Ford hunts bonus in Bath replay
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Bath head coach Mike Ford has pledged his side will go for the jugular in the return leg against Montpellier next week and won't settle for anything less than the full five points.
A 30-5 victory at a rain soaked Altrad Stadium was, under any normal circumstances, the perfect result, but having lost their opening two games in Pool 4 of the European Champions Cup, Bath really needed a bonus point victory to put pressure on the unbeaten Glasgow Warriors and Toulouse.
With three tries in the bag after 50 minutes they looked set to get what they came for, but as conditions worsened, and Montpellier tightened up, Bath fell agonisingly short.
"We saw that it did not stop raining all day, and we tweaked our game a little bit. The first half went exactly how we wanted it to go and the boys played phenomenally well for the first 50 minutes,"
"We built the score, built the pressure – couple penalties – then we got a try, a penalty try just before halftime, then scored a pretty good try in the second half.
"Then we unleased our bench, they unleashed theirs, and it became a bit of stop and start. Credit to them, two massive props came on for them and changed he game.
"We had the better kickers, we thought we had the better tactics, but we're actually very frustrated not to get four tries and a bonus point. But with those conditions, away in Europe, 30-5 is an outstanding performance and result.
"The boys who came on did well but we couldn't quite get that fourth try. But Sam Burgess now has more game time under his belt, which is a massive bonus for us.
"Of course we are disappointed because we need a bonus point because of where we are in the Pool, but hopefully Glasgow and Toulouse can take points off each other and we can get a win next week.
"We need both Glasgow and Toulouse to win games, but not get bonus points – I know I'm asking for a lot but anything can happen. We will try and concentrate on ourselves first and hopefully have a good day at The Rec next Friday.
"We need a bonus point next week and we will prepare well. We will pick a strong squad for sure and if we can get a good performance in and put ourselves in a decent position for January – we will look to get five points next week and see where that takes us."
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