Big Yellow Taxi

The first 10 minutes of the game gave me even more hope. Good ball retention and the crisp passing we saw last season allowed a fast flowing move across the whole pitch with Nick Abendanon, on the wing for the match, making one of his typical bursts to bring Bath within 5 metres of the Leeds line. The ball was however subsequently spilled in contact just short of the line as Davey Wilson drove hard at the Leeds defence. Leeds may have taken the resultant scrum but the Bath set piece looked solid against a fairly hefty Leeds pack. The ball was kicked back to Bath and this time Butch set Matt Banahan away on the right, Leeds cleared, but from the resulting line out Leeds were penalised and Olly comfortably struck the penalty. 3 – 0 to Bath after 10 minutes and we were looking dominant.

Unfortunately that seemed to be the end of any meaningful team play from Bath for much of the rest of the half. We were solid in the scrum and won all our line out in the half. We also made some good individual breaks, notably Butch’s deft chip over the Leeds back line in our own 22 which Olly collected, made ground but lacking the speed to go all the way put in a good kick for Jack to chase (he’s already run 90 metre’s this season) which went into touch on the Leeds 25 metre line. Hape also made a clean line break bursting through two tacklers from a flat pass from Butch but was unable to make the return pass as Butch made space on his left. The most impressive, from a home spectator’s view, was Matt Banahan doing his Lomu impression from 50 yards and giving Stevo a warm welcome back to the Rec (Danny also welcomed Dan Browne back in his own irreplaceable style) by steamrolling straight over him and then brushing Thomas aside before being held up on the Leeds line by scrum half Fury. He killed the ball in a try saving move and received a yellow card, however, again we were not able to convert this pressure into points.

Olly Barkley is tackled by ex-Bath number 8 Dan Browne

Our inability to execute multiple phases of possession has been a recurring theme this season which Leeds contributed to with an increasingly visible presence in the match. Good possession and driving forward dominated phases saw Leeds level the score with a penalty from Thomas. Leeds then took the lead with a Scott Barrow drop goal after 35 minutes. Leeds did not look any real threat in attack with their backs looking particularly toothless. However, they were able to maintain a lot of possession and in defence harassed Bath in the loose winning turnovers. Hendrie Fourie stood out both in defence, chasing Bendy hard and not allowing a number of possible break-outs from our 22, and also as Leeds’s main attacking weapon close to the scrum. We know Leeds occasionally play 10 man rugby, generally preferring the 8 man variety (hence little noticeable impact from the scrum half being sin binned) but for 20 minutes we were unable to counter this. In previous visits fast attacking play has run Leeds ragged, however pressure from their back row generally prevented this and we were often pinned in our own 22.

We were eventually able to breakout and return to the Leeds half with the pace of Bendy and the handling of JC and Matt showing how to play against Leeds’ dour forward dominated tactics. The lumbering Leeds pack struggled to keep up with play and Thomson gave a way a kickable penalty at the breakdown. Olly had little trouble with 30 metre kick in front of the posts. 6 – 6 on the stroke of half time. After initial excitement, the main emotion for the half was boredom. We had shown glimpses of what we are capable of but, partially through poor execution and also significantly by being drawn into a game of attrition by Leeds, a style of play more suited to them. As a result we were treated to a dour display with little coherent team play (no wonder crowds are so low at Headingly) that had Leeds level on both the score board and on the pitch.

David Wilson goes on the charge

Oh well, at least we looked the most likely to score a try which was then very ably demonstrated within the first minute of the re-start. Bath line out on the Leeds 10 metre line, Taylor rising high at the back of the line and un-challenged (some good analysis there of the first half) is picked out perfectly by Mearsy, quick attacking ball from Classy to Butch who taking a defender out on the gain line released Bendy on his inside (Butch is worth his salary for that pass alone) who beat two defenders from 30 yards to score by the posts. The whole movement was so fast it left the referee, who was at the back of the line out on the Leeds side, still 20 yards behind play as Bendy touched down. Olly converted and at 41 minutes it was 13 – 6. More individual breaks soon followed - notably Jack Cuthbert returning poor kicks and Ben Skirving bursting through the Leeds backline to race 30 metres and then put a grubber kick into their 22. Unfortunately limited support saw penalties conceded on both occasions. Skirving was penalised for not letting Thomas get up; however, as the full back showed no signs of trying to move I thought it was harsh on Ben (backs have sneaky tricks to draw penalties as well as forwards!).

Unfortunately we then allowed a repeat of the first half where Leeds dragged us down into a forward dominated contest. I did note that for such forward dominated team Leeds does need to improve their conditioning. At virtually every break in play there was a Leeds body on the ground needing attention, and I was amazed that no one left the field injured as a result. Suitably rested Leeds were able to apply significant pressure at times. Fourie made a clean line break just over half way and with a deft pass released their centres, who with no defence in front of them managed to butcher two simple passes to miss the clear chance of a try under the posts. I suppose if you don’t use your backs they forget what to do with the ball.

Nick Abendanon runs in Bath's only try of the match

A more meaningful attack followed a rare mistake from Jack who let a ball bounce in the 22 and as it grubbed toward the try line he knocked on. Leeds won a penalty from the scrum, as the ball squirted out Classy was penalised for presumably taking the ball out of the scrum. Again thought this was harsh as body position, basically facing straight up the pitch indicated to me the ball had to be out. Leeds chose the line out and from this after a couple of phases Thomson took a good angled running line and powered over. Experience showing here as he took a good diagonal body position which even if tackled left his ball arm free and with his size he was over. Thomas converted and the scores were tied.

Leeds were probably worth the tie at this point 60 minutes in as despite their lack of attacking options they had dragged Bath down to play their game. Fortunately for Bath this was the last real threat from Leeds. That poor conditioning and Bath suddenly delivering more coherent forward display enabled total control the ball for most of the last 20 minutes. Though David Barnes held his own for the first 50 minutes Belly playing at loose head began to dominate in the set piece after he came on. At 70 minutes a penalty was awarded for collapsing one of the resulting scrums and Olly duly obliged again to give Bath the lead at 16 – 13. For the last 10 minutes good positional kicking from Butch and Matt Banahan pinned Leeds into their half and the only blemish in the control of the ball was one over thrown line out from Dixie. Olly missed a penalty, at the edge of his range, from further pressure at a line and after the ref had called back Matt Banahan from taking the quick penalty (the second time on the day). With commendable control Bath basically counted down the end of the game and bagged the 4 points. Not the greatest game to watch and downright boring at times but some glimpses of last season’s attacking ability with Bath overall deserving a small margin win.

Players congratulate Abendanon on his score under the posts.

Something to build on and a continuation of our mid season revival, for me yes, but only just and I am a little disappointed to have just squeaked a win over probably the most limited side we have seen at the Rec this season We looked generally a little more fluent in the backs and were able to make some good attacking breaks, though typically not finishing them off. Individuals looked better and there were fewer mistakes that turned over possession. Line out was solid with Simon Taylor taking a lot of attacking back ball compared to last week’s safe but slow front ball. That Leeds had so much possession and territory was down to their power and them managing to bring the game down to their style of play rather than ours. We were unable to execute the fast flowing team moves that would have stretched Leeds. The ref also seemed to like a slow controlled game, calling back two quick tap penalties and a quick line out, but we should have been able to adapt to this on more than the odd occasion. I never think refs are biased and whilst they do make mistakes they tend to even out naturally. Where they do differ is in some interpretations and we have to adjust to that, we did this well against Irish, not so well yesterday

Butch is showing some good touches that were generally behind a lot of our better attacks despite a few stray passes and not yet being at his imperious best. He will be missed if he leaves in the summer. Hoops had a good game, particularly defensively, as well as calling the line out and was pushed hard by Banners for Bath’s Man of the Match but, personally, I thought Fourie edged it as overall MOTM.

Photos by Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images