Bath mauled in another record loss
Bristol Bears completed a derby double for the second season in a row with 40-20 win over Bath Rugby on Saturday.
Having lost by a record margin at Ashton Gate back in January, 48-3, Bath conceded the most points at The Rec to Bristol in the 133-year history of the fixture.
League leaders Bristol secured their place in the play-offs, while Bath sit seventh.
After the game, director of rugby Stuart Hooper said: “A number of things, I think, ultimately that we lost at home to the best team in the league but we didn’t do ourselves any favours.
“We didn’t keep 15 men on the field and we gave way too many setpiece penalties, through that middle bit of the game really and invited them back in.
“I think the way we got there [conceding a record amount of points] is the bit that I need to look at and that we need to look at.
“I think that some of the effort and the endeavour in the first half when we saw what we practised in training, we put Bristol under pressure, I think it was 12 or 14 turnovers they made in the first half.
“We looked like we could cause them some problems and then, in the second half, we lost Will Stuart to a nasty head knock, he’s in hospital now.
“I think that was a moment where we then lost some ascendancy with the ball carry and at the set piece and that put them back in the game.
“We had guys like Miles [Reid], Josh Bayliss, fighting for every inch of grass and I’m proud of that, I’m very proud of that, but the lack of discipline, not just discipline, as in penalties, but the lack of discipline to our game [plan] let them back in and they’re too good a side to play against with 14.”
Despite the overwhelming scoreline, Bath actually looked good defensively for large parts of the match, but failed to offer more in attack.
Hooper said: “I think that’s something that is obviously a huge part of the game and when you come off losing 40-20 defence is the first thing you’re going to go to, but I think there was three set-piece tries in there, there were two pushovers and there was a penalty try.
“So our phase play defence I thought was considerably better against these guys than it has been, you’ve got to apply pressure, and you apply pressure with territory, which we did well in the first half.
“What we didn’t do was apply pressure with possession, so yes we need to show a bit more attack and apply a bit more pressure with possession. And if we can do that, then we could have caused them some more problems.”
Tom Dunn received a red card in the 70th minute for a dangerous tackle and will now be unavailable for the rest of the season.
Hooper said: “Tom puts everything in, like he will do whatever it takes for the boys and for this club.
“He is an outstanding servant to the club, but he knows that he can’t do those things in games, it’s not mixed up with how hard he tries because he tries incredibly hard and he’d do anything for the boys.
“But that’s not something you can do on a rugby field anymore, so yes it puts us under pressure.
“Everyone has to modify their game like the game is being modified by the laws and you see that with a number of red cards that have come in. And, of course the game is not going to move, you know that the players and the way we train has to adapt to what the lawmakers want to see.”
Looking ahead, Hooper added: “I guess there are four games, so we now go into Sale on Friday night and we’ll fight for everything and that doesn’t mean we’re loose and we’re just checking in, we’re doing everything we can.
“But what we do is we fight, we have a game plan and we fight for every inch of grass that we get and that’s what we want to see from the lads for the last four games, starting with Sale here on Friday and when we’ve done that, we can look at the table and see where we end up.
“But there’s no throwing the towel in. There are no mass changes, it’s just about the people who earned the right to play for the club will play for the club and we’ll put performances in that we can be proud of.”