Bath vs Leinster DOUBLE HEADER Teams/Discussion

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USING THIS THREAD FOR BOTH GAMES

So Bath went down with a huge fight last week and really put the game to a slightly misfiring Leinster "away" side. Huge performances from Louw and Caldwell in particular and the boot of Barkley giving Bath a lot to cheer about considering the doom and gloom that was felt before the game.

Leinster had a few chances to put the game beyond Bath but didn't take some opportunities they should have. Sexton put in a huge shift which steadied the ship big time, displaying great defence and game management while SOB put in some big carries and great steals.

The game ended 13-18 to Leinster, leaving the pool still somewhat open.

The return game is this Saturday in Lansdowne Rd. Bath fans are expecting the same team out as the injury situation doesn't seem to have changed where as Leinster fans are expecting their "home" team to take the field, introducing the likes of Healy, Toner, Jennings, reddan and O'Malley from the off.

How will the game go?
What are your team perdictions?
What are the vital areas between the teams?
What tactical plans need to be in place for each team?
Will this thread survive without another ROG vs Sexton cat fight?
Score predictions?

That was a clear knock on, but never mind.


I can see Bath running out of steam in the second half, McGeechan is going to have to be very astute with his substitutions.

4 tries butchered from leinster already in this match

I was about to say obrien is looking very good but he just butchered an overlap. 6-6 now.

Shocking play by Obrien what a let off with a 3 man overlap.

Leinster must be kicking themselves....!

Cant Believe that they haven't crossed the whitewash

Just turned this game on to see SOB do that! - Dreadful by SOB, what was he thinking?

Ohhh deary me Leinster, some terrible decision making today. Kearney and O'brien have butchered simple tries

6-9 Bath need to step it up now.

O'Brien, what a mug. Obviously didn't see Donald there in his peripherals, otherwise there was actually a bit of space. Looks good if you pull it off, awful if you don't.

Crazy, if it wasn't for those simple run in's being butchered Leinster would have been looking for the TBP with 35 mins left...

Unbelievable....

Great turnover by Bath creates a try from nowhere.
They have shown Leinster how to be ruthless.

Great turnover! Great try!

13-12 to bath! Great try!

Well done Bath... That is a massive try...!

Amazing in context really.

An object lesson in foot shooting from Leinster.

Plenty of time though,

Lucky Leinster take advantage of poor Bath defending to get a penalty for Bath backrow going over the top...

How daft was that pen by Bath? Pressure.......
Not a great 2 mins for Leouw

Lowe has had a poor last five mins. Now in the Bin. He has probably cost his team the game now. Shame after the way he has played for the first 75 mins.

5 minutes of madness by louw have cost Bath, pretty disappointing conclusion to a gripping game. I suppose with all of Leinsters chances you can't begrudge them the win though.

Yep well done Leinster. The 2 big Irish Provinces know how to win tight games or win when not at their best.

Well played Bath, Leinster should be very upset with themselves for blowing at least 3 trys.

The Bath malaise continues, they just don't look like they believe they can win games.

Bruce Craig looks fed up too, I know the feeling. Bath just blew this... Leinster gave them an opportunity to win by missing so many chances but Bath have contrived to throw away a lead.

That was shocking from Leinster. SOB and Kearney need shot for blowing those two scores although in fairness how the ref didnt ping Bath for playign the ball on the deck for the SOB one i dont know. Yellow for Louw was harsh but there should have been at least one earlier in the 2nd half.

Better signs from Bath and a lovely worked try but they needed more points from their first half dominance

Terrible performance from Leinster. SOB won't live that down soon. Butchered a 3 man overlap. Kearney must be blind too.

In fairness Leinster were awful and they still won away in England - maybe thats the mark of champions - or is that just positive spin??

They are gonna have to be far more clinical to defend their cup.

What was the score?

Bath 13 - 18 Leinster

Artful_Dodger wrote:In fairness Leinster were awful and they still won away in England - maybe thats the mark of champions - or is that just positive spin??

They are gonna have to be far more clinical to defend their cup.

It was a tale of two halves, Leinster were much the better team in the second one. Bath were at home, the onus was on them to win it, Leinster won... That is the mark of champions.

Some of the attacking interplay was excellent from leinster. unfortunately they contrived the throw away every single chance they had. There wasnt enough about the centres for me. Would like to see O'malley get a chance. Fitz looks sharp, Sexton too and Nacewa looked in good nick.

D'arcy was very good to be fair. O'Malley is a more natural 13 than McFadden.

Although Kearney is playing quite well at fullback, Nacewa is the best in Europe in that position. He doesn't get his hands on the ball enough on the wing. We need him getting it more. I'd prefer him at fullback come the knockout stages.

DArcy was good today McFadden was very quiet at 13 but i thought he played much better when he moved inside could be because Leinster where on the front foot then. O' Malley was good when he came on as well.

They won't miss those sort of opportunities again. I'd expect them to be far more clinical in future. They are probably fuming with themselves. They got out of jail, to an extent.

Maybe SOB should ditch the scrumcap!

D'arcy can be decent but he still doesnt offer a significant threat to me. I wonder will Schmidt have the stones to go with a McFadden/EOM combo at home. it would be some call if he did.

In reality i think Leinster were undone at times because Garces turned the breakdown into a free for all (for both teams) but without that stable possession it hurt leinster more.

Gretgael, sorry I was playing a soccer match sent you them for the future, you have mail.

Soccer??

Thanks for links Thomond, I appreciate them.

I got to see the game but it meant getting up out of my bed and going to my parents house to watch it!

Just got back from the game - Leinster were surprisingly poor. Bath had the Leinster scrum on the back foot, Darcy and McFadden were very ineffective, Nacewa was lucky not to get a yellow card and Kearney just looked off form. Bath need to look at stepping beyond the ball at the ruck, like Leinster do at the breakdown, it slowed numerous Bath plays and was often the difference.

The ref just played tic tac on penalties and as Sexton played territory rather than possession had thus had more oppotunities for pot shots at goal and that was ultimately the difference.

Bath did pretty well against the bulk of the national irish side but greater experience and more established combinations, told in the end, of a tight game.

O'Brien should have nightmares about that overlap and got jeers for the rest of the game......

Recwatcher wrote:Nacewa was lucky not to get a yellow card

Maybe you should rewatch it on telly.

Recwatcher wrote:Bath had the Leinster scrum on the back foot

What??

Recwatcher wrote:Leinster were surprisingly poor.

Can't argue with that. They were really poor. I hope Schmidt gives them a bollicking. And O'Brien should be jeered all week in training for that shockingly bad play.

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:Stag has a feeling that Bath will do it. I have a feeling that we will go over there and knock 7 shades a shyte outa them.

Don't know why, and I would be happy with a 6 5 win, but I just feel we are poised to really cut loose.

If I am wrong, I will happily come on here and eat humble pie on Monday.

I think we have an extra few gears that we have not even taken the wrapping paper off yet, and we are catching Bath at a weak point. I wouldn't read too much into the draw with Montpelier, we were asleep for the 1st half.

If we show up with the wrong attitude, we can lose this for sure. I just don't think we will. If we show up with our A game, we could cut them to ribbons.

I am happy with the win, but that was pretty far away from hammering 7 shades outa them. I was wrong. Bath put in a really committed performance, and were worth every penny of their losing BP. They could have won it. I was sweating big time. I though we did just about enough to deserve the win, and here's to Lansdowne rd next week.

Might be the wake up call we needed. Well played Bath. Really raised your game from the last few weeks.

Scrum was relatively even (but slightly in leinsters favour) until Healy came on and then it was all Leinster.

'Bath did pretty well against the bulk of the national irish side but greater experience and more established combinations, told in the end, of a tight game.,

The commentator mentioned that Bath actually started the game with more internationals than Leinster.

By my take Leinster had 5 players who started Irelands last two test start today.

Ross, Heaslip, SOB, D'arcy and Kearney

mankiaow wrote:The commentator mentioned that Bath actually started the game with more internationals than Leinster.

That's true.

We were 3 passes (not made, made too high, made in the wrong direction) away from 3 epic tries. They didn't stick, and we had to rely on the boot. Still though, a win is a win and a win on the road is gold. We didn't play as well as we could have but the signs are good, attack is much easier to improve than defence (which was good), so things look to be shaping up well for the return leg on Saturday.

In fairness to O'Brien, 9/10 times he would have scored himself, I don't blame him for chancing his arm.

How the flip did Leinster butcher those 3 tries. O'Brien, Kearney and Sexton (in that order) should be hung, drawn and quartered!

Good result for Leinster though. I thought the refereeing was terrible. Bath were getting away with murder at the breakdown and conceded numerous cynical penalties in their own 22. The ref should have shown 3 or 4 yellows.

In attack though Bath were very good and it was a really exciting game to watch with some fantastic attacking rugby from both sides. It looked incredibly physical too.

Leinster seemed to dominate more and more as the game went on, maybe they underestimated Bath a bit? I'd expect Leinster to win comfortably in Dublin.

Apart from a couple of howlers Fitzgerald was excellent. SOB looks like he's suffering second season syndrome. For Bath I thought Banahan played very well.

So then lads, all this talk about the game, wasn't even going to watch the game, then woke up on Sunday morning to a text message. "got a free ticket to the game today, fancy it?". Incredible scenes, very messy Sunday, feel like s hit this morning! Debrief of the game to come.

Thoughts were

1. Ref was awful, although not biased, some shocking decisions against both teams. Leinster very lucky to get away with hands in ruck in first half, Bath got away with a bit more in second.

2. Louw had to go, not a yellow for that offence, but combo of previous pens. Had a blinder as sell.

3. Everyone in my stand was livid with the Nacewa incident, I didn't have a problem with it. Lead with the shoulder, but not a barge.

4. Still not convinced by Sexton, massively surprised he was MOTM, but couldn't think of anyone else who stood out really. But his team won and ke kicked his kicks, only missing 1 sitter i think.

5. How was the score only 3-0 after 20mins? Both teams had so many chances, Bath all the pressure, Leinster some great counter attacking from deep.

Bathite wrote:
3. Everyone in my stand was livid with the Nacewa incident, I didn't have a problem with it. Lead with the shoulder, but not a barge.

4. Still not convinced by Sexton, massively surprised he was MOTM, but couldn't think of anyone else who stood out really. But his team won and ke kicked his kicks, only missing 1 sitter i think.

The Nacewa incident looked worse than it was. It was a good tackle but Nacewa's shoulder seemed to catch Hipkiss sternum, there may have even been a slight clish of heads but it certainly wasn't illegal.

Sexton played ok I thought. He should have done better with the pass to McGlaughlin, which should have been a try but he was the instigater of a lot of Leinsters attacking play. Teams really do struggle to play against him and there are very few fly halves around as dangerous with the ball in hand. If only he could place kick as well as ROG !

Sexton’s pass wasn’t to McLaughlin, it was to Boss but it was a little too high. In fairness he was throwing a skip pass over a defender, it had to be more accurate than it was, but it wasn’t as bad as the 2 other missed chances.

Nacewa was lucky to not be penalized I thought, there was no intent to hurt, it wasn’t wreckless but he hit Hipkiss and didn’t wrap the arms, he seemed to cop that Hipkiss had lost the ball and started to stand up at the last second, it would have been safer to complete the tackle. Hope there’s no citing because it was innocent enough.

Sexton was every bit the MOTM I thought, he controlled the game like the king, his defense was excellent and he tested the Bath defense every time we got the ball.

Before the game I was hoping we’d motor and put up a good score, but that was based on Bath’s recent form, they seem to have bucked their abject trend and played some really nice rugby. I’m happy with any win on the road in England, last year we overcame Sarries by 2 points, the year before we drew with LI and before that we won by a point at Quins, so a 6 point win isn’t bad at all. Would be hoping for a more accurate performance this week though.