Students make light work of visiting Cardiff

Team Bath men’s 1st XV scored seven tries, six of them during a dominant second half, as they beat Cardiff University 53-17 in the first BUCS Super Rugby game of 2019. Team Bath bossed the early stages, quickly setting up camp in the Cardiff 22, but a loose pass out wide was intercepted by visiting full-back Owen Williams who raced the length of the pitch to open the scoring. He was unable to add the extras from a tight angle. The home side shrugged off that setback and cut the gap with a Will Partington penalty from just inside the Cardiff half before taking the lead in the 14th minute. They forced a series of mauls on the visitors’ line before spreading play wide. Again a Cardiff player got a finger to the ball but this time couldn’t intercept and Hugo Stiles was on hand to cut through and touch down, leaving Partington with a simple conversion. Team Bath extended their lead with a Partington penalty from in front of the posts but a knock-on from the subsequent restart gave Cardiff an attacking scrum and they took full advantage, fly-half James Davies accelerating through a gap in the home defence to finish. Williams’ conversion meant Team Bath’s lead was cut to 13-12 going into half-time but they set the tone for the second period when Jack Davies made a half break before flicking the ball inside for No8 Jack Kenningham to power under the posts, leaving Partington a simple conversion. Cardiff were now coming under increasing pressure and when flanker Luke Waller was yellowcarded, Team Bath opted to kick the subsequent penalty to touch. Their positive intent was rewarded when captain Tom Doughty scored from the lineout drive, Partington again adding the extras. The hosts were now well in command and secured the bonus point in style as a fantastic offload from Alex Nisbet allowed Will Hughes to slice through the Cardiff line before teeing up flying winger Ethan Hutt. Cardiff were reduced to 13 men when Rhodri Wall was sin-binned for blocking a quick tap penalty and again Team Bath took full advantage, Doughty driving over for his second try. Partington’s excellent conversion from the touchline saw the hosts increase their lead to 39-12 with an hour on the clock. Team Bath took the chance to make wholesale changes to the team but lost replacement Ed Rimmer to the bin for ten minutes and conceded a try while as Williams went over for his second. That was the only blemish of the second half, though, and Team Bath finished the game strongly with two tries in the last two minutes. First Partington collected his own chip to score under the posts, then Chris Barry powered over for his second try in as many weeks. Partington converted both to take his personal points tally to 23.