Gloucester 31 – 55 Bath: Blue, Black and Whites rack up half century in West Country derby

10/13/2024 08:46 AM

By Sam Jess

Bath bounced back from last week’s loss to Bristol with a stellar second-half performance to win at Kingsholm for the third straight season.

Gloucester took a deserved lead at the break thanks to quick tries from  Max Llewellyn, Tomos Williams and Charlie  Atkinson, with Beno Obano and Finn Russell keeping Bath in it at 24-17.

However, the visitors scored six second-half tries with Obano,  Josh Bayliss, Tom De Glanville,  Ollie Lawrence and Jaco Coetzee giving Bath a famous win as they racked up the half-century to win 31-55

After an off day last week against Bristol, Bath started with some conviction about their work, with Tom Dunn carrying hard on the gain line.

With the visitors earning possession in the 22, they looked to launch an attack this time through Ollie Lawrence, who almost bundled his way over before the hosts gave away a penalty.

 After a few half chances, Bath used a quick tap penalty to split the defence as Ben Spencer’s switch of play found  Beno Obano with a clear passage to the line, and Bath scored the opening try.

With five minutes on the clock, Gloucester’s only touches of the ball were kick-offs; however, when they did finally get the ball, they showed some brilliant speed and skill to run Bath ragged.

Having stretched down the left-hand touchline with Ollie Thorley, the hosts used carries from Jack Clement to draw the defence in before Gareth Anscombe fired it to the opposite wing as Josh Hathaway broke into the 22 before offloading to Max Llewellyn to level the score.

After both teams scored on visits to the red zone, they equally failed to score on their next entries. First, Gloucester fluffed a lineout and then a tap move as Russell kicked long before Ollie Lawrence dropped the ball into contact a few minutes later as the score remained 7-10.

The Cherry and Whites would not miss on their next chance, though, as again they used width to stretch Bath as Ollie Thorley made another break. Quick then allowed Matias Alemanno to burst through a hole with Tomos Williams was on hand to score their second try.

The hosts were here to play, and again, they attacked from deep, this time Zach Mercer the catalyst before some sevens Esq offloading between Williams and then Charlie Atkinson with the latter crossing for a wonder finish.

Memories of Bath’s last defeat here could have flooded into the minds, but with Finn Russell on their side, they are never down and out.

A rare mistake ball in hand from Gloucester forced the hosts to clear from deep, and a few strong carries followed from the visitors before some lovely interplay between the returning Cam Redpath and Russell gave Bath their second try.

Gloucester could have had the bonus point just before halftime after Josh Hathaway’s fine chase off the ball, but the winger dived on debutant Austin Emens to force the ball out, with Adam Leal rightly ruling it out.

The visitors would capitalise on that lucky break straight after halftime time as Gloucester were caught offside, giving Bath’s pack a chance to strike. Despite seeing the maul get stalled, they went to the pick-and-go game, with Obano diving over for his second.

Bath’s pack had been nullified in the first half, but after the oranges, they were making some inroads into the game with a turnover on halfway moment after Obano’s try gave them another chance to pounce.

A neat lineout move allowed Lawrence to crash it up to only five meters short before Spencer’s quick thinking caught Charlie Atkinson off guard, with the fullback tackling the scrum-half from an offside position as Bath came away with the penalty try to take the lead.

In the past two encounters at Kingsholm, Gloucester led at the break before Bath came roaring back. For the third straight season, that looked like a possibility as the visitors snatched their third try of the second half in 15 minutes.

A lovely break down the left-hand side from Spencer and Ted Hill gave Josh Bayliss the easiest of finishes as van Graan’s men led 36-24, having trailed 24-17 at halftime.

Gloucester were not done yet, and having held off another Bath attack, they looked to charge with Thorley making another strong surge into Bath’s defence; however, they would not make any inroads once in the 22, and soon they coughed the ball, allowing de Glanville to race away for a dagger of a try.

Bath’s poor discipline meant the game was far from over, and when Thorley and Gloucester finally capitalised, the game entered a tense final 15 minutes with the visitors leading 41-31.

The game swung again, though, as Sam Underhill pounced with a great turnover as Gloucester tried to play from deep, but the flanker was having none of it, and soon Bath had their seventh try of the game with Ollie Lawrence scoring.

Bath was not down yet as they racked up the half-century with Jaco Coetzee dotting down to make it a memorable day.

GLOUCESTER

Tries: 4 (Max Llewellyn 10, Tomos Williams 21, Charlie Atkinson 24, Ollie Thorley 68)

Conversions: 4 (Santi Carreras 11, 22, 24 Charlie Atkinson 69)

Penalties: 1 (Santi Carreras 40)

GLOUCESTER: 1 Ciaran Knight, 2 Jack Singleton, 3 Afolabi Fasogbon, 4 Arthur Clark, 5 Freddie Thomas, 6 Jack Clement, 7 Lewis Ludlam (c), 8 Zach Mercer, 9 Tomos Williams, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 11 Ollie Thorley, 12 Seb Atkinson, 13 Max Llewellyn, 14 Josh Hathaway, 15 Santi Carreras

Replacements: 16 Seb Blake, 17 Val Rapava-Ruskin, 18 Kirill Gotovtsev, 19 Freddie Clarke, 20 Ruan Ackerman, 21 Caolan Englefield, 22 Charlie Atkinson, 23 George Barton

BATH

Tries: 7 (Beno Obano 7, 45  Finn Russell 27, Penalty Try 50, Josh Bayliss 54, Tom de Glanville 65, Ollie Lawrence 72, Jaco Coetzee 79)

Conversions: 5 (Finn Russell 8, 28, 46, 73, 79)

Penalties: 1 (Finn Russell 15)

BATH: 1 Beno Obano, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Thomas du Toit, 4 Ted Hill, 5 Ross Molony, 6 Josh Bayliss, 7 Miles Reid, 8 Alfie Barbeary, 9 Ben Spencer ©, 10 Finn Russell, 11 Austin Emens (debut), 12 Cameron Redpath, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 14 Will Butt, 15 Tom de Glanville

Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Sam Underhill, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Jaco Coetzee

What the Coaches said:

Gloucester head coach George Skivington: on his side’s attacking play:

"I understand what we’re doing, but, you know, a couple of lads miss the clear outs looking for an offload, but I’ll steal the ball, score a try, and it just kills you. So there’s going to be some good learnings out of this once we suck it up."

Bath Director of Rugby Johann van Graan: on the changes made at second-half

"We were very clear in what we needed to do and what we needed to fix in the second half and I thought we did that really well. we had one or two tactical adjustments . But we still got to go and defend that and all credit to JP.

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