Jump Leeds


By Ed Scott
January 6 2011

This Saturday we welcome Leeds Carnegie to the Rec for our return Aviva Premiership fixture. Off the back of a brilliant second half to last season, our victory away to Leeds at the start of this season seemed to confirm that in 2010/11 Bath were going to be serious league contenders. Sadly, (so far) this has not turned out to be the case.

Last Saturday was probably the epitome the expression, "a win's a win". We spent a sum total of 4 minutes of the game in the lead, got outscored three tries to one and were second best (yet again) in the set piece. Against all the stats however, we still pulled it out of the bag at the death. Quite a few of the EREites seemed unsatisfied due to the nature of the victory, but there were many of us who saw the positives. For me they were simple - four desperately needed league points.
 
At times this season we have made some poor game decisions (Biarritz) and a lack of passion and grit has definitely cost us league points (Gloucester springs to mind in particular). On Saturday we simply could not get it going in the backs (poor ball and terrible execution being equal culprits) and were struggling up front. As a result we went old school. The forwards stuffed it up the jumper and turned pressure into points. Yes they scored three tries, but if the only way you can stop a team from getting over the whitewash is to give away multiple penalties, then you deserve to lose, no matter how many tries you score.
 
Clearly the performance on Saturday does not signal a change around in our season, but it sure means a lot in my book. For once we actually escaped from the jaws of defeat rather than diving head first (normally off our feet!) into them. We saw what confidence can do last season, one gritty win away from home may be all our guys need.
 
This weekend is certainly not going to be plain sailing. Fresh off the back of their first AP win of the season, Leeds are now only three points behind Newcastle (and therefore relegation safety) at the foot of the table. Last week they scrapped at home against Gloucester and came out on top. There is nothing about our current form which says that they couldn't do the same to us, Carnegie however have won their last three games on the trot.
 
Leeds are nothing but determined. After his first England appearances, Hendre Fourie will be relishing his head to head with Lewis Moody, and Marco Wentzel is one of the best line out operators in the league. Combine those two with the consistency of Cieron Thomas' boot and the fighting spirit of Neil Back, and we've got one hell of a task on our hands.
 
I must be honest, I feel that something positive (and of course 'special') is quietly brewing in our team; we might just be on the verge of a superb performance to kick-start 2011. We were much improved against Ulster at home and adapted brilliantly to beat London Irish. Butch has taken a fair bit of criticism since the Irish game, but there is no way that he should be sitting on the bench come Saturday. Ulster was his first game back for over five months so he is bound to be a bit rusty. Yes, he is over enthusiastic with his tackling, but his ability to unlock defences with a superb pass or neat kick is still invaluable to us. I still believe that Olly is best inside of Butch because his rugby brain is probably a bit more capable of understanding his quick decisions, Hape will probably still get the nod at 12 though.
 
This week we have had the added boost from the news that Michael Claassens just re-signed with us for another two years. It is so important to have a solid 8, 9 & 10 axis and Sheer sits brilliantly in the middle of it for me - great news. Let's add a victory on Saturday to give us a truly electric start to January.

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Jump Leeds
Discussion started by BathRugbyEre.co.uk , 06/01/2011 19:47
BathRugbyEre.co.uk
06/01/2011 19:47
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:01:08:23:58:17 by Glen The Ed.

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Zandra LaPoI
06/01/2011 22:29
Looking forward to this one!

Hopefully our confidence will sky high after our performance against you closest friends, Glaws!

Hope to see you all there!

Zandra YaPoI
YaPoI - Yorkshire and Proud of It

'proficiscor in una'

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Widcombe boy
07/01/2011 08:14
Well said Ed! Looking forward to this one. Winning by 1 point will do me!

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Susanne
07/01/2011 12:15
Great preview Ed - annoyed that we are missing this one, it could be pivotal.

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SideStep
07/01/2011 12:31
Leeds fan here.

Like to say nice to say a good even preview so well done on that! And looking forward to this match and expecting a tight physical match and if you wanna give us any gifts we'd be highly pleased smiling smiley

The first Leeds Tykes child mascot...#leedswasps0203season. #cheersbentos

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