Biggest derby loss adds more concern
Bath Rugby suffered their biggest ever defeat to derby rivals Bristol Bears on Friday night, going down 48-3 at Ashton Gate.
The loss came off the back of conceded 52 points at The Recreation Ground last time against Wasps.
In total the hosts scored seven tries through Luke Morahan, Charles Piutau, Andy Uren, Bryn Byrne (2) and Semi Radradra, with referee Wayne Barnes also awarding a penalty try.
The visitors troubled the scorers with just a single Rhys Priestland penalty in a lopsided affair.
Bath Rugby writer John Evely takes a closer look at the key points from the Blue, Black and Whites’ defeat...
■ Key selection errors By stuart Hooper
I wrote prematch in my team predictor piece (on Somerset Live) that Cameron Repath needed to start for Bath at inside centre, because for all Josh Matavesi’s positive attributes, he does not have the mobility or speed to be able to defend against the highly agile Bristol backline.
The old saying horses for courses comes to mind.
Matavesi is a powerhouse, who puts in thunderous tackles which get replayed over and over on highlight reels, but he was never going to be able to deal with the stepping ability and speed of Ioan Lloyd, Piers O’conor and Semi Radradra.
The Fijian international was torn apart by the running game of Gloucester’s Lloyd Evans at the end of the last season, so much so he was crooked off by half-time - and all three men in Bristol’s midfield are more dangerous threats than the Cherry and Whites man.
O’conor particularly took advantage, racing through a gap to set-up the Bears’ second try in a perfect illustration of the point.
Hooper discussed in midweek the pros and cons of putting players, like Repath, into the starting side having been away on an international training camp with Scotland, but the centre has been one of Bath’s best players this season and was needed in the starting XV to face the league leaders.
Considering Bath had three weeks to plan and prepare for this game, albeit with the training ground shutdown for a week due to the false Covid tests in the middle, surely Redpath should have been in a position to start for his clubside? The midfield mismatch proved costly.
■ tactical naivety Even in junior rugby you learn quickly to try and keep the ball away from the fast, strong kid who is better than everyone else - well Semi Radradra is the equivalent of that in senior world rugby.
And yet Bath, through the boot of Matavesi, inexplicably kicked every restart in the first half - and there were a lot - straight into the hands of the superstar Fijian who took them with ease, stepped out of the first tackle and got the ball away with an offload, more often than not to Henry Purdy.
It was tactical insanity and selfdestruction on a rugby pitch unlike anything I have witnessed for some time and the visitors to Ashton Gate did it over and over again.
Someone either in the coaches box or on the field surely should have made an adjustment to one of the simplest things to fix.
When asked about it by BT Sport, Hooper said: “We are not meant to be kicking it to Radradra.”
Somewhere the message was lost.
■ Defensive nightmares
Unlike Bristol Bears, whose defence has made untold improvements in the last six months, Bath don’t have a dedicated defence coach. They might want to get one. Neal Hatley returned to the club as forwards and defence coach after helping guide England to the Rugby World Cup final in Japan in 2019 but this summer he was promoted to head coach.
Perhaps it is time Bath brought in a dedicated expert in keeping teams out as the Blue, Black and Whites have now shipped 212 points this season in the Premiership after playing just six games, at an average of 35.3 points a match.
It is tough to win matches like that, with Bath scoring more than 35 points just once so far this season in the 52-44 loss to Wasps.
Former England defence coach Paul Gustard is currently out of work having left his role as head of rugby at Harlequins last week. He is joining Italian Pro14 side Benetton as assistant head coach in July but has six months spare.
What’s certain is the final stats tell a horrible defensive story with 45 missed tackles to allow Bristol to run in 793m in attack, in comparison to Bath’s 130.
Radradra’s try from 65m out was the real dagger in the heart as the Fijian ran in untouched, ghosting through a gap between Taulupe Faletau and Jonathan Joseph before arching round Matavesi like he was a statue.
■ clever recruiting to stay competitive all year
Bristol Bears’ recruitment has to be applauded.
Pat Lam spends the cash of his billionaire boss Steve Lansdown very carefully, bringing in players he is going to get value out of; signing ex-internationals like Charles Piutau, John Afoa and Dave Attwood, who are not going to be called away for half the season unlike Bath’s biggest names.
With Fiji and Samoa playing comparatively few games compared to the northern hemisphere nations even the likes of Radradra and lock Chris Vui are around for substantially more of the season.
On Friday night Bristol were without England trio Max Malins, Ben Earl and Harry Randall, while prop Kyle Sinckler was suspended.
The Blue, Black and Whites were missing Beno Obano, Will Stuart, Charlie Ewels and Anthony Watson, with Sam Underhill injured, but are going to be comparatively worse hit by the Six Nations callups over the next seven weeks.
The result of the clever recruitment is Lam was able to name a side on Friday night which was close to his strongest XV, whereas Bath badly missed their absentees.
With Ruaridh Mcconnochie limping off with a lower leg injury and both Elliott Stooke and Josh Mcnally failing HIA tests early in the match, the picture is set to deteriorate next weekend for the visit of Harlequins in what is shaping into a must win game.