BATH VS EXETER: PREMIERSHIP RUGBY CUP

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2025:09:26:12:28:24 by P G Tips.

Thanks DL.

As you say, we have the luxury of two matches this weekend- certainly they will stretch our resources, especially if those who played in summer tours are still resting.

I am not sure if Ollie Lawrence will play- there a rumours at Sixways that some Worcester old boys will be at the match (not necessarily playing) for old times sake. His name has been mentioned. Could be baloney of course!

PG

I thought the Worcester game was Lawrence's initial target return

That would indicate just how much it would mean to him

It is also, amazingly a sell out. Incredible and just shows how much the Prem could do with them back in

Interesting preview for the first competitive match of the season. Also poses the question of whether there should be a minimum requirement for academy players in the Prem Cup given Exeter’s habit of going heavy on their first team,.
I’m looking forward to this game.
If you are correct with the team DL then Arundell will have played 3 in a row.

First Gallagher Prem game with everyone back is going to be scarily strong!


Tyler Offiah
Opinion is based on assumptions, whereas fact is based on observation or research.

I am away on holiday in Turkey......looking at old stones with my Saracens brother in law.

I am puzzled if this is Round 2 in the Prem Cup what was Round 1? He told me that Saracens lost away to Leicester in Round 1.....what was our Round 1?

Given the change in format I think I would go as strong as possible.....as I am fairly sure Exeter will!!


Great write up love the Michael Caine quote and Maurice Micklewhite should know about climbing to the top

Quote:

Bath Supporter Jack
I am away on holiday in Turkey......looking at old stones with my Saracens brother in law.
I am puzzled if this is Round 2 in the Prem Cup what was Round 1? He told me that Saracens lost away to Leicester in Round 1.....what was our Round 1?

Given the change in format I think I would go as strong as possible.....as I am fairly sure Exeter will!!


Great write up love the Michael Caine quote and Maurice Micklewhite should know about climbing to the top

We had a by in round 1, the new structure without the championship clubs doesn’t give everyone a match every round… We have another by later too.

Thanks dcsh

Team UP:

Bath Rugby team news for Exeter Chiefs

Bath Rugby Starting XV v Exeter Chiefs: 1 Scott Kirk, 2 Jasper Spandler, 3 Kieran Verden, 4 Harvey Cuckson, 5 Ewan Richards ©, 6 Ethan Staddon, 7 Thomson Cowan, 8 Arthur Green, 9 Tom Carr-Smith, 10 James Linegar, 11 Tyler Offiah, 12 Will Butt, 13 Louie Hennessey, 14 Austin Emens, 15 Jack Woods

Bath Rugby Replacements: 16 Max Pearce, 17 Mikey Summerfield, 18 Alfie Griffin, 19, Will Jeanes, 20 Alex Ridgway, 21 Neil le Roux, 22 Charlie Griffin, 23 George Timmins

PG

Disappointingly weak team compared to the team playing Worcester, shame for the home fans, but presumably the team playing Worcester will be the one to start the Prem v Quins.

Blimey.

That's a very green side.

Now let me just go and check Exeter's selection, probably full of fringe players with merely 50 senior appearances to their names...

Exeter gone strong. Very strong.

Exeter Chiefs team news

15 Josh Hodge

14 Paul Brown-Bampoe

13 Ben Hammersley

12 Henry Slade

11 Dan John

10 Harvey Skinner

9 Stephen Varney

1 Kwenzo Blose

2 Jack Yeandle (c)

3 Bachuki Tchumbadze

4 Rusi Tuima

5 Lewis Pearson

6 Ethan Roots

7 Christ Tshiunza

8 Ross Vintcent

Replacements:

16 Joseph Dweba

17 Will Goodrick-Clarke

18 Josh Iosefa-Scott

19 Andrea Zambonin

20 Kane James

21 Charlie Chapman

22 Ben Coen

23 Nick Lilley

PG

As suspected, really leaning into the spirit of the competition as usual...

👏 JVG for continuing in the spirit of the PRC and rewarding game time to many of those that won the competition last season.

I can understand home fans disappointment, but with the current regulations the only way to get a team out that is likely to involved in PREM R1 including Summer Tourists was for that team to play at Worcester!

The format of the PRC, with teams using these two rounds (and historically) for their first team squads is so wrong and also IMHO dangerous as it’s Men v Boys!!

Obviously it's up to Baxter and co who they select, but as demonstrated last year it basically means anything other than winning the competition will be a failure for Chiefs, and will come at the cost of further delaying the development of academy/fringe players, who got hardly any first team minutes last season either.

Quote:

tigersimon
👏 JVG for continuing in the spirit of the PRC and rewarding game time to many of those that won the competition last season.
I can understand home fans disappointment, but with the current regulations the only way to get a team out that is likely to involved in PREM R1 including Summer Tourists was for that team to play at Worcester!

The format of the PRC, with teams using these two rounds (and historically) for their first team squads is so wrong and also IMHO dangerous as it’s Men v Boys!!

Agree TS - and as a home fan I'm not disappointed, much rather we stayed with the spirit of the competition.

Quote:

tigersimon
👏 JVG for continuing in the spirit of the PRC and rewarding game time to many of those that won the competition last season.
I can understand home fans disappointment, but with the current regulations the only way to get a team out that is likely to involved in PREM R1 including Summer Tourists was for that team to play at Worcester!

The format of the PRC, with teams using these two rounds (and historically) for their first team squads is so wrong and also IMHO dangerous as it’s Men v Boys!!

Guess the question is why we arranged a friendly the night before a Prem Cup game.

As suspected and with previous form Exeter have gone strong.

Suppose JVG wants the first team to have a run around without getting battered. It would be a game if they all treated the Prem Cup game like the last pre season.

Just a shame for the home fans. Remember feeling the same vs Bristol in Cardiff. Yet a month later we were Treble winners.

In JVG we trust.

J

Winning the competition again is not an imperative but giving valuable top level game time to these players is

Looks like we've got the team selection back to front, can't see why we have to send a strong team to Worcester for a friendly and send the academy out to face a pretty much first team Exeter.

JvG pretty much always gets it right, but I'm glad I decided to skip the home game, it could be a long afternoon for Bath.

Quote:

OutsideBath
Looks like we've got the team selection back to front, can't see why we have to send a strong team to Worcester for a friendly and send the academy out to face a pretty much first team Exeter.
JvG pretty much always gets it right, but I'm glad I decided to skip the home game, it could be a long afternoon for Bath.

I’m going, and I’m off the booze so doubly long.

As I mentioned above, perhaps sparing the first team a ding dong game vs a stacked Exeter who always take the @#$%& out of this competition. Plus an extra day recovery for the game that means much more, the opener vs Quins.

J

It's the 'Academy' (with a bit of help from the 1sts) that won the trophy last year. How can they improve if we don't trust them up against tougher opposition. What do they learn by playing a friendly against Worcs. Put them up against the big boys and see who's got a future in our 1sts and who hasn't (yet)

I think this is a lot about quins game being Friday.

Jvg will be loathed to give any frontline players a 6 day turnaround at start of the season.

I would have gone more mix and match.

The squad is massive, we need maximum games to get players meaningful game time.

I can't see us getting anything tomorrow so that puts us on the back foot in the prem cup.

Always interesting to see the young guys and tbf I underestimated them going into the bris and sarries prem games last season but this squad has no experience or any significant bang off the bench.

Plus (quoted from Tigersimon on Worcester thread):

"The interesting thing is that your summer tourists with teams apart from the B&I Lions are available for selection for the Worcester game but not the PRC game!

This is because they are in the second 5 week stage of their 10 week ‘rest’ period which allows them to play pre-season games but not competitive matches during those 5 weeks!!"

That being the case, 9 of the starting XV for Worcester cannot play v Ex. So to give the Quins matchday 23 a runout together that rule has forced JvGs hand!

PG

Lots of frontline players didn't tour this summer and could have been chosen to play against exeter.

I guess it's about 6 day turnaround and wanting to play a close to 1st team together before next week which makes sense.

Just a shame it risks us going out of prem cup early when last season was amazing in terms of games for the squad and experience of winning a trophy.

Maybe they can come back and qualify even of they get nothing tomorrow. Sure they can gran a try BP at least.

I changed my prediction to be a bit closer but I still think we win this. Those are good young players and a fair number of them did well last season. Exeter look as strong as they can be but they don't have any of their Australian reinforcements yet and they sucked last season.

Do we know who is reffing the Exeter game?

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Susanne
Do we know who is reffing the Exeter game?

Referee: Sara Cox

Assistant Referees: Harry Walbaum & Richard Gordon

TMO: Anthony Woodthorpe

Noticed that Landy wasn’t starting or on bench for Tigers this evening. I sure hope he isn’t behind both Titcombe and Searle, not to mention O’Cnnor, by the time the Prem comes round

Ex deserved the win but fantastic effort from a much much younger team. Appalling last decision from the ref, but frankly he'd given us more than the benefit of the doubt earlier.

That defensive effort was heroic! Very well played against a much bigger and more experienced team. Ref had a total brain melt at the end which has cruelly denied us a losing bonus point. Emens seems to be stronger and more streetwise this season. Jeanes could be immense.

What did the ref get wrong at the end?

Quote:

OutsideBath
What did the ref get wrong at the end?

Just that last penalty - didn't look like the 9 was played. Should have been a penalty to Bath for holding on at the next ruck where Richards was about to turnover the ball.

Congratulations Chiefs, I'm sure young academy upstarts Iosefa-Scott, Goodricke-Clarke, Yeandle, Roots and Tshiunza will have gained invaluable experience having gone up against grizzled old pros like Griffin, Summerfield, Kirk, Pearce and Timmins...

The fact Bath were competitive for the majority of that game is hugely commendable.

Quote:

Optimist
Noticed that Landy wasn’t starting or on bench for Tigers this evening. I sure hope he isn’t behind both Titcombe and Searle, not to mention O’Cnnor, by the time the Prem comes round

Bailey played the second half of our opening pre-season game and also started against Saracens in PRC R1. He had a bit of mare from the tee in that game! However fully expect him to start at Ashton Gate on Sunday week.

Gritty performance from such a young side, the coaches will no doubt commend their efforts.

Exeter will need to do much better than that if they have ambitions to improve on last season’s position

’’Paint the whole world with a rainbow”

Very pleased by the performance of the young Bath team, they can be proud of themselves and I’m sure they will have learned loads.

Agree. Our young guns can be proud. Ex seemed to lack confidence until their acrum finally got on top & only really turned the screw in the last 10 mnutes.

The way they celebrated their second try (as if they had just won the World Cup) spoke volumes.

PG

Quote:

P G Tips
Agree. Our young guns can be proud. Ex seemed to lack confidence until their acrum finally got on top & only really turned the screw in the last 10 mnutes.
The way they celebrated their second try (as if they had just won the World Cup) spoke volumes.

PG

Tuned in for second half. Young boys did very well but experience and grunt prevailed upfront in the end.

And yes, the way Exeter carried on after last 2 tries was frankly embarrassing. Varney (?) diving on top of one of our lads to 'celebrate' was cringeworthy. Shades of that famous Michael Owen clip when he's smashing in goals and cheering in some weird 90s training video (against a literal kid in goal), only for onwatching Neville Southall to retort "well done, he's 13".

Bath's Director of Rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol:
"Disappointed that we lost the game, but that was some fight by this team, they fought to the end, literally until the last play of the game we were in it, but sometimes that's the way sport goes.
"I thought the opportunities we had, we took – it was difficult conditions, specifically the wind and the ball being wet. We played against a very heavy pack and ultimately in the scrum they had too much for us in the end.
"That's the things we want our group to go through, I'd much rather this then send out the rest of our squad in the Prem Cup, we got exactly what we wanted. It was a squad effort."

We used to send out ‘strong’ teams and struggle to beat Exeter/Sarries 3rds, so quite pleasing that it goes the other way these days. Exeter have just helped our youngsters get some really meaningful experience, so we should thank them for that. We’ll cash that in at some point in a long season.

Ouch, that’s not great for Exeter. It took a strong front row to beat our 4th/5th choice and gain some yellows to turn it around for them. I count 161 senior international caps across their 23, to our 0(?). Celebrating like Ben Earl at the opening of a pack of Wotsits shows how much they need to build some confidence.

Quote:

tigersimon
Bath's Director of Rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol:
"That's the things we want our group to go through, I'd much rather this then send out the rest of our squad in the Prem Cup, we got exactly what we wanted. It was a squad effort."

Personally would have been disappointed had I gone to today’s game knowing we’d fielded a stronger team in a pointless fixture against Worcester on Friday. However if it served a purpose for JvG then it was clearly the right decision.

Great game. Very entertaining. Well done to the youngsters of Bath, whose moral victory it was against a virtual Exeter first XV and who were ahead until about minute 73. When the Exe replacement front row came on, you just knew it was a matter of time before scrum pens took the match away from Bath. Slade anonymous. Brown- Bampoe superb under the high ball. The Prem League games between Exeter and Newcastle will be tight and, on the showing this afternoon, Exeter finishing in 10th place would not be a surprise.

We also need to work on the aerial game as it was not working for us.

Quote:

Rawce
Ouch, that’s not great for Exeter. It took a strong front row to beat our 4th/5th choice and gain some yellows to turn it around for them. I count 161 senior international caps across their 23, to our 0(?). Celebrating like Ben Earl at the opening of a pack of Wotsits shows how much they need to build some confidence.

On the back of how bad Exeter were vs our kids, my Dad and I were planning our trip down to Sandy Park in May. Confident of a result.

J

Quote:

OutsideBath

Quote:

tigersimon
Bath's Director of Rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol:
"That's the things we want our group to go through, I'd much rather this then send out the rest of our squad in the Prem Cup, we got exactly what we wanted. It was a squad effort."

Personally would have been disappointed had I gone to today’s game knowing we’d fielded a stronger team in a pointless fixture against Worcester on Friday. However if it served a purpose for JvG then it was clearly the right decision.

Are you saying that was the right selection or not?

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Benisjammin

Quote:

OutsideBath
What did the ref get wrong at the end?

Just that last penalty - didn't look like the 9 was played. Should have been a penalty to Bath for holding on at the next ruck where Richards was about to turnover the ball.

I haven’t yet watched the match back but were all those scrum penalties at the end fully justified? He seemed to be penalising us before even the scrum was set!

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Bath Hammer

Quote:

Benisjammin

Quote:

OutsideBath
What did the ref get wrong at the end?

Just that last penalty - didn't look like the 9 was played. Should have been a penalty to Bath for holding on at the next ruck where Richards was about to turnover the ball.

I haven’t yet watched the match back but were all those scrum penalties at the end fully justified? He seemed to be penalising us before even the scrum was set!

One was for early engagement which may be what you are referring to?

Wasn’t able to watch but sounds as if it was a really good performance from such a young team. They will benefit greatly from that exposure I’m sure.

[24/25 adoptee: Francois van Wyk]

Must say I was highly impressed with our young guys - the result was probably inevitable given the imbalance between squads but I reckon a few nervous faces in the Exeter coaching box with 10 minutes to go.

Not impressed with Exeter at all and think they will struggle again this season. The tactic of kick it high and get Brown-Bampoe to catch it (and smash the opposition winger out of the way at all costs) isn’t a winning strategy IMO.

From our side I think Green carried extremely well in to traffic all game, and Richard’s showed again that he’s going to be knocking on the strongest 23 door soon.

[quote Rokobilly][quote Bath Hammer][quote Benisjammin][quote OutsideBath]

I haven’t yet watched the match back but were all those scrum penalties at the end fully justified? He seemed to be penalising us before even the scrum was set![/quote]

One was for early engagement which may be what you are referring to?[/quote]

Having a player sent off for early engagement seems ridiculous harsh.

I think there were 4 pens in a row near our 5 yard line before the first yellow came out. Then two more for the second. Both sent off the loose heads Summerfield and Kirk who had come back on. It felt pernickety from Maxwell Keys and a card was inevitable even when the ball was out and could have been used.

Thought we were fantastic.

Group of mainly v young 3rd or 4th string players and matched them for physicality and were 5 mins from an unlikely win. We took our chances clinically as well.

Absolutely bearing the fruits of trusting this group in the prem Cup and versus bris / sarries last season.

On the whole I would be pretty relaxed about feeding most of those guys into prem games.

Agree with Ben kays inkling that we will go full bore at Europe early stages and may not top the league this season due to that but I am fine with throwing these guys into big league games.

Echo the embarrassment for exeter- fair enough celebrate pulling through to a tight win but have some context and don't swallow dive on our players when you score a try. They are still clearly struggling with their confidence and I don't think games yest will help tbh- I mean they sneaked it by virtue of dominating our 4th choice lh, 5th choice hooker and 6th choice tighthead and getting us down to 13 men!

Richards really stands out at this standard.

Ultra physical, very athletic, great engine, good jackaler.

Jeanes made a good impact off the bench- caused a bit of chaos you will be pleased to hear SW.

All the backrow would be fine in a prem game.

Thought tcs looked v good- annoying to listen to Healey talking about his box kicking style. He literally tailors it to how much time and space he has. he doesn't take no step and kick at a low trajectory when he is under big pressure cos he has a brain.

Healey did make me chuckle about timmins though tbf and how scary he looks!

Lingear was fine, made a few errors as you would expect but Davis was very glowing in his appraisal of him- talked about how vocal he is and can compartmentalise his game. Sure finn is helping there

Hennessey looks like he has kicked on again- hits very hard in attack and defence now and quick. Butt has become a very good player over yhe last 18m.

Offiah looked a lot more comfortable than last season despite the challenge of brown- bampoe.

Emens looked a real threat as well.

Woods a lot more solid yest.

As I say these guys are just progressing so well for the game time we give them. Do feel exeters approach last few years is really missing a trick. We have about 40 players I would be happy to see in a big prem game.

+1 for CB’s player ratings. Appreciate it’s one game but Offiah and Emens in particular just looked so much more at home than last season

’’Paint the whole world with a rainbow”

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Toast and Marmite
+1 for CB’s player ratings. Appreciate it’s one game but Offiah and Emens in particular just looked so much more at home than last season

+2

Thanks for the reviews CB, couldn’t log in to my app!
The likes of Offiah, Emens, Woods are clearly growing into the shirt. Offiah just oozes class when you see him live and I think he will become a star, on commentary he took one excellent catch at full stretch over his head apparently.

Good to hear Will Jeanes is emerging, I suspect he is catching up with Cuckson, he just gets on with the job, not particularly fast around the field but very committed.

Hennessy just love a breakaway doesn’t he, styling himself on Jonathon Davis and targeting a place in the Wales squad!


Tyler Offiah
Opinion is based on assumptions, whereas fact is based on observation or research.

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Bath Hammer

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Benisjammin

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OutsideBath
What did the ref get wrong at the end?

Just that last penalty - didn't look like the 9 was played. Should have been a penalty to Bath for holding on at the next ruck where Richards was about to turnover the ball.

I haven’t yet watched the match back but were all those scrum penalties at the end fully justified? He seemed to be penalising us before even the scrum was set!

Yes, there were repeated warnings and they couldn't handle Exeter's power. Honestly the yellow(s) should have come earlier.

A couple of other penalties around that period (offsides generally) didn't help, they just couldn't get out of there.

I still don't like yellows for being not as good as the opposition. Do wingers get a yellow for constantly knocking on trying to catch high balls. Why should any team be penalised for being inferior to another team. Exeter decided to go with the big boys, Bath decided in the spirit of the competition to put out a development team and then get reduced to 13 men because the front row wasn't as good as theirs. 15 bigguns v 13 less bigguns is always going to only end up one way ......and it destroys the game for spectators.

The commentators spoke about how they took issue with PBB's tactics in the aerial battles, effectively just launching himself into the space where the ball was landing to try and disrupt Bath's catcher.

It got me thinking, why is it that when competing for a high ball, if a player leaps with one hand outstretched and just gets fingertips on it why is that not classed as a deliberate knock on and a penalty? In a lot of cases they couldn't be in less of a realistic position to catch the ball.

Quote:

boozeboozebooze
The commentators spoke about how they took issue with PBB's tactics in the aerial battles, effectively just launching himself into the space where the ball was landing to try and disrupt Bath's catcher.
It got me thinking, why is it that when competing for a high ball, if a player leaps with one hand outstretched and just gets fingertips on it why is that not classed as a deliberate knock on and a penalty? In a lot of cases they couldn't be in less of a realistic position to catch the ball.

It is isn't it? You have to knock it back. PBB's got form for being a bit reckless, remember jumping out of tackles.


Tyler Offiah
Opinion is based on assumptions, whereas fact is based on observation or research.

Quote:

hemington
I still don't like yellows for being not as good as the opposition. Do wingers get a yellow for constantly knocking on trying to catch high balls. Why should any team be penalised for being inferior to another team. Exeter decided to go with the big boys, Bath decided in the spirit of the competition to put out a development team and then get reduced to 13 men because the front row wasn't as good as theirs. 15 bigguns v 13 less bigguns is always going to only end up one way ......and it destroys the game for spectators.

While I agree with this and said something similar to the person sat next to me, I will also enjoy it when our forwards do it to someone else (or better still Exeter) later in the season!

Technically you can go backwards and not infringe. Pretty antithetical to most forwards to attempt that.

I think there is a balance to be had around scrum dominance.

I would hate to see it's importance undermined as keeping teams honest at the set piece frees up so many other good elements of the game.

We rightly invest a huge amount of the salary cap in ensuring we always have parity and are often on top.

On the flipside I feel like repeated pens, pen tries and pushover tries is reward enough.

If you are dominated what on earth can you do!?

Just hope Scott kirk is ok- only came back from a nasty knee injury during the latter stages of last season.

Felt for alfie griffin- that was sooo far above any level he has ever played at. Thought he handled himself well all things considered.

Quote:

shipwrecked

Quote:

boozeboozebooze
The commentators spoke about how they took issue with PBB's tactics in the aerial battles, effectively just launching himself into the space where the ball was landing to try and disrupt Bath's catcher.
It got me thinking, why is it that when competing for a high ball, if a player leaps with one hand outstretched and just gets fingertips on it why is that not classed as a deliberate knock on and a penalty? In a lot of cases they couldn't be in less of a realistic position to catch the ball.

It is isn't it? You have to knock it back. PBB's got form for being a bit reckless, remember jumping out of tackles.

If it is then it falls into the same category as feeding into the scrum (i.e. a law the refs have chosen not to enforce)

I felt sad for the lads after that spirited display but on a positive note they are a credit to the club and clearly being managed well by the team at Farleigh. So much potential much of which we witnessed last season and whilst we have come to expect a lot from the likes of Richards and Green to mention a couple others are stepping up. I was particularly impressed with Cowan yesterday. Looking at the Chiefs Forum clearly their fans were not impressed by Baxter repeating last seasons plan, a plan which badly affected their league form nor were they impressed by the tactics and form of some players. Ultimately the game was won by the introduction of massive props and whilst we know that's a powerful tactic in the last quarter it isn't something that's going to help them much. Credit to their contributors for their appreciation of our young lads and the coaching at Bath. Just a quick comment about the choice of players for the two fixtures. I totally agree JVG made the right choice bearing in mind the Friday Quins fixture and on a sentimental note it was a nice touch for the long suffering Warriors supporters to experience.

The commentators spent an embarrassing amount of time eulogising over (Reg) Varney, probably because no-one else caught the eye.

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hasta
Technically you can go backwards and not infringe. Pretty antithetical to most forwards to attempt that.

you really can't. If you're going backwards at more than just a very slight rate, at a certain point it becomes pretty much impossible not to collapse in a heap.

The other thing the current interpretation of the laws misses is the responsibility of both sides to keep the scrum up.

If the stronger side a forcing the weaker prop to collapse who is really to blame.? Scrums and the refereeing has changed it is now about 'winning' pens not pushing the other side back. if a side has dominance and can push the opposition backwards then they get a game advantage and should have the same responsibility to keep the scrum up as the weaker side.

Excellent performance in challenging conditions against a full strength Chiefs team - the only issue I really have is the last penalty given by Maxwell-Keys - both Kay & Healey made reference to it - for me and yes maybe one eyed it was never a penalty - there was no playing of the 9 - it should have gone the other way for Richards superb jackling.

It ended up costing the lads a well deserved LBP and if the penalty had gone the other way then a chance to win the game.

Superb effort from some very young and inexperienced guys.

I think I would be more concerned if I were in the Chief camp to be honest although they have some real quality coming from Australia.