By Andy Dowthwaite
April 14 2012

On the usual wet Friday evening at Edgeley Park, Bath managed a losing bonus point as they recorded their fifth “double” loss of the season. A close and hard fought encounter Sale deserved their win, as even though their “lucky” kick through try was the points difference, they made better use of their possession and were more of a threat. Bath’s defence though stretched was general robust and organised, but in attack we looked as toothless as usual.

The first 20 minutes of the game saw Bath heavily dominant with the majority of territory and possession.  Tom Heathcote missed an early penalty but, there seemed to be much more purpose in the forwards. Simon Taylor carried well during this time and Carl Fearns looked very destructive. The backs had some good possession and apart from some strong runs off the back of the scrum, Sale were struggling to stay in the game. The only real issue for us was that our only points in this time came from an Olly Barkley penalty on 20 minutes and the attack was more side to side than go forward. After a penalty for a blatant and deliberate knock on, we took the line out 10 metres from the line. Sheridan drove straight through the line taking Attwood out in the air and was sin-binned for his trouble. Olly took the kick, but 3 points from 20 minutes of dominance was a poor reflection of the lack of incisive attacking ability (only the bottom three teams have scored less tries). 

Against 14 men and dominant up until then surely we could make this advantage count. Unfortunately Edgeley Park, as the narrowest ground in the league, makes 14 men less of a penalty. In addition Sale knew how to play the clock down in. Keep possession, keep it in the pack, slow the ball down. Bath when they had possession wasted it by kicking the ball away – and badly. All this did was to hand the possession back to Sale who could then repeat as necessary. Do we practise these positions, as it didn’t look like we do. 

Not only could we not take advantage of the sin bin, we allowed Sale to dominate possession and begin to turn the game round. Off set piece Sale looked particularly dangerous. Mongo, having grown his hair again was looking like the Samson of the Old Testament. Powerful and direct, his main strength, he either made yards or drew the defence allowing the likes of Tuitopou to punch forward. Bath’s defence was able to hold the attacks, but only just, and the pressure led to two penalties before half time that Macleod kicked giving Sale a half time lead 6 – 3. 

This was actually a decent half of rugby with Bath’s scrum looking solid, Carl Fearns tackling and hitting the rucks was great, the backs having decent ball and passing it around decently and Banners making a couple of half breaks, whilst Carraro and Bendy were strong under the high ball. There were a couple of problems however. The tactical kicking was awful and gave away possession rather than cause pressure, from both Olly and Tom. Our passing flattered but the backs caused little real threat. The Banners intercept was a classic example. Having intercepted a Sale attack on our 22 and a clear run in, he then tripped on the turf and we lost the ball. 

The second half continued with Sale possession and it was only some stout defence from Fearns, and in particular Bendy with try saving tackles against both Macleod and Mongo. Macleod, kicking well, extended the lead to 9-3 after a quarter of an hour. Bath responded following a Sale error at the kick off (knock on touched by an offside player) and Olly converted the penalty. There was little in the game for the next 10 minutes which was emphasised when Bath won one of referee Greg Garners endless tit for tat penalties at a scrum (was there a scrum without a penalty or free kick?). Olly converted to bring the score level at 9 – 9 (which also saw Olly break 1500 points in premiership rugby). 

For the last 15 minutes though possession was shared, as the rain fell heavily, Sale had the edge and looked most likely to score. The decider could be described as lucky, however, a poor grubber kick from Tom initially bounced forward off a Sale foot before being hoofed up field with the Sale full back Rob Miller beating Bendy to a tight touch down (think Olly Woodburn against Saints in the LV). Lucky, maybe, but also reacting quicker to events. Macleod converted to give Sale a 16 – 9 lead with 5 minutes to go. Maintaining possession from the kick off Sale were looking to kill off the game and with a minute to go were awarded a penalty just inside their own half. Macleod who was short with a similar kick in the first half had a shot to deny Bath the losing bonus point. The down side of this tactic was that as the ball fell short by five yards, Bendy started to run up field. For once not only did we maintain possession but we made steady yards up field with both the forwards and the backs making good ground. After 90 yards and multiple phases a knock on at a ruck finished the game, 16 – 9 to Sale. 

Bath’s Man of the Match was Carl Fearns, powerful, he seems to accelerate into tackles and plays with his head up. A good run with Flo in the starting line-up and we will have an excellent set of flankers for next season. 

What disappointed me though was a comparison to last years’ game at Edgeley Park in February 2011. On a similar wet night, with a similar team that night we played controlling rugby and came out comfortable winners 7 - 19. Rather than make progress on the field we have gone backwards.

The majority of the team remain the same but this time around we have gone backwards;

• Tactical kicking, particularly by Olly, which was excellent (lots of angles low kicks to the corners) and won the game last time was replaced by programmed high kicks which were poorly chased and well covered by the defence. How does a gifted and experienced kicker like OB1 who has performed well for so long, suddenly become so poor (is it his leg break)
• Line Out’s which were secure last year were poor and in particular we lost attacking ball close to the sale line – on a wet night should we use front ball more often  particularly when Dixie struggles with back ball.
• What has happened to our ability to score tries? 26 so far this season compared to 38 all last season. And 49 & 58 the two seasons before that.
• Fifth in the league last year we will be lucky to finish eighth this year.

SIM claimed in his BBC interview that we had made progress in the last Eighteen months. Well frankly this was from the period at the start of last season (with no Olly or Butch) when we were rubbish. If the reference point is moved to when SIM took greater control of team, then the progress has been One Step Up but many, many more steps back.

ONE STEP UP Sale Sharks 16 – 9 Bath

Discussion started by BathRugbyEre.co.uk , 14/04/2012 17:04

BathRugbyEre.co.uk
14/04/2012 17:04

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:04:19:18:29:37 by Glen The Ed.

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abendanon-anon-anon
14/04/2012 17:39

Great review - very balanced and quite positive compared to the Radio version I listened to last night.
Tom 'appeared' to have a poorer game than what we've come to expect- is that how you saw it? Is the pressure getting to him - he's a young lad after all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:04:14:21:00:00 by abendanon-anon-anon.

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bathmike
14/04/2012 19:24

Good report, thanks, stats don't lie regarding Baths inability to score tries, toothless is a very fair assessment. Serious effort from the pack but last night just showed we need virtualy a complete new backline, full-back, centres, winger, even stretch to a new 10. MB is a shadow of a couple of years back, a brave full-back but not a game changer, no centres with any power or craft. Must do better.

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Bri
14/04/2012 19:43

Good report,captured it,thanks Andy

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Go on my sonner
14/04/2012 21:38

Oh for goodness sake Bath Mike
The players can play and have shown it for seasons before, they need an environment to do this provided by an attack coach or head coach such asmceechgan Steve Meehan/Cheika
Comprrendehe



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:04:14:21:40:40 by Go on my sonner.

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Whaley Shark
15/04/2012 08:23

Don't be too hard on yourselves. We are better than we've been for a couple of seasons, and Friday night was a 'stop the rot' job after two defeats and Tony Hank's sacking. My view of it all is here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:04:15:08:24:13 by Whaley Shark.

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abendanon-anon-anon
15/04/2012 12:38

Quote:

Whaley Shark
Don't be too hard on yourselves. We are better than we've been for a couple of seasons, and Friday night was a 'stop the rot' job after two defeats and Tony Hank's sacking. My view of it all is here.

Nice one Whaley - thanks for taking the time to post here.
Interesting result at Glaws - you must be 'cock-a-hoop'!

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callmeMrTibbs
15/04/2012 12:41

I thought we were poor, and I agree with Go On My Sonner, the fault lies less with the players than with the risible coaching. So much for McGeechan's 'I'm in charge for the last three games' boast!

But Whaley Shark also has a point, Sale did put in a decent shift. They've had a strange season. They were great to watch for the first few weeks, then went back into their shell's, Friday night though was a return to form.

Whereas we've been dross throughout!

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recduckboarder
15/04/2012 19:12

Seemed to me we played for the last two minutes only with any cutting edge, until we knocked on!

I wonder what the table would look like if only the results since Christmas were considered?

Worry we might be bottom?

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TCM2007
15/04/2012 19:45

We'd be 8th

Stuart

Former ed.

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