Starry, Starry Night
Dan Hipkiss was Excellent
By Lawrence Aggleton
August 13 2011
Just as you shouldn't get too down on yourselves in a pre-season loss, we shouldn't get too carried away with Friday night's victory either. But what you can say is that Bath utterly dominated this game.
Defence was solid and for any breaks the scramble defence was superb at sweeping it up. The scoreboard didn't really reflect the true balance of play as Bath turned down all shots at goal until the last play of the game. Bath rolled substitutes throughout the game and this disjointed the performance, but there were very impressive showings from Kane Palma-Newport (scorer of the first try) and new boys Ryan Caldwell and Danny Hipkiss (who looks sharp and powerful). Michael Claassens was excellent, Tom Biggs hungry for work and Nick Abendanon popped up for an interesting trick play at scrum half. I thought Sam Vesty was understated but really useful at 10. The scrum in general was superb and often marched the visitors back.
Even better for a pre-season game is areas to work on. Attack was, hmmm, a bit ponderous. Balls were often lost forward on a greasy surface. Decision making wasn't the best with the forwards often getting a bit carried with their scrum dominance and just driving the ball up when outside backs were in acres of space with numerous overlaps spurned. The lineout definitely needs some work.
But in general Bath players, coaches and fans should be very pleased with nilling a Super XV team. The defence was superb, the new boys looked like hungry and sharp, some of the younger players really look ready to step up and let's not forget this was a team missing potential starters Louw, Donald, Banahan, Moody, Mears, Barkley, Bell, Eastmond and Perinese. There looks to be really good depth in our squad and the omens are very positive for this season!
Bath Rugby
15. Nick Abendanon, 14. Nick Scott, 13. Danny Hipkiss, 12. Ben Williams, 11. Tom Biggs, 10. Sam Vesty, 9. Michael Claassens, 1. Nathan Catt, 2. Pieter Dixon, 3. Kane Palma-Newport, 4. Stuart Hooper (C), 5. Ryan Caldwell, 6. Carl Fearns, 7. Guy Mercer, 8. Ben Skirving
Replacements 16. Max Anderson, 17. David Flatman, 18. Mark Lilley, 19. Charlie Beech, 20. Will Spencer, 21. Will Skuse, 22. Simon Taylor, 23. Chris Cook, 24. Mark McMillan, 25. Tom Heathcote, 26. Paul Roberts, 27. Matt Carraro, 28. Ollie Woodburn
Melbourne Rebels
1 Eddie Aholelei, 2 Ged Robinson (Captain), 3 Laurie Weeks, 4 Hugh Pyle, 5 Cadeyrn Neville, 6 Luke Jones, 7 Michael Lipman, 8 Tim Davidson, 9 Richard Kingi, 10 Danny Cipriani, 11 Cooper Vuna, 12 Lachie Mitchell, 13 Stirling Mortlock, 14 Pama Fou, 15 Peter Betham
Replacements 16 Nic Henderson, 17 Luke Holmes, 18 Greg Somerville, 19 Jarrod Saffy, 20 Nigel Ah Wong, 21 David Hardisty, 22 Jimmy Hilgendorf, 23 Liam Windon, 24 Gareth Delve
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:08:18:11:31:47 by stuart_mod.
Did they just phone this one in (in which case what a wasted trip) or was it Bath's performance?
cant confirm this but waqs told that some of them were doing slammers in a bar in Bath on thurs night ?
COME ON YOU BATH
!!!!!!!
BATH, BATH, WHEREVER WE MAY BE WE ARE THE BOYS FROM THE WEST COUNTRY , AND WE'LL BEAT YOU ALL WHOEVER YOU MAY BE , BEAT YOU ALL FOR THE WEST COUNTRY !
Mike-s, in exile in Bridgwater
Was our scrum as strong as it looked - or the result of the opposition being on the lash the night before?