Henson: missing

By P G Tips
February 10 2015

  Testing times loom for Bath as the 6 Nations tournament continues. Last Friday evening many Bath supporters were on a high from the performance of their England heroes. By 5 PM on Saturday, the gloss had been tarnished with a frustrating (and freezing) home loss to Ospreys. The next 2 weekends now pitch Bath against their closest Premiership rivals: in turn, Saracens (in 3rd place) and Northampton (1st & Champions). How will the team fare when denuded by international call ups, particularly in the absence of a sure-fire goal kicker?  

The frustration of the Ospreys match was that Bath had enough dominance to win comfortably. Dogged Ospreys defence kept the tries down to 2,  but Bath’s failure to kick a single goal cost 10 points from kicks missed and potentially more when goal attempts were spurned.  Allianz Park on a Sunday is not an inviting prospect when first choice kicker George Ford is directing operations for England and second choice Gavin Henson has been injured since the end of November.  On the face of it, Bath will travel without a recognised kicker who is a regular AP starter, or will compromise selection to include somebody who can fill the role. Sarries meanwhile, will have Charlie Hodgson & Alex Goode able to kick for them.

When Henson pulled out of the November Quins fixture after injury in the warm up, Bath went on to win with their 3^rd choice kicker – choosing to outscore their visitors with tries, mostly gained from forward dominance. That was tense day, though until late in the game and it is easy to see Saracens Wolf Pack licking their lips at the prospect of West Country lambs to the slaughter. They will certainly be seeking revenge after the number the lads from the Rec did on them in October.

Even with 6 nations call ups and Farrell’s injury, Saracens are expected to be strong. Brad Barritt could well be fit to play, but may not make the England squad, while Ashton, Strettle & Goode are likely to be the back 3. All points to a home win for Sarries, who must start favourites. If Bath are to take something home from Barnet on Sunday afternoon, they will need a heroic effort from their front five and calm direction from halfback. I expect that Kyle Eastmond will not make the Twickenham lineup, so could be available to add flair and unpredictability in midfield. If Bath’s loose forward trio can snatch quick turnover ball, they could provide chances for Kyle & Sam Burgess to test the Wolf Pack’s snarl. The Blue, Black & White have finishers aplenty – both backs and forwards, but who will kick the goals?

Possible Teams:

Bath: Auterac, Webber, Thomas, Hooper, Day, Garvey, Louw, Houston Cook, Devoto, Rokodoguni, Eastmond, Burgess, Banahan, Arscott. Replacements: Lahiff, Batty, Obano, Ewels, Fearns. Stringer, Jennings, Homer

Saracens: Sharman, George, Du Plessis; Itoje, Hargreaves; Wray, Burger,Joubert. De Kock, Hodgson, Strettle, Barritt, Taylor, Ashton, Goode

Replacements: Gill, Spurling, Johnston, Botha,  Fraser, de Jager, Tomkins, Streather

Testing Times: Saracens v Bath

Discussion started by Comeonmylovers.co.uk (IP Logged), 10/02/2015 20:08

Comeonmylovers.co.uk
10/02/2015 20:08

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015:03:08:17:54:46 by Stuart Anderton.

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The Bard
10/02/2015 22:29

Barrington will be our loosehead. Fraser is out for the season, botha has left the club. We should have Kelly Brown available, not sure yet who will cover second row.
Think your pack will cause us a lot of trouble without our heavyweights, hopefully our backs will be a bit more settled as a unit to compensate.

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jayeatman
11/02/2015 10:04

Think Ewels & Jennings will be playing for Eng U20s. Given their potential advantage up front, I suspect Bath might go with a 6/2 split on the bench to hammer it home.

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TonyTaff
14/02/2015 13:14

Here is the counterpart article from the Sarries site - also composed before the team selections were announced.

Doh, one of my little helpers has already posted this. The Sarries site would collapse without them!

It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015:02:14:13:15:44 by TonyTaff.

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