Bath take the spoils but may Henshaw shines as rue missing a bonus point Leinster hold on
It remains to be seen just how costly the lack of a four-try bonus point will ultimately prove for Bath. Such talk might sound harsh on Benetton, who have done some damage in the Pro14 this term and are clearly improving under New Zealander Kieran Crowley.
But having the Italian team in your group is meant to be the winning Lottery ticket in Champions Cup terms; conferring upon the three others an instant 10-point advantage. Whether Toulon and the Scarlets, who play each other today in the other game in Pool 5, take full advantage in due course may yet determine whether Bath progress to the quarter-finals.
It would be tough, though, to quibble too much about a two-try win in your opening Champions Cup fixture, especially when you consider how much worse it might have been. Bath ended this game with just 31 per cent territory and only fractionally more in the possession column. Only some outstanding defending in the first period – one try-saving tackle from Semesa Rokoduguni, in particular, which was the game’s pivotal moment – and some tepid attacking play from Benetton in the second, saw them home.
Bath director of rugby Todd Blackadder was certainly not unhappy, arguing that both Toulon and Scarlets would “really struggle” to get four-try wins against Benetton and admitting his team might even have been “rolled” by the Italians on another night. “It was everything I expected it to be,” BlackLeinster adder said. “They’re no mugs. I felt very proud of my guys at half time. We dug ourselves out of a hole there. Two inspirational moments – the last-ditch tackles from Aled Brew and Roko – were crucial.”
With Freddie Burns suspended and Rhys Priestland injured, Blackadder handed a first start to Josh Lewis at flyhalf. He was allowed to settle his nerves with two penalties inside the opening 10 minutes. Jonathan Joseph sent Rokoduguni on his way down the right and the Fijian’s pass inside to Chris Cook was brilliantly offloaded by the Bath scrum-half to Zach Mercer, who powered over from 20 metres out. Lewis added the extras and a first-half ended 13-0. Lewis kicked another penalty before Aled Brew’s mazy run giving them their second try of the game. survived a nailbiting finish to begin their Champions Cup campaign with a bonus-point win. Man of the match Robbie Henshaw and European debutant Barry Daly went over after the interval to add to first-half tries by Joey Carbery and Josh van der Flier.
Montpellier, who trailed 12-7 after having first-half wind advantage, hung in there thanks to Nemani Nadolo’s two tries before a Ruan Pienaar penalty cut the gap back to seven points.
However, 14-man Leinster, despite losing Adam Byrne to the sin bin in the closing stages, stood firm to go top of Pool Three.
Leinster went ahead after 17 minutes when Ross Byrne pressured Jesse Mogg with a clever kick and then, armed with a penalty advantage, fired a pass out for Carbery to slice between Frans Steyn and Nadolo and score the province’s 400th European Cup try.
Byrne failed to convert from wide, but excellent work in slowing down Montpellier ball gave Leinster further encouragement. Nadolo was then caught out by two runs from Adam Byrne, with No 10 Ross Byrne also finding a hole in midfield before Van der Flier burrowed over for a seven-pointer.
However, Bismarck du Plessis got in at the breakdown twice to give the bigspending visitors a lift.
With home captain Isa Nacewa hobbling off, Steyn surged through midfield and Nadolo was held up just short. From the resulting scrum, a bouncing pass sat up for the big Fijian to finish off and Pienaar converted for a 12-7 deficit.
Into the second half, the luck was on Leinster’s side when Ross Byrne’s crossfield kick came off the hands off Mogg and Joe Tomane and Henshaw gobbled it up for an easy run-in, with Byrne converting for a 19-7 lead.
On the hour, Nadolo batted away attempted tackles by Luke McGrath and Noel Reid to draw Montpellier back within five points. It was then Daly’s turn to show off his finishing skills five minutes later, Henshaw and Carbery combining to set up the winger for a muscular finish in the left corner.
Poor Ross Molony discipline allowed Pienaar to kick Montpellier into bonus-point range, and winger Byrne’s deliberate knock-on left the hosts scrambling to hold on with 14 men. Timoci Nagusa blundered when he failed to free up a man outside him, however, and Montpellier’s levelling try never came. They kept hold of their losing bonus point, though, as Ross Byrne was short with a late penalty.