Rampant Gloucester humiliate sorry Bath
IT WAS hard not to feel for Sam Underhill and Charlie Ewels, two England forwards who ran themselves to a standstill on a day of abject humiliation for a side that has had more than its share of dark days this season.
They deserved better than to be part of a team that, after a couple of notable defensive sets in the opening quarter, collapsed like an overused deck-chair on a windy seafront. Gloucester will never have it easier.
They scored 10 tries and the winning margin was greater than their 68-12 victory over Bath at Kingsholm 20 years ago. It was not as if they were untouchable, taking their time to get going before taking advantage of Bath’s lack of line speed and predictability in attack to force turnovers.
Gloucester head coach George Skivington said: “There were some fantastic performances but what delighted me most was that we kept Bath to nil. All credit to Dom Waldouck for the work he has done in defence.”
Bath defended most stoutly in the opening 10 minutes when they had two players in the sin-bin. Valeriy Morozov, who was propping against another Russian, Kirill Gotovstev, was penalised for a high tackle on Santiago Carreras after the full-back had come to ground having fielded a high kick.
He had just come back on to the field when centre Max Clark saw yellow after 12 minutes for tripping Charlie Chapman in the build-up to Gloucester’s first try, scored by Chris Harris.
Three tries had already been ruled out on review, including one by Clark after Underhill’s thumping tackle on Atkinson and, as the half-hour approached, Gloucester’s lead was only 7-0 in a bitty match blighted by too much whistle.
And then Louis ReesZammit, who had blown a chance at the start by going for the line rather than passing, popped up on the left wing after Bath, not for the first time, lost their own lineout and five minutes later he helped himself to a Bath ruck, kicked to the line and far too easily bumped Joe Cokanasiga out of the way before touching down.
Santiago Carreras made it 24-0 at the end of the opening half and the second period was less than a minute old when Rees-Zammit again flatfooted the defence and freed Ben Morgan.
It was the start of a procession. Atkinson, whose trickery would have stretched a more willing defence, made it 38-0 before the most popular try of the afternoon was scored by captain Lewis Ludlow, whose inside line exposed the fragility of Bath’s cover, finding a gap where none should have existed.
Replacement scrumhalf Ben Meehan brought up the half-century when Tom Seabrook was in the sin-bin for an offence similar to Morozov’s, catching the head of an opponent whose head was not that far off the ground.
The crackdown on high tackles is necessary, but there is a danger that the desire to be seen to be doing the right thing will lead to over-zealotry.
Bath were long gone by now. Replacement prop Jamal Ford-Robinson impersonated a wing for Gloucester’s ninth try before second row Matias Alemanno, denied on review after three minutes, concluded the scoring.
The victory left Gloucester one point behind fourth-placed Northampton with matches against Harlequins and Saracens to follow. There is nowhere for Bath to fall because they are already bottom. To rise they only need to look at Underhill and Ewels.