Seven Wonders (Bath 46 – 13 Worcester warriors)
By Andy Dowthwaite
October 23 2011
There’s nothing like a warm sunny October rugby day at the rec to lift the spirits. With a dry ground, our England players returning from the World Cup and first home appearances for Anthony Perenise and Francois Louw in what looked like a strong Bath team, the prospects for a repeat of last week’s thumping of Newport looked promising.
We were not disappointed and were treated to a re-run of last week with seven different players crossing the line for seven tries. The Warriors had started off with much of the possession for the first 15 minutes. As we’d expect from Richard Hill’s team, they were well drilled and managed to hold the ball through multiple phases against what seemed to be a passive Bath defence who seemed happy to let Worcester play. If Bath were trying to avoid our recent bane, penalties, it didn’t work too well and Worcester converted two penalties to Bath’s one to lead though without threatening our line. The Bath forwards then seemed to step up (more of a leap really) and we were off;
Try 1 Tom Heathcote
Good ball from the forwards allowed quick close passing along the backs with Jack Cuthbert joining the line to give an small overlap to Ollie Woodburn, who, cut inside taking two tacklers, stayed on his feet and managed to pass behind the back of the tacklers to the supporting Tom Heathcote who had a clear 15 metre run over the line.
Try 2 Francois Louw
Forwards turn now and several phases of tight driving saw Francois Louw drive over after 25 minutes. Worcester’s defence was just brushed away. 15 – 6 to Bath
Try 3 Matt Banahan
Bath ball knocked loose on our ten yard line, Nathan Catt collects the bobbling ball running backwards and curves back up-field beating the chasers. A fantastic back of the hand pass to Ollie Woodburn created space for him to make a lot of ground with Will Spencer in support. The ball was moved quickly back across the pitch with Dan Hipkiss initially offering a well-timed short pass to Tom Heathcote then following up to receive a return pass and after making more ground sent a wide pass left for Banners to jink his way across the line. Who said Dan Hipkiss couldn’t pass. A brilliant try. 22 – 6 to Bath at half time
Try 4 Jack Cuthbert
Jack put a good grubber through, but, the chasing Ollie Woodburn was tackled early (without the ball) just before the line. Bath chose a scrum, where we were well in control, in search of the bonus point. After an initial drive down the blind side the ball was spun down the line with Banners throwing a miss pass to Jack who joined the line in space and stepped through for the try under the posts. 29 – 6 to bath
Try 5 Ben Skirving
A well controlled rolling maul from a line out on half way saw Ben Skirving directing an unstoppable mass of Bath’s forwards. 40 metres was made before Worcester pulled the maul down illegally. Line out chosen and another maul which almost reaches the line, but, still allowed Ben to pick and drive over for the try. Controlled and scored by Ben Skirving having a great day at number 8.
During the move Worcester were reduced to 14 men as Sam Betty was sin binned for a high tackle on Francois Louw that looked early to me. This temporarily floored the new boy but, no shrinking violet here and he was soon back on his feet. 34 – 13 to Bath
Try 6 Ollie Woodburn
Running rampant with an extra man. Banners now bull dozing through the middle created mayhem and quick passing allowed an overlap for Ollie Woodburn to run in a well deserved try. 39 – 13 to bath
Try 7 Nick Abendanon
Several phases of possession before Nick Abendanon broke through the middle of the Worcester line and several tacklers in the 22 to score under the posts. His ability to stay on his feet making the try here. 46 – 13 to Bath the final score.
This was a good all round performance that stretched Worcester with a battering from the forwards that secured the majority of possession and allowed quick ball for the backs who generally executed well. There were a number of minor issues, the first 15 minutes we were very passive giving Worcester almost exclusive possession. We lost a number of line outs in the first half and looked a little predictable here. We allowed the very quick Drauninui to run at a 45 degree angle across the pitch for a try in the second half where he was almost untouched by the defence. However, the positives far, far outweighed the negatives.
Tom Heathcote is developing rapidly, will attack any small gaps and works hard in support being closely involved in at least 3 of the tries. Ollie Woodburn is quick, strong in the tackle and has good hands. Will Spencer is quick for a man of his size and offers good support. The only issue for me is how will they get enough game time to develop further.
The front row were completely dominant although not the strongest opposition. Nathan Catt in particular is excellent in open play and Perenise looks very strong. Hoops brought a good degree of variety to the line out when he came on in the second half. This wasn’t just his jumping, but, the calls as well with good ball at the back to Ben Skirving and also allowing Ryan to jump more effectively as Worcester were less able to guess where the ball was going.
Banners looks much lighter on his feet with much more liberal use of a sidestep to complement the head on charge we love so much. Played inside and wide and ran some good angles. There must be one England coach who is able to work with the player to build on their skills and deserves some credit. The other returning England players also looked sharp. Mearsy’s throwing was very accurate when he came on at half time and was heavily involved in the loose. Lewis Moody is still a class act, in particular one upright tackle where he also stripped the ball in the same movement, great skill.
Francois Louw was big in defence and has that Southern Hemisphere ability to tackle, stay on his feet over the ball carrier and get his hands on the ball very quickly. Also carries well in battering ram fashion and presents the ball cleanly for quick recycling and looks as tough as they come. Was nominated as man of the match at the ground.
Against Wasps a couple of weeks ago I was particularly grumpy as we lost but, more specifically from our tactics throughout the game that were repetitive and easy to defend against causing lots of errors and penalties. Today there was variety across the whole team and it made for a much better performance. Coaching, weather, execution? - I’m not sure. Different angles were run, Banners and Heathcote were difficult to read, Dan Hipkiss has a good pass as well as a hand off, Cuthbert joined the line late giving overlaps and Ollie Woodburn has pace and strength. The forwards used the driving maul but also the pick and go, and, were also happy to release quick ball to the backs. Line outs were varied with Hoops showing his influence - ball thrown to Skirvs at the back of the line on our 5 metre line (instead of the safer and expected front option). Even against an under-strength Warriors this was a much better performance.
Seven great try’s all different, the result of better and more varied tactics were highlights of a great day at the rec but, the stand out performance for me was Ben Skirving. Always athletic, today his performance was at a higher level. Playing at number 8 he was able to make use of his ball handling skills that are perhaps hidden at blindside, to control driving mauls and the ball at the back of the scrum, win clean line out and put in a decent defensive shift. Ben Skirving my Man of the Match.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:10:29:22:47:46 by Glen The Ed.
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