All posts tagged: Bath Rugby

Bath break Northampton hearts on one of European club rugby’s great nights

Bath break Northampton hearts on one of European club rugby’s great nights

Published by Sam Flores

It would be doing Bath a massive disservice to suggest they were all route one as they demonstrated with their third try which was strike play perfection. The scrum was solid and Redpath felt Russell, who faked pumped once to draw a gap to send Henry Arundell scurrying under the posts. Then right on half-time came a try that both coaches identified as a key momentum shift as shortly after Smith missed a penalty to touch, replacement Francois van Wyk was driven over. Russell missed leaving the game tantalising poised at 35-26 to the visitors. After the madness of the first half, Smith took the first conservative decision of the game, by kicking a penalty in front of the posts. However, Saints were reduced to 14 men when JJ van der Mescht was sin-binned following repeated offences in the 22. Bath kicked to the corner and piled what seemed like half of Somerset into the maul with replacement Kepu Tuipulotu grounding the ball. Russell’s conversion made it a five-point game. Another Smith penalty gave Saints …

Bath overcome Saracens in thrilling encounter to book spot in Champions Cup quarter-finals

Bath overcome Saracens in thrilling encounter to book spot in Champions Cup quarter-finals

Published by Sam Flores

Bath starting XV: 15 Santiago Carreras, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Henry Arundell, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben Spencer, 1 Beno Obano, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Archie Griffin, 4 Quinn Roux, 5 Charlie Ewels, 6 Josh Bayliss, 7 Guy Pepper, 8 Alfie Barbeary. Replacements: 16 Kepu Tuipulotu, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Ted Hill, 20 Sam Underhill, 21 Bernard van der Linde, 22 Cameron Redpath, 23 Miles Reid. Saracens starting XV: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Noah Caluori, 13 Nick Tompkins, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Tobias Elliott, 10 Fergus Burke, 9 Charlie Bracken, 1 Rhys Carre, 2 Jamie George, 3 Marcus Street, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Hugh Tizard, 6 Theo McFarland, 7 Andy Onyeama-Christie, 8 Tom Willis. Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Eroni Mawi, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Harry Wilson, 20 Nathan Michelow, 21 Ivan van Zyl, 22 Alex Lozowski, 23 Max Malins. Source link

Kepu Tuipulotu inspires comeback as Bath’s heavyweight bench sees off Sale

Kepu Tuipulotu inspires comeback as Bath’s heavyweight bench sees off Sale

Published by Sam Flores

Ewan Richards picked off a Sale attacking line-out and, from his own 22, Tuipulotu pummelled his way down the short side, running through two tackles, before spotting space in the Sale back field and setting up replacement scrum-half Van der Linde perfectly with his piece of footballing magic. Then came Barbeary’s killer thrust, after 28 punishing phases, to put them within sight of the finishing line. While Sale engineered a great position to steal the win late on, George Ford – playing his first game since February 21 after being dropped by England following the Six Nations defeat to Ireland – lost control of the ball and the chance slipped away. It was Sharks’ ninth defeat of a disappointing league campaign. “I’m crestfallen,” said Sale’s director of rugby Alex Sanderson, who was forced to play a hooker, Nathan Jibulu, at No 7 because of his back-row injury issues. “I’m just gutted for the amount of effort that the lads put in. It is frustrating but it’s seemingly a similar story to how the rest of …

Bath run riot against Edinburgh but Champions Cup credibility takes another hit

Bath run riot against Edinburgh but Champions Cup credibility takes another hit

Published by Sam Flores

The same combination instantly combined again, this time Ojomoh pulled the ball back to Cokanasiga cutting a devastating line. The wing could easily have scored himself but unselfishly obeyed his captain Spencer’s instruction to pass inside. By now Edinburgh were waving the white flag as Arundell, Cokanasiga and Ojomoh each finished well to put an exclamation point on an emphatic performance. Match details Scoring sequence: 0-3 Thompson pen, 5-3 Du Toit try, 7-3 Russell con, 14-3 pen try, 19-3 Obano try, 21-3 Russell con, 21-8 O’Conor try, 21-10 Thompson con, 26-10 Dunn try, 28-10 Russell con, 33-10 Cokanasiga try, 35-10 Russell con, 40-10 Spencer try 42-10,Russell con, 47-10 Arundell try, 49-10 Russell con, 54-10 Cokanasiga try, 56-10 Russell con, 61-10 Ojomoh try, 63-10 Russell con. Bath: T De Glanville (S Carreas 54); J Cokanasiga, M Ojomoh, O Lawrence (C Redpath 64), H Arundell; F Russell, B Spencer (T Carr-Smith 64); B Obano (F Van Wyk 64), T Dunn (D Frost 64), T Du Toit (A Griffin 64), Q Roux, R Molony (T Hill 64), G …

Bath pull off ‘Great Escape’ after Exeter’s thrilling 26-point comeback

Bath pull off ‘Great Escape’ after Exeter’s thrilling 26-point comeback

Published by Sam Flores

Match details Scoring sequence: 5-0 Obano try, 7-0 Russell con, 12-0 Barbeary try, 14-0 Russell con, 19-0 Carreras try, 21-0 Russell con, 26-0 Lawrence try, 26-5 Dweba try, 26-7 Slade con, 16-12 Woodburn try, 26-14 Slade con, 26-19 Fisilau try, 26-24 Feyi-Waboso try, 26-26 Slade con, 31-26 Green try, 33-26 Russell con. Bath: S Carreras; H Arundell (L Hennessey 6, Arundell 17), O Lawrence, C Redpath, W Muir (L Hennessey 57); F Russell, B Spencer; B Obano (S Kirk 57), T Dunn (K Tuipulotu 57), V Sela (T du Toit 57), E Opoku-Gyamfi (Q Roux 48), R Molony, T Hill, G Pepper (S Underhill 57), A Barbeary (A Green 57). Replacement: T Carr-Smith. Exeter Chiefs: O Woodburn; I Feyi-Waboso, H Slade, W Rigg, C Ridl (D John 24); H Skinner, S Varney (C Chapman 48); S Sio (W Goodrick-Clarke 55), J Dweba (J Yeandle 55), B Tchumbadze (J Roots 55), D Jenkins, A Zambonin (R Tuima 67), T Hooper, E Roots (K James 63), G Fisilau. Replacement: W Haydon-Wood. 20-min red card: Ridl. Referee: Luke …

Tommy Freeman and Saints blast past Bath to top table

Tommy Freeman and Saints blast past Bath to top table

Published by Sam Flores

Nothing could have encapsulated that like the final throes of an extraordinary game. Henry Arundell, who looked totally blinkered and out of sorts, found a glimmer of space down the left, inside the Northampton 22. The wing spotted Lawrence on his inside but the centre, who had already shelled one over the line, inexplicably dropped a pass with the line at his mercy, which scuppered Bath’s bonus-point hopes. Undoubtedly, the day belonged to the Saints. 2025 will forever belong to Bath and their treble heroes but, 2026? Saints would be as safe a bet as any. Match details Scoring sequence: 0-5 Freeman try, 0-7 Belleau con, 5-7 Du Toit try, 7-7 Russell con, 7-12 McParland try, 7-14 Belleau con, 12-14 Dunn try, 14-14 Russell con, 19-14 Du Toit try, 21-14 Russell con, 21-19 Freeman try, 21-21 Belleau con, 21-26 Pollock try, 21-28 Belleau con, 21-33 Pollock try, 21-36 Belleau pen, 21-38 Freeman try. Bath: T de Glanville (S Carreras 56); J Cokanasiga, O Lawrence, M Ojomoh (C Harris 30), H Arundell; F Russell, B Spencer …