The ‘A’ team get a good result in Bath

By Robin Clive
September 21 2005

Having just endured two hours of British ‘High Speed’ Rail’s finest delaying tactics in getting me home, on a journey that took only 45 minutes going down, this report may not make much sense! If so – business as usual, for I took few notes.

I was told afterwards that there had been a shirt mix-up, because Bath were going to play in white (the same as our away strip) and seemingly ended up wearing the first shirt to hand. Their numbers therefore meant nothing and I cannot do justice to their several very fast men on the outside. This is a shame for before the match I felt that our backs would give them a seeing-to. Things didn’t quite work out that way.

By now everyone knows that we won 12-19 and scored three tries. What you may not know is that you missed an evening of adventurous, highly watchable, rugby from both teams, for which they both have my thanks. The first half was all Irish – but in just about their only attack worth the name, Bath got the points on the board, in the 30th minute, via a penalty, a line out and a mazy run by winger Mangeolles. 7-0. And that was how it was at half time.

One minute from the start of the second half we were level. Topsy Ojo (who shone every time he got the ball) scored an absolute peach from a Danaher pass and No 10 Honeybun converted, while I hummed appropriate tunes from South Pacific. Four minutes later Declan himself scored out on the left, and Honeybun again obliged. 7-14, and we were looking good.

After that, the Bath pack woke up, and spent an inordinate amount of time camped in our half or heaven forbid, on our line, throughout the rest of the second half. (We broke out occasionally, and threatened occasionally, but the last 25 minutes really belonged to the lads in blue.) Since, unusually, we delayed putting on most of our reserves until the last 15 minutes we can hardly put this down to disruption, as per usual.

In the 32nd minute new boy Paul Franze crowned a thoroughly workmanlike display with a try in the left corner, to finish off a wing move that was itself on the end of a first phase passing move involving quick hands right down the line, with Topsy on the outside, as he always seemed to be, on that left wing. The conversion bounced off the left upright. Following concerted pressure inside our 22, Bath finally got their second try on THEIR left wing, and converted.

Impressions? Up-front, the not very tall Richard Thorpe (8) being hurled skywards in numerous line-outs, while the much taller Kennedy (5) and Banahan (4) acted as decoys. Nick Kennedy seemingly everywhere, applying bulk, leaping in line-outs and making speedy headway around the park, often with the ball. Take it from me. The guy is now match fit! He had an absolute stormer. The pack’s cleaning out and turnover ball were exemplary, supplying scrum half Metzger with good ball from the rucks and mauls, although rather too much of our line-out possession was tapped back and sometimes wildly so. We also chucked some over the top into no man’s land where we were not always in a position to collect.

The back row worked really hard and to good effect. I particularly noticed Danaher and Thorpe because I know them, which is a bit unfair on Jay King at 6 who was just as active. Dec threw forward in a few tackles, but made up for this on many occasions by getting up and running down the man now in possession!

And what of our vaunted backline? Matt Honeybun at 10 started nervously but soon found his rhythm, on the end of well-aimed bullets from his scrum half. For the entirety of the first half and on occasion in the second, the ball whizzed down our line at speed, and Storey and Franze in the centre both tried the half break with a pass around the back of the tackler, time and time again. Somehow the recipient never quite got away from the cover. As frequently they let it out to the wing, although I noted that most of our attacks were going right-left towards Canty rather than left-right to our new Samoan friend. Our three tries reflected this, all scorers going over to the left of the posts.

Paul Franze was very solid in the tackle although I don’t recall any corpses being taken off as a result. But really, everyone else was solid too. He looked useful in attack, but apart from his try (which actually involved so many others, too) he never looked to me like breaking through, nearly, but not quite. Once he has adjusted to our code I suspect we’ll see a great deal more of him getting past the opposition. I liked what I saw.

Centre colleague Storey broke quite frequently, in the first half especially, and passed as well as all the other inside backs, but, didn’t quite seem to have ‘edge.’ Topsy was Topsy, tough, quick and incisive with ball in hand. Caught and punted well. That leaves Dom Feau’nati. In the second half especially he seemed to be labouring from a thigh strain, but management left him on, and he seemingly hobbled along. Apart from some nice close quarters stepping towards the end and one close side burst, he seemed hard to stop, but always got stopped. Undoubted pace in the first ten, but I had the impression that he wasn’t too quick over the second ten. I’d hate to do the guy a disservice, though, and it may be that I missed some leger-de-main in the first half when my view of him may have been obscured.

I am left with an impression of deft hand skills and fast passing, of some honest hard work from the front five, a back row which snuffed out so much of the Bath possession – and of a night when we really should have scored more. Fair play to Bath for not letting us.