Bath edge Saracens out of Europe
Bath won the right to face Clermont Auvergne in the Final of the European Challenge Cup after recording a tense 31-30 win over Saracens in Sunday’s free-flowing semi-final at Vicarage Road, holding off a late surge from the locals to record a famous victory.
Playing in perfect conditions, both teams were responsible for scoring some fantastic tries including a brace each from Saracens’ Rodd Penney and Dan Scarborough.
But it wasn’t enough for the Men in Black as they were left playing catch-up rugby for the majority of the match after Bath scored three quick tries in the first half to give coach Steve Meehan’s side a handy 18-28 half-time lead.
The match was posed to be a real cracker of a semi-final, and although it struggled to get going in the opening minutes – the rest of the 75 minutes lived up to potential.
Both teams were sweating with ambition, the single point difference between the winner and the losing team showing just how determined these two sides were in the match.
Saracens showed great skill with ball in hand with their quick passing and superb vision that were key ingredients that helped them along to their four tries.
Bath also managed four tries in their surge towards a place in the Final and had to rely on an intercept try and a shocking missed tackle to help them along over the whitewash.
It was certainly a game of two halves with Bath having the upper hand over their opposition in the first. Saracens can certainly say the match was lost in the first 40 minutes as Bath only managed three points after the break.
However, it was Saracens that struck first with a try to Penney after a simple backline move just outside Bath’s 22 saw England centre Andy Farrell send a well timed skip pass to a flying Thomas Castaignede. The Frenchman did well to draw in the defenders and send Penney over for his first try of the match.
Jackson, the top points-scorer in the European competition, didn’t have his best day with the boot and failed with the touchline conversion.
Bath responded almost immediately with a try of their own after Castaignede failed to hang on to a punt inside his 22. The ref awarded a scrum for the knock-on by the France international and Bath took their chance well. England lock Danny Grewcock used his bullish strength to take a few Saracens defenders with him towards the line. Tackled just short, flank Andy Beattie did the rest by crashing over for Bath’s first try.
Olly Barkley had little trouble with his conversion and suddenly Bath were in the lead.
Bath were over with their second after a bulldozing run towards the line by flank Michael Lipman, it only took a pick up and a long arm by the towering Grewcock to touch down for Bath’s second try in the same amount of minutes.
Again, Barkley was spot on with his conversion.
Saracens tried their best to narrow the gap thanks to a Jackson penalty kick, and were on the verge of scoring their second try moments later with a colossal overlap to their advantage.
But Bath had their own France international in the shape of David Bory to make the huge attacking overlap look minute as he stole a pass by Jackson and raced a good 40 meters to score a well taken intercept try.
Barkley had an easier conversion of the afternoon to give his team a handy 21-8 lead.
Penney then turned on the gas when it looked like Saracens had taken their foot off the accelerator with a superb individual touch-down ten minutes from half-time.
Saracens long serving servant of rugby Richard Hill was responsible for taking in several tacklers into a pile up, scrum-half Neil de Kock popped the ball up to Penney who spotted a gap and was left to do some stepping inside and out to race 20-odd meters to score under the posts for a seven-pointer.
Jackson narrowed the score-line to a mere three points difference after a whopping 40 meter penalty kick for Bath hands in the ruck.
However it would be Bath that would have the last laugh before the break after fly-half Shaun Berne took on the Saracens defence and ran a superb angle past a shocking tackling attempt by Shane Byrne to score in the corner.
Barkley continued with his flawless kicking as the England international nailed a beautiful touchline conversion to give Bath a comfortable 18-28 half-time lead.
The second half was all Saracens as Jackson made up for yet another miss at goal in the opening minute of the second half to send Dan Scarbrough over in the corner.
Playing on the short side, Jackson switched inside to Scarbrough who took the ball at a good angle. The winger stepped inside prop Matt Stevens and dived in for his first try of the match.
Jackson got the crowd on their feet with his fantastic touchline conversion that brought the score-line to 25-28 in favour of Bath. But it was game on!
Bath did well to turn their penalties into points, and after Jackson was blown up for not rolling away from a tackle, Barkley made it five from five with what would be his final kick at goal. 25-31 to Bath with thirty minutes left n the clock.
It would be the most agonising thirty minutes for any Saracens fan as the men in black failed to turn their pressure into points.
First there was a knock-on by Castaignede with an attacking overlap just drooling for the ball with the try-line in sight. Then replacement scrum-half Alan Dickens was denied what seemed like a fair try after he charged down a Nick Walshe clearance kick.
Kris Chesney was next to be denied, this time by the TMO, after the flanker was held up over the try-line by some great defence work by the smaller pivot Berne.
However, the saved try resulted in a five-meter scrum where Saracens again made a try look easy through good inter passing in the backline that saw Scarbrough dive over for his second.
The critical conversion was missed by Jackson and in the end proved to be the difference between the two sides as Bath held on for ten minutes to deny Saracens a place in the Final.
Bath now have a chance to win their first piece of silverware since 1998 when they were crowned Heineken Cup winners.
The scorers:
For Saracens:
Tries: Scarbrough 2, Penney 2
Cons: Jackson 2
Pens: Jackson 2
For Bath:
Tries: Berne, Grewcock, Beattie, Bory
Cons: Barkley 4
Pen: Barkley
The teams:
Saracens: 15 Thomas Castaignede, 14 Dan Scarbrough, 13 Kevin Sorrell, 12 Andy Farrell, 9 Neil de Kock, 10 Glen Jackson, 11 Rodd Penney, 8 Ben Skirving, 7 Richard Hill, 5 Simon Raiwalui, 4 Hugh Vyvyan, 6 Kris Chesney, 3 Cobus Visagie, 2 Shane Byrne, 1 Nick Lloyd.
Replacements: 16 Matt Cairns, 17 Cencus Johnston, 18 Iain Fullarton, 19 David Seymour, 20 Alan Dickens, 21 Adam Powell, 22 Tomas de Vedia.
Bath: 15 Joe Maddock, 14 Tom Cheeseman, 13 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 12 Olly Barkley, 11 David Bory, 10 Shaun Berne, 9 Nick Walshe, 8 Isaac Feaunati, 7 Michael Lipman, 6 Andy Beattie, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Steve Borthwick (c), 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Lee Mears, 1 David Barnes.
Replacements: 16 Pieter Dixon, 17 Laurence Ovens, 18 Peter Short, 19 James Scaysbrook, 20 Andy Williams, 21 Michael Stephenson, 22 Chev Walker.
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
