Bath Crash Out Of Europe

Bath crashed out of the Parker Pen Cup in Montferrand 38-22 (53-51 on aggregate) to a French team supposedly struggling this season yet who ran our boys ragged in both games. In the first half of this match Tony Marsh and his comrades looked devastating and Bath could do little to contain them.

There is no doubt that the best side won on the day and over the two matches: the 14 point lead Bath took to France was somewhat flattering and really only achieved as Montferrand lost players to the sin bin at the Rec. Two second half Montferrand sin-binnings in this game led to three late Bath tries, but it was too little, too late to make a difference and the Zurich Premiership league leaders head homing knowing that the difficult task of winning the Premiership is all that lies ahead.

There is no doubt that Bath are looking ragged, with a tough season taking its toll on body and mind. Michael Lipman failed a late fitness test and was replaced by James Scaysbrook and a clearly unfit Duncan Bell lasted less than five minutes before joining his front row pal, David Flatman, on the sidelines. Playing against a massive and aggressive Montferrand pack was tough going for David Barnes, Jonathan Humphreys and Matt Stevens and for the first time this season we had to watch our eight being shoved around the park and totally muscled out of the game. The lack of forward domination married with a set of struggling backs was never going to be a combination to beat a fired up French team who knew winning this match was their only hope of playing European rugby next season.

As with last week's game against the Saints, Bath tried to drive their way out of trouble when pinned back on their own line. Instead of setting up a clearance kick as the main source of defending their goal line, too many Bath forwards were taking the ball and gaining a few feet when it was tens of yards we needed. 

The writing was on the wall for Bath from the start when Olly Barkley carried on where he left off last week by dropping the opening catch of the game. Bath were penalised from the resulting scrum and Anthony Floch stroked the ball home for a Montferrand lead inside a minute. Bath had an opportunity to strike back immediately with a penalty on the Montferrand 10-metre line but Barkley missed a kick, the type of which he was slotting home quite easily earlier in the season.

The French defence was quick and smothering in its approach and they hurried the Bath players in possession, forcing errors and closing down any opportunities. As a neutral this defensive play would have been pleasurable to watch but as a Bath supporter it was painful. Similarly the Bath line-out, which has been so strong all season, was disrupted throughout the game and we saw the rarity of an opposition steal and crooked throws as the Bath jumpers tried to shake off their opponents.

The Bath defence was breached for the first time after 15 minutes when David Bory ran through a Wylie Human tackle and slipped the ball to Tony Marsh who just managed to get the ball down before a retreating Human got between ground and ball. As with a later score by Zac Feaunati, the referee was too quick to award a score which looked dubious: mind you the Bath players didn't complain so Courtney was probably right with his decision. An excellent touchline conversion took the score to 10-0 and the 14 point least was quickly being eroded.

Having pulled themselves back together following the Marsh try, Bath started some attacking of their own but their hearts hit rock bottom when, after 21 minutes, a Martyn Wood wayward pass from an attacking ruck in the French twenty-two missed all of his colleagues and was taken forward by Bory, who slipped the ball to scrum half, Pierre Mignoni, for a breakaway try and suddenly Bath were down in the game and the tie - nightmare! After the first quarter of the game Montferrand were 17-0 up against one of the meanest defences in English rugby.

An Olly Barkley penalty brought the aggregate score back to even. However two more Montferrand penalties from Bath indiscipline preceded a second Tony Marsh try on the opposite wing to his first effort: this time he ran through Matt Perry with Olly Barkley unable to touch him as he dived over to score. The French backs were in total control at this stage, running and passing at will and making the Bath tacklers look lame in their approach and this dominance was reflected in a 28-3 half time score.

Eight minutes in to the second half John Connolly decided to ring the changes and substituted Olly Barkley and Matt Perry with Chris Malone and Mike Catt but Bath's European dream was dealt a massive blow after 51 minutes when Danny Grewcock threw a loose ball out of the back of a ruck in to no-man's land: it was picked up by a Montferrand forward who passed forward to Olivier Magne who stole in for their fourth try. There is no doubt that Montferrand deserved this score with the pressure they were exacting on Bath but the final pass was more than a yard forward and the referee was on hand to spot this infringement.

Two sin-binnings for Privat and Vermeulenthe gave Bath every opportunity to get back into the game and they took full advantage, scoring two quick tries during that spell to cut the two-leg deficit to just nine points. First, Feaunati scored a questionable try, when it looked as though he was on his back when crossing the line amidst a ruck of players and then Danielli slid into the corner after a fine passing movement from the Bath backs. Wylie Human crossed the line in the game's final move - a score which Chris Malone duly converted but it wasn't enough and Bath fell short by two points..

The end result of this game is not just about missing out on the Cup Final but also confirmation that the team is struggling in many areas and a tight pack is not able to hide the cracks that seem to be getting ever wider. No one stood out for Bath, mainly because Montferrand wouldn't let them. The French team played at a fast pace and used their power to dominate the game in all areas, in particular their skipper, Tony Marsh, looked on top of his game. His opposing centres, Maggs and Fleck, again were anonymous and Human and Danielli had few opportunities to get the ball, though they both made a couple of exciting runs.

Next week's trip to the Stoop could be a season-breaker, and the Bath players desperately need a good performance as well as a win if they are to regain some confidence to beat Glawster and stand any chance of making a fist of the Premiership Final. Congratulations Montferrand, you can be very proud of your performance today.

Scorers

Bath

Matt Perry; Wylie Human, Robbie Fleck, Kevin Maggs, Simon Danielli; Olly Barkley, Martyn Wood; David Barnes, Jonathan Humphreys, Duncan Bell; Steve Borthwick, Danny Grewcock; Andy Beattie, James Scaysbrook, Zak Feaunati

Subs: Ross Blake, Lee Mears, Matt Stevens, Mike Catt, Chris Malone, Scott Gray, Rob Fidler

Montferrand

1. Cédric Soulette, 2. Olivier Azam 3. Brent Moyle  4. Hottie Louw 5. Thibaut Privat 6. Michel Dieudé 7. Olivier Magne 8. Elvis Vermeulen
9. Pierre Mignoni 10. Gérald Merceron 11. David Bory 12. Tony Marsh 13. Raphaël Chanal 14. Aurélien Rougerie 15. Anthony Floch

Replacements: 16. Richard Cockerill 17. Stéphane Delpuech 18. Lyonel Vaïtanaki 19. Alexandre Audebert 20. Marc Raynaud 21. Jérôme Moreau
22. Jérôme Gendre

Referee: Donal Courtney