Bath beat 14-man Clermont
MATCH REPORT: Bath sealed a 40-21 win over 14-man Clermont in their Champions Cup match at The Recreation Ground on Sunday.
After Clermont lost a man in the first half, Bath put their foot down with Thomas du Toit powering over twice to secure the bonus point.
Tom de Glanville opened the scoring with a fluid move for Bath Rugby within two minutes against Clermont.
The hosts added a second shortly after with Finn Russell dummying and diving over from a scrum five metres out, before converting his own score to make it 14-0.
Clermont hit back through Folau Fainga’a from close range, but Joe Cokanasiga finished a great move for Bath to extend their lead again.
Anthony Belleau responded for Clermont another before the break despite the French going down to 14 after Giorgi Akhaladze was sent off for a high tackle, leaving it 21-14 at halftime.
Peceli Yato got one back for the French after they scored twice in the first 40, but a slick Bath move put Ollie Lawrence over in the corner to seal a 40-21 win following three first-half tries.
Scorers:
For Bath:
Tries: De Glanville, Russell, Cokanasiga, Du Toit 2, Lawrence
Cons: Russell 4
For Clermont:
Tries: Fainga’a, Belleau, Yato
Cons: Belleau 3
Teams
Bath: 15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Ruaridh McConnochie, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben Spencer (captain), 8 Alfie Barbeary, 7 Miles Reid, 6 Ted Hill, 5 Charlie Ewels, 4 Quinn Roux, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Tom Dunn, 1 Beno Obano.
Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Ethan Staddon.
Clermont: 15 Alex Newsome, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Pierre Fouyssac, 12 Irae Simone, 11 Lucas Tauzin, 10 Anthony Belleau, 9 Baptiste Jauneau, 8 Fritz Lee (captain), 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Killian Tixeront, 5 Peceli Yato, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Regis Montagne, 2 Folau Fainga’a, 1 Giorgi Akhaladze.
Replacements: 16 Etienne Fourcade, 17 Sacha Lotrian, 18 Michael Ala’alatoa, 19 Thomas Ceyte, 20 Oskar Rixen, 21 Sebastien Bezy, 22 Theo Giral, 23 Alivereti Raka.
Referee: Chris Busby (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Andrew Cole (Ireland) & Andrew Fogarty (Ireland)
TMO: Mark Patton (Ireland)
