Blues feel chill as Bath run hot after Earle goes

BATH are in prime position to top Pool 4 after they claimed a bonuspoint win over a 14-men Cardiff Blues side at the Rec on Thursday.

Ross Batty was the star of the show scoring two tries including a 70-metre intercept while the other three tries came from Jack Wilson, Aled Brew and Elliot Stooke.

The West Country outfit only led 10-3 at the break after Batty’s first try but they game was ultimately taken away from the Blues three minutes into the second half as lock George Earle was sent off for making contact with the eye area of Tom Ellis as he tried to make his way through a Bath driving maul.

And defeat tasted even sweeter for director of rugby Todd Blackadder who saw Francois Louw come out unscathed for his first game of the season after he picked up a hamstring injury playing for South Africa in the summer.

“It was a ding-dong battle up front,” said Blackadder. “Going into half time it was still a real arm wrestle with no quarter given. The pressure was on and it was down to who cracked first.

“We’ve got two more games and we’re not going to let our feet leave the ground by any means but the exciting thing now is our destiny is in our hands.

“We had a lot of guys coming back for game time and it showed as we were rusty with some combinations early on. But I was pleased they were out there and there were no injuries.

“There wasn’t a lot of preparation but you could see their class come through in the second half.”

Steven Shingler kicked the Blues into the lead 22 minutes in but five minutes later Batty picked up his first try and Bath never looked back.

A George Ford penalty made it 10-3 at the interval and once Earle saw red there was no way back for the Welsh as Bath made the best of the one-man advantage to score four more tries and pick up all five matchpoints.

Blues boss Danny Wilson said: “George’s devastated, he’s not that type of player. Ultimately the game was decided on the red card giving us a very difficult position to defend against a good Bath team.

“Up until the red card I was reasonably pleased. We were being very competitive.”