Luke Watson Impresses As Bath Beat Ospreys

By Glen Leat
November 14 2009

Luke Watson's energetic second half debut appearance at the Rec helped push Bath towards a 21-11 victory over the Ospreys in the Anglo-Welsh LV= Cup. A dull game came alive with a Watson try but once again the wheels nearly came off at the end for the home side.

As a boy I was brought up reading comics such as Tiger (and Jag) and Victor and enjoyed the stories about Roy of the Rovers and the lad who could run very fast for miles without wearing shoes. The storyline for the Melchester Rovers' yarns often had our hero, Roy, coming on late in a game to save the team (against all odds) from defeat. So here we had a Bath side losing at half-time against the Ospreys after a pretty dire first half where the best thing about the 40 minutes was the fact I didn't get wet. The home pack looked good, demolishing the opposition scrum on every occasion but the team couldn't use this platform to create any meaningful attacking options. More of the same I thought. How wrong I was.

The second half was about to start and we were informed that Daniel Browne had replaced Andy Beattie when suddenly, as if from stage left, on walks Luke Watson to rapturous applause. Was this a tactic from Steve Meehan to ensure that everyone in the ground realised our new signing had arrived? I'd like to think so. 

Within minutes Watson was shouting, directing and, dare I say, leading the rest of the team. His jaw jutted even behind a privet hedge of a beard. He may have mishandled his first couple of catches and muffed a pass move with Mike Baxter but for the whole of the second 40 minutes of this game our new man was trying to make things happen and what a difference he made. It was fitting that Watson should score a try on his debut. Hanging off the edge of the pack as it drove towards the Ospreys' goal-line he broke and dived in for his score. Watching him punch the air in celebration told me all I needed to know: Luke Watson is a Bath man!

The game was set up perfectly with an emotional few moments of remembrance for those who have given their lives for their country and the crowd did the attending army lads proud with perfect silence and then a great round of applause in recognition of their bravery. Unfortunately the next 40 minutes of rugby didn't complement the quality of those opening moments. The weather must have been a factor with both kickers struggling to get anywhere near the target and Barry Davies edged Ryan Davis by two kicks to one at half time. Jack Cuthbert had a go at a fairly lengthy penalty but fell short by some 15 metres.

The Watson factor helped raise the quality of Bath's play in the second period but there was still too many errors and not enough play close to the opposition goal-line. The Ospreys didn't look very threatening but there was always the danger Bath would be penalised within kicking range of the posts by the erratic Sean Davey, eventually losing by one or two penalties. Luke Watson's cameo apart, the most exciting part of the game was at the end when Bath tried to lose their lead and hand the game to the visitors.

Firstly there was some confusion on the Bath twenty-two with players from both sides trying to control a loose ball and it took Jerry Collins to clean things up as he ran for the line, shimmied and fed Justin Tipuric for an easy score. The conversion was missed and with just a few minutes to go Bath just had to run down the clock (been here before, eh?).

Just to prove some of our players don't learn from past experiences they decided to continue playing open rugby and nearly paid a heavy price. With two minutes left Ryan Davis kicked deep from the restart and Ospreys kicked long. Jack Cuthbert then hoofed the ball high inside his own half instead of taking the ball forward, taking the tackle and setting up a ruck which his forwards could have defended. The Ospreys picked up the ball, ran at Bath with some pace and were unlucky when a pass bounced off an attacking player and into the hands of defender. Did Bath take advantage of this reprieve and slow the game down to see out time? What do you think, of course not. Instead they decided to run at the Ospreys from deep in their half and then Tom Cheeseman thought it was time to give his opponents one last shot at scoring by kicking the ball away. Fortunately his kick bounced off the chest of the defender, putting his colleagues on the back foot as they scrambled to defend their line.

The comedy of errors from both sides was completed when Ashley Beck tried to run the ball from in front of his posts and slipped. The loose ball was scooped up by Daniel Browne who ran in for an easy score. Total madness! Why do we do it? 

Finally, I was intrigued by the activities of Ospreys' scrum-half, Liam Davies, and how often he tried to play the referee. He took gamesmanship to a new level at times, especially at his scrums when he failed to feed on time, raised his arms and ran round  the back of the scrum as if in frustration. I suppose he had to do something to try and deflect from the drubbing his eight took from ours!

 

 

Bath

Jack Cuthbert, Joe Maddock, Tom Cheeseman, Ben Williams, Michael Stephenson, Ryan Davis, Mike Baxter, Ben Skirving, Guy Mercer, Andy Beattie, Peter Short (c), Scott Hobson, Aaron Jarvis, Rob Hawkins, Nathan Catt.

Replacements: Lee Mears, David Flatman, Mark Lilley, Daniel Browne, Luke Watson, Chris Cook, Paul Roberts, Nick Scott.

Ospreys

Barry Davies, Nicky Thomas, Sonny Parker, Andrew Bishop, Ashley Beck, Gareth Owen, Liam Davies, Tom Smith, Justin Tipuric, Jerry Collins (c), James Goode, James King, Cai Griffiths, Ed Shervington, Ryan Bevington.

Replacements: Richard Hibbard, Will Taylor, Ross Davies, Richard Kelly, Steve Tandy, Rhys Webb, Matthew Jarvis, Hanno Dirksen.

Referee: Sean Davey