Rusty Bath leave Leeds with all five points

Rusty Bath leave Leeds with all five points

All the much-talked of investment, squad additions and grand designs have evoked an unrivalled level of excitement, but with a tricky trip to a Leeds side still buoyed by last year's relegation survival first up, I'll be honest and admit that the thought of Bath stumbling out of the traps had crossed my mind. Thankfully, despite an expected amount of rustiness and over-eagerness, Bath will be travelling back South with their first five Aviva Premiership points safely secured. 

The first twenty minutes largely belonged to the home side, who began with a display of ambition by turning down a straight-forward 40m penalty in favour of a kick to the corner. With Bath infringing at the resulting lineout, Leeds then elected for the closer shot at goal, only for Thomas to miss with a simple attempt to the right of the posts. Despite this Leeds retained control of possession and territory, with Bath unable to string any significant phases together. An eventual trip to the Leeds half brought a penalty attempt for Vesty, who duly made it 3-0. 

Thomas levelled soon after, before a Bath lineout on the Leeds 10m line allowed Banahan and Hape to make inroads into the midfield. With the ball recycled, Vesty spread play well, with Abendanon eventually going over in the corner for the game's first try (Vesty adding the extras from out wide). 

Bath began to assert themselves more from this point on, and if it wasn't for some uncharacteristic handling errors deep in the Leeds 22m could have scored twice more. With the Bath scrum and lineout struggling, however, Thomas brought Leeds back into contention with a second penalty and a smartly-taken 40m drop goal before the break. 

Matt Banahan terrorises the Leeds defence

It's probably fair to say that the quality of a match can be summed up by the topics of conversation in the terraces. The first half struggled to muster any real entertainment, a fact encapsulated by two Leeds fans standing behind me who spent the entire second quarter of the game discussing in some depth the details of IVF treatment. 

Bath emerged for the second half and were almost instantly more incisive. Pressure lead to Leeds conceding a penalty near the touchline five metres out from their own line; Bath elected to scrummage, and with Hape and Banahan lurking ominously, the Leeds midfield were preoccupied long enough for Vesty to scamper through untouched under the posts. 

The territory and possession stats began to steadily turn Bath's way, and with the defence scarcely allowing Leeds an inch, Matt Carraro picked a gorgeous line off Michael Claassens' shoulder in midfield before racing clear of the Leeds cover and diving in. 

With three tries on the board and around twenty minutes remaining, thoughts turned to securing a bonus point score, and with the introduction of the impressive Nathan Catt for a tired David 'Tiny Feet' Flatman (read his Indy column if this reference is lost on you!), Bath continued to control most of the game, but with Leeds pressing with ten minutes or so remaining, a series of Bath infringements lead to Claassens being sin binned. Leeds, however, were unable to take immediate advantage, and with Biggs withdrawn to allow specialist scrumhalf McMillan to steady the ship, Bath came away with their line intact. 

Shontayne Hape on the attack

After Vesty had pegged Leeds back into their 22m, pressure from the seemingly-omnipresent Simon Taylor resulted in a charged-down clearance that span towards the Leeds line. Defending winger Semi Tadulala, sensing danger, hacked the ball dead, but did so from the field of play, giving Bath a 5m scrum. New Captain Luke Watson, whose presence grew throughout the game, took the opportunity from a stable scrum to exploit a big blindsided and shrugged off a tackler or two to touch down in the corner. 

With the game over as a contest, Leeds pressed for a consolation score to brighten what was otherwise a disappointing day for the home team. After Bath were penalised at the scrum deep in their own territory, a quick tap penalty allowed Steve Thompson to burrow over for a debut try on his return to English rugby. 

Bath players and fans should be satisfied with the result and aspects of the performance as they travel home. Leeds are an improved side on the team that came back into the Premiership twelve months ago, and while they may still have a little way to go before they achieve their goal of Heineken Cup qualification, are certainly no slouches and visitors may well find four try bonus points difficult to come by this season. The fact that this was achieved without the injured Olly Barkley and the absent Butch James bodes well. 

Final score Leeds Carnegie 16 Bath Rugby 32. 

Matt Carraro breaks through to run in a try under the posts

There are, however, a few areas of concern. Firstly, the lineout struggled, especially in the first half, with a total of six of Bath's own throws being lost to Wentzel, Browne and co. If Bath are to compete for the top honours this season, this has got to be the biggest priority for improvement. Mears' throwing appears to be off with the timing of his jumpers, as it was notably towards the end of last season, and it is probably testament to the work at the breakdown and of the backs that the result was as positive as it was. 

There were also a few occasions when a pass from Claassens somehow managed to avoid everybody, which may be due to a lack of game time with Vesty who isn't yet used to playing as flat as Claass seemed to want him to play. Other handling errors are, hopefully, largely due to game rust, so should hopefully disappear as the weeks go on.

One other worrying factor was the scrum, and particularly, after I overheard a conversation between a former top level referee and a colleague on the way into Leeds city centre, over Flats. The former ref (I'm not sure whether it's advisable to disclose his name) stated that all Premiership referees have been told that Flats either fails to bind or is slow to bind on engagement (as many supporters have noted previously) and that, 'while we [referees] don't talk about many specific players, they do talk about him and his habits'. I gathered that conversations had been held with the Bath coaching team regarding this. However, Flats was penalised on four occasions for scrum infringements today, and in tighter games that could well prove to be more costly. 

In all, though, today was probably as good of a result as Bath could have hoped for. A potential banana skin was safely avoided, and scoring four tries away from home in the Premiership is not an achievement to be sniffed at. Sure, there are things to work on, some more pressing than others, but all in all this was a positive experience and shook off the close-season cobwebs. Come May, this could well prove to be a very valuable five points. 

Man of the Match - Simon Taylor. Quietly went about his business in an effective and efficient manner, the sure sign of a quality blindside. Was solid in defence and productive in the loose, with his charge down directly responsible for the scrum from which Watson scored the fourth. 

Photos by Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images