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Higgins' Hat-Trick Secures Bonus Point For Bath
By Glen Leat
February 14 2009
Andrew Higgins scored a hat-trick of tries for Bath against Worcester at Sixways. After a first half blip, that saw Bath concede two tries in four minutes after taking a 0-10 lead, Steve Meehan's men upped their game in the second half to secure a 17-34 bonus point win.

Bath attacked well throughout the opening phases of the match and, after eight minutes, were held up over the Worcester line with Michael Stephenson being penalised for going over the top in his desperation to score. Continuing their dominance, Bath skipper for the day, Michael Claassens, had several opportunities to opt for three points after the visitors were awarded several penalties but true to his attacking instincts, Claassens opted to tap and go each time. However when a third penalty was awarded to Bath, Claassens asked Butch James to secure the first points of the afternoon.

Worcester attacked the Bath twenty-two from the restart but were shocked by the whippet-like Andrew Higgins who intercepted a wayward pass from Joe Carlisle and ran in for Bath's first try, beating Marcel Garvey to the line. Butch James slotted home the conversion to make the score 10-0 to Bath.

Worcester hit back ten minutes later when the defence of an overly confident Bath was exposed by a turn-over. Crichton  got away, passed to Gear, who beat James and fed back in to Latham who scored Worcester's first try of the game. Carlisle's conversion made the score 7-10 and sent some shock waves through the Bath camp. Three minutes later Worcester scored again through Loki Crichton as Bath was again caught trying to play too much rugby instead of keeping the game tight, making the game 14-10.

Bath put themselves under further pressure after 34 minutes by conceding a penalty for handling in a ruck. Fortunately Carlisle missed his kick. Another penalty attempt came from Hape, clumsily falling over Rasmussen after he'd fallen on loose ball but fortunately Carlisle missed and so the half-time score was 14-10.

Bath opened the second half with a second try for Andrew Higgins after four minutes. A more patient build up by the visitors than was seen in the first 40 minutes ensured possession was retained and, after some seven phases, the Bath winger was almost able to walk in for the score. A good kick by James took the score to 14-17.

Bath scored their third try after Shontayne Hape broke away from a Bath lineout tap-back, easily beating the Worcester defenders and perfectly timing his pass to Joe Maddock for his try under the posts. Hape did everything but score this try to claim the points for his team, this was a genuine "assist" and a move that should give him confidence for future games. James' conversion made the score 14-24. Bath were caught offside within moments of the restart and new-boy (to team and match), Willy Walker, opened his Worcester account with three easy points.

Bath continued to press for a fourth try bonus point and enjoyed a series of five metre scrums on both sides of the pitch. Their progress was halted when a defender shoved his hand into a ruck to break up the attack and gave Bath another three points to extend their lead to ten points (17-27).

Willy Walker had a great opportunity to cut the arrears to seven points with a twenty-five metre penalty but sent the ball wide and perhaps demonstrated why Glawster were happy for him to be loaned out to Worcester for the rest of the season.

Moments later Worcester looked as though they would score a try to make the final run in really exciting, but they failed to complete their final pass and Scott Bemand ran away with the ball to relieve pressure on the Bath defence. It was great to see Chris Goodman trot on for the final six minutes given his injury despair all season.

With the last play of the match Higgins scored his third try to secure Bath their five points. Butch James finished off with another conversion for 100% kicking to make the final score 17-34. Mind you, had Worcester taken their chances the end result of this game could have been very different: the game was up for grabs almost until the end.

With losses to London Irish and Sale, this was a great afternoon for Bath.

 

Worcester

17 - 34
(14 - 10)

Bath
Tries:
Latham, Crichton
 Tries:
Higgins 3, Maddock
Penalties:
Walker
 Penalties:
James 2
Conversions:
Carlisle 2
 Conversions:
James 4

 

Worcester Warriors: 15. Chris Latham   14. Rico Gear   13. Dale Rasmussen   12. Loki Crichton   11. Marcel Garvey   10. Joe Carlisle   9. Ryan Powell   1. Matt Mullan   2. Aleki Lutui   3. Tevita Taumoepeau   4. Greg Rawlinson   5. Will Bowley   6. Tom Wood   7. Pat Sanderson   8. Kai Horstmann  
Replacements: 16. Darren Morris   17. Chris Fortey   18. Craig Gillies   19. Netani Talei   20. Matt Powell   21. Willie Walker   22. Alex Grove

 

Bath Rugby: 15. Joe Maddock   14. Michael Stephenson   13. Shontayne Hape   12. Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu   11. Andrew Higgins   10. Butch James   9. Michael Claassens   1. David Flatman   2. Pieter Dixon   3. Duncan Bell   4. Justin Harrison   5. Stuart Hooper   6. Andy Beattie   7. James Scaysbrook   8. Daniel Browne  
Replacements: 16. Rob Hawkins   17. Aaron Jarvis   18. Jonny Fa'amatuainu   19. Chris Goodman   20. Scott Bemand   21. Shaun Berne   22. Tom Cheeseman  

Referee: Dean Richards

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