POWER PACK!
Battling Bath squeeze past Glasgow to earn place in the last eight
FINE margins and good fortune allowed Bath to claim a place in the European Champions Cup quarter-finals yesterday. After the scorching demolition of Toulouse a week earlier, this was a victory at the Recreation Ground for the earthy virtue of pack power.
Bath had come into this contest determined to reach the knockout stages and also avenge the 37-10 drubbing they suffered in October’s reverse fixture. They achieved both objectives but despite finishing top of Pool 4 this win will not reverberate around the European game.
Two penalty tries were a testament to Bath’s dominance in scrum and maul but in most aspects of the game they were emphatically outplayed by their Scottish opponents in this qualification decider. Glasgow’s open-field cohesion had already delivered two tries, one a long-range classic, and they nearly snatched a third at the death.
In the last minute, Lions full back Sean Maitland, an outstanding, threatening runner throughout, surged towards the left corner but was stopped just short. The danger was not averted, though, and Pat MacArthur lunged in an effort to touch down only to fumble his chance.
Seconds later Bath’s players celebrated without knowing the wider implications. News soon filtered through from France that Toulouse, who had led the table going into this final pool weekend, had lost at Montpellier by a single point, meaning Mike Ford’s men had nipped in front of them to claim an automatic last-eight place.
Seven days after running riot against a European superpower this was far removed from that thrilling spectacle. Bath turned the screw in the scrum, led by AngloWelsh prop pair David Wilson and Paul James, but they were in front for only 19 minutes, which says plenty about their struggle to impose themselves on a Glasgow side without several key players.
It did not help Bath that they lost influential England centre Kyle Eastmond to injury early on, while his midfield partner Jonathan Joseph, the hero of Toulouse, was largely contained.
Instead, the thrills and spills of round five gave way to dogged, primal force as they became the first team to win a pool after losing their first two games.
‘Last week you saw the dash, this week you saw the grunt,’ said Ford, Bath’s director of rugby. ‘ I’m pleased that when we weren’t playing our A game we still found a way to win. It came down to small margins.
‘We lost our first two games in October so to end up as pool winners is brilliant. This club wants to play in the big games. A quarter-final of the Champions Cup will be a huge game.’
Glasgow deservedly went ahead in the fifth minute when DTH van der Merwe burst through Chris Cook’s attempted tackle before releasing Scotland centre Alex Dunbar to score. Finn Russell converted and after half-time the fly-half set the wheels in motion for the visitors’ scintillating second try.
From turnover ball in his own half, Glasgow’s No 10 sent Mark Bennett away into space. After Tommy Seymour maintained the momentum, Bennett ran on and passed out for Richie Vernon to go over.
But the Scottish side were undermined by their struggles up front. In the 52nd minute, Bath had only two George Ford penalties to show for their efforts, but then a penalty to the left corner brought their first try. Captain Stuart Hooper won the lineout, Bath’s pack drove for the line and when the maul went down a penalty try was awarded which Ford converted.
Glasgow were soon back in front courtesy of a Russell penalty but in the 66th minute Bath’s forwards delivered another show of force.
Anthony Watson had just squandered a clear chance in the right corner but the subsequent scrum brought another penalty try.
Ollie Devoto added the conversion to give Bath a five- point advantage but at the end they were hanging on.
Gregor Townsend, Glasgow’s head coach, lamented: ‘We came up two inches short.’