IT’S A WASHOUT
Vuna’s solitary touch of class spares Blackadder’s blushes
BATH 7 SALE 7
AMATCH both sides deserved to lose ended in a damp-squib draw — with Cooper Vuna and Joe Cokanasiga saving Bath’s bacon.
Down 7-0 and with Bath staring a shocking defeat in the face, Vuna danced though in the rain to fool Sam James on the wing, then Denny Solomona before kicking through for Cokanasiga to score.
It was the solitary moment of class in an awful game played out in terrible conditions.
The draw was Bath’s second of the season and incredibly lifts them to sixth.
Sale, who scored through JeanLuc du Preez, are back off the bottom place Newcastle briefly bequeathed them with their dramatic win at Northampton 24 hours earlier.
But, really, neither is safe from the drop yet.
‘We are climbing the ladder,’ said Bath director of rugby Todd Blackadder. ‘But that is the only highlight. We are letting our supporters down a bit with the way we are playing. We are letting ourselves down too, not playing the type if rugby we want to.
‘But it was a great set of skills from Cooper to put Joe in the for the try.’
For the first time in two years and seven and a half months in this league, the first half ended 0-0. Not since Gloucester played Exeter in April 2016 have we had that scoreline after 40 minutes.
It was not as if there were few chances to score. Freddie Burns and Rob du Preez both missed penalties they should have kicked, and Solomona dropped the ball over the line right at the end of the first period.
Bath should have been well clear. They had nearly 80 per cent territory and 71 per cent possession, but every time they managed to keep the ball for more than five phases they invariably lost it.
Shots at goal were turned down in favour of scrums and those did not provide any sort of platform. All in all it was utter dross. To call it a relegation dogfight would be unkind to dogfights.
Finally, Sale scored a try after 49 minutes. It was the secondlatest a Premiership game had ever seen its first points, not quite as late as when Sale’s Mark Tinnock broke the deadlock in the 64th minute with a try against Harlequins in October 1999.
A pair of brothers made sure the scoreboard moved at last. No 8 Du Preez dived over a closerange ruck, and older sibling Rob converted. Seven-nil, at long last.
Bath have been pointless at The Rec only twice in league history — against London Irish in 2009 and Saracens in 2012 — and when substitute James Wilson, who only re-joined the club as an emergency loanee this week, missed a penalty it looked likely they would be shut out.
But Vuna’s twinkle-toed feet added much-needed sparkle to the darkest of days, Cokanasiga scored and Wilson levelled with the conversion.
‘You had to be a purist to enjoy a game like that ’ said Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond. ‘It was highly attritional. We created enough chances, we just couldn’t to get over the line. We defended well enough. The draw was a fair result.
‘We have been in the Premiership for 25 years and there’s no reason we won’t be next year.
‘I am that confident, we don’t even discuss it ( relegation). There is no need to mention it. We have to win seven or eight games, so the fight is going to be there right until March and April.’