick Macleod a straightforward penalty. Level again! We took the lead for the first time in the match a couple of minutes later, as a mighty scrum on the Bath ten metre line allowed Nick Macleod to kick another penalty.

That certainly gave Bath a sense of urgency, and the last few minutes were almost all Bath. Although we kept them at arms’ length with some good defence, we conceded a penalty on half way. Bath went for touch to set up a line-out on our 22. We promptly conceded another penalty and they went for the win, kicking for the corner and setting up a titanic last five minutes. Bath tried the rolling maul, which we managed to disrupt effectively, then recycled the ball through several phases, battering at our line. We somehow resisted, holding Banahan up over the line, setting up a five metre scrum and finally, with some more die-in-a-ditch defence, turning over the ball with time up.

So, not really a pretty game. The scrum, which went pretty well, was a particular positive for us and I feel we deserved the win, if only for that last desperate defensive spell. Mark Cueto, my Man of the Match, gave us what we lacked last week against Exeter, a calm head, and time and again, he just kicked Bath back upfield to relieve pressure. Bath will feel a  bit hard done by- they probably feel they could have killed us off by half time, and their gamble at the very end, going for the win rather than kicking a penalty goal and taking the draw, didn’t pay off. Oh, and I did say I would mention the nutter dressed as a parrot, so here you go....