Bath battle to knock-out glory

 

Their pack paved the way for an historic 20-15 win over Glasgow Warriors at The Recreation Ground that booked their place in the knock-out stages as Pool Four winners – despite early losses to the Warriors and former champions Toulouse.

 

Two penalty tries from raw pack power were the undoing of a Glasgow side who produced two stunning tries with the ball in hand while Toulouse's defeat by Montpellier handed Bath top spot in a tight group.

 

Wasps had also earlier gone through after losing their opening two contests but they advance as one of the best runners-up. 

 

The Bath eight – flank Matt Garvey named Man-of-the-Match – were their saviours after Glasgow had made a dream start – and silenced the vociferous Bath faithful in the process.

 

With just four minutes gone the Glasgow scrumhalf found his blindside wing on the angle and DTH Van der Merwe sliced through before sending the galloping Alex Dunbar over for a try that had coach Gregor Townsend purring with delight.

 

Finn Russell added the conversion and just to rub salt into Bath wounds they had to replace the influential Kyle Eastmond as he went off clutching his right shoulder.

 

The first three penalties were all conceded by the Warriors but George Ford missed the chance of opening the Bath account as he sent his effort wide to the right of the posts.

 

Flank Matt Garvey tried to spark the home side into telling action with a surging break but they made a mess of a prime line-out attacking position and Glasgow lifted the siege.

 

And although Bath turned up the heat at scrum time to have the Warriors in rapid retreat the Scottish defence held firm and they then went on the attack through Dunbar from classy line-out possession.

 

Bath won penalties at successive scrums and line-outs, the latter presenting Ford with a 35-metre chance that he made no mistake in turning into Bath's opening points.

 

He repeated the dose minutes later to cut the Glasgow advantage to just a point and Matt Banahan took a high kick from Ford superbly to have the Glasgow alarm bells ringing.

 

But the Warriors held firm to take a slender one-point advantage into the break and returned with new props in the shape of Jerry Yanuyanutawa and Jon Welsh in an attempt to shore up their creaking scrum although they lost try-scorer Dunbar as he departed rubbing his forehead.

 

Irish TMO Marshall Kilgore was called into action before loose forward Richie Vernon was confirmed as the scorer of a magnificent team try that said everything about Glasgow's intent on keeping the ball alive with centre Mark Bennett heavily involved.

 

Russell failed to convert and Bath's response was emphatic – a superb forward drive that was only halted at the expense of a penalty try and the departure of skipper Al Kellock for his part in pulling down the maul.

 

Ford converted to put Bath ahead for the first time with half an hour to play – but back bounced the Warriors with Russell drilling over a penalty to reclaim the advantage for 14-man Glasgow.

 

And they had a let off when Ford was wide with another penalty opportunity before Peter Stringer came on for Bath for what was his 99th tournament appearance.

 

Fullback Anthony Watson turned on the after burners to open up the Warriors defence but after TMO duty it was ruled that the Warriors defenders had got under Watson and denied him getting the ball down.

 

But there was a second penalty try for the Bath pack, this time from a regulation scrum drive, with Ollie Devoto converting in the temporary absence of Ford and they held out to create that slice of history despite the Warriors throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at them.

 

 

Tries: Penalty tryies 2

Cons: Ford, Devoto

Pens: Ford 2

 

Tries: Dunbar, Vernon

Con: Russell

Pen: Russell

 

 

Bath: 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 George Ford, 9 Chris Cook, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Matt Garvey, 5 Dominic Day, 4 Stuart Hooper (captain), 3 David Wilson, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Paul James.

Replacements: 16 Ross Batty, 17 Nick Auterac, 18 Henry Thomas, 19 Dave Attwood, 20 Carl Fearns, 21 Peter Stringer, 22 Ollie Devoto, 23 Sam Burgess.

 

Glasgow Warriors: 15 Sean Maitland, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Alex Dunbar, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Richie Vernon, 7 Fraser Brown, 6 Leone Nakarawa, 5 Al Kellock (c), 4 Jonny Gray, 3 Mike Cusack, 2 Pat MacArthur, 1 Gordon Reid.

Replacements: 16 Kevin Bryce, 17 Jerry Yanuyanutawa, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 James Eddie, 20 Sean Lamont, 21 Niko Matawalu, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Peter Murchie.