Bath denied victory with last kick of the game
The Rec
By Nicola Curtis
September 10 2011
The first home game of the season was an exciting and very watchable affair that was decided by the gifted boot of Saracens star Owen Farrell.
After an opening game for England at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand that highlighted as many deficiencies for the national team as it showcased the skill of their South American opposition, the league teams were left at home to show the big boys how it should be done. After a relatively safe victory at Kingston Park against Newcastle last week, Bath Rugby entered into their first home game of the season knowing that in the reigning champions Saracens they would face a much stiffer test.
Bath started smoothly enough when Sam Vesty kicked a penalty just a few minutes into the game. Both teams looked, apart from a few silly errors and slow balls at rucks, remarkably smooth and well oiled. Michael Claassens did have a few kicks charged down throughout the game though, and it was one such incident that soon let Saracens have a chance to score three points to catch up with Bath. Owen Farrell, on excellent kicking form, was the man to slot this over. The momentum stayed with Saracens, and after a sustained attack, Ben Williams missed a simple tackle and James Short ran through from the 22 to score a try, which was converted by Farrell.
The next score was somewhat lucky; the ball popped up behind the Saracens defence and fell into the arms of Nick Abendanon who ran through for a try. This was converted by Sam Vesty who I thought- a few kicks aside- played well.
The scrum, which was pretty even throughout, gave Sarries another opportunity to score when Bath were penalised. The next penalty was given to Bath and missed by Sam Vesty. He soon went off with a nasty black eye, giving sub Paul Roberts a chance to convert a try which was set up by Ben Skirving when he slipped up the line, evading Sarries’ flying tackles, and off-loaded to Carl Fearns who sprinted to the line. Roberts received a big cheer for his brief stand in at fly half. The first side finished with Bath leading 17-13.
In the second half Bath’s discipline fell by the wayside a little and they began to concede far too many penalties, which Farrell happily kicked between the sticks. Soon Sarries were leading 17-22. They were then penalised for not rolling away- a common occurrence- and Vesty kicked at goal to make the score 20-22.
Bath seemed to wake up at this stage and began a good attack towards the Sarries line. Andy Saull was sin binned for, I think, killing the ball on the floor as Bath were pretty close to the line and was sent to the sin bin. The two teams then exchanged converted and missed penalties until the score was 23-25. Tom Biggs was chasing up the restart ball when he was tripped by a Saracens player on the 22. A lot of posturing from Steve Borthwick later and Bath were only given a penalty which was kicked by Vesty to the delight of all Bath fans.
With just a few minutes to go, and with the ball on hand, it looked as if Bath were going to be able to hang on, but a Sarries turnover saw them move at a pace down the pitch. I think it was Guy Mercer who was penalised with just seven seconds left on the clock. The ground fell silent as Farrell stepped up, only to be filled with gasps a few seconds later- the ball hit the posts twice, and while initially looking as if it was going to fall back onto the pitch, eventually bounced through. An exciting, if demoralising, end.
This was a really good and thoroughly entertaining game, which despite the frustrating ending, probably wouldn’t leave Bath fans in too much despair. Too many cheap penalties though, which is the same old story for the West Country team. The sides seemed fairly evenly matched and it was Farrell’s boot that won the day. A losing bonus point is nice enough, but we were so close to taking the full four.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:09:16:16:49:23 by Glen The Ed.
Fine report Nicola.
Our horrendous kicking out of hand and our propensity to give away amateurish penalties killed us.
Although thought you might have mentioned the referee - or would this have been stating the obvious?
it was mercer who coughed up the ball for the turnover and then hipkiss who gave away the penalty.
great came just a shame that we still can't run the clock down for 90 seconds at the end of the game
Quote:annie blackthorn
Thanks Nicola
Although thought you might have mentioned the referee - or would this have been stating the obvious?
No good blaming the referee - stupid penalties gave the game away.
Bath v Saracens pics
Griff007 (on flickr!)
Agreed - although IMHO those were penalties earlier in the game rather than the last one. At that ruck either side could have been penalised.
As the replay shows, Saracens passed forward in their own in goal area a minute earlier. Had that been picked up the last minute would have been an attacking 5 yard scrum to Bath, so I have some sympathy with those who think the ref had an off day.
PG