The Bath Rugby Thread

[HERSH]

First topic message reminder :

The dedicated home of all things Bath Rugby,

Please feel free to discuss all things Bath related, so pull up a chair an have a quite drink among friends, mines a Bath Ales Dark Side please.

Other fans welcome but remember, play nicely.

[gregortree]

Holy Bloke, the Bath lassies love to kiss up to a bit of Cockney class.

[PJHolybloke]

Hey T-man, howsit?

Donald did OK last time he wore the Silver Fern... could you take him back now? Thanks.

Sorry PJ, I believe we wrote "no returns" on him.

Actually, on 2nd thoughts Tasman needs a fly half for next year's ITM as Leinster have poached Goodman. We could come to an arrangement where Bath pays 3/4 of his pay

No returns?

But surely he was broken and not fit for purpose when purchased?

How could you, in all good conscience, possibly refuse to take something back that was clearly sold under false pretences in the first instance?!!

Disgraceful if you ask me.

[PJHolybloke]

Holy Bloke, the Bath lassies love to kiss up to a bit of Cockney class.

Cockney class? Behave youself Gwegor, you're givin' me the wight 'ump.

Gertcha.

[Pete C (Kiwireddevil)]

Hey T-man, howsit?

Donald did OK last time he wore the Silver Fern... could you take him back now? Thanks.

Sorry PJ, I believe we wrote "no returns" on him.

Actually, on 2nd thoughts Tasman needs a fly half for next year's ITM as Leinster have poached Goodman. We could come to an arrangement where Bath pays 3/4 of his pay

No returns?

But surely he was broken and not fit for purpose when purchased?

How could you, in all good conscience, possibly refuse to take something back that was clearly sold under false pretences in the first instance?!!

Disgraceful if you ask me.

Disgraceful?

You bought a washed up discarded player who was still handy at club/province level. We sent you a world cup winning hero. A bargain in fact

[PJHolybloke]

Hey T-man, howsit?

Donald did OK last time he wore the Silver Fern... could you take him back now? Thanks.

Sorry PJ, I believe we wrote "no returns" on him.

Actually, on 2nd thoughts Tasman needs a fly half for next year's ITM as Leinster have poached Goodman. We could come to an arrangement where Bath pays 3/4 of his pay

No returns?

But surely he was broken and not fit for purpose when purchased?

How could you, in all good conscience, possibly refuse to take something back that was clearly sold under false pretences in the first instance?!!

Disgraceful if you ask me.

Disgraceful?

You bought a washed up discarded player who was still handy at club/province level. We sent you a world cup winning hero. A bargain in fact

Pierre, when we both get 5 minutes, we need to sit down and have a wee chat over what exactly constitutes a bargain.

[GavinDragon]

cheers for all the recommendations - promised the mrs id take her somewhere nice for the day.....and completely forgot it was international weekend! Dont suppose either of the pubs recommended would show both eng and wales games at the same time would they?

[gregortree]

Holy Bloke
as they say :

"do be'ave !"

[PJHolybloke]

cheers for all the recommendations - promised the mrs id take her somewhere nice for the day.....and completely forgot it was international weekend! Dont suppose either of the pubs recommended would show both eng and wales games at the same time would they?

The Pulteney is your best bet for that GD, last time I was there they had 3 TV's and they're very accomodating when it comes to rugby, the pub will pretty much empty for the LV game at about 1.45 so if you ask one of the bar staff I'm sure they'll be cool with tuning them in to different channels.

[GavinDragon]

again cheers pj!

[Bathite]

I used to be one of those bar staff! We are indeed very accomodating!

[PJHolybloke]

There you go GD, straight from the horses mouth. Hope you and the Missus have a great day out in a beautiful city.

[Guest]

Bath: O Devoto, O Woodburn, D Hipkiss, M Banahan, S Rokoduguni, T Heathcote, M McMillan, C Beech, B Sharman, A Perenise, S Hooper (captain), W Spencer, J Ovens, G Mercer, S Taylor. Replacements: W Tanner, K Dowding, K Palma-Newport, R Caldwell, W Skuse, C Cook, L Adamson, R Lane

Dragons: H Amos, W Harries, P Leach, J Dixon, R Wardle, S Jones, L Davies, O Evans, H Gustafson, N Buck, A Jones, I Nimmo, J Groves (captain), N Cudd, I Jones. Replacements: S Parry, N Williams, T Ryan, J Tyler, T Brown, W Evans, A Smith, D Evans.

Pretty good Bath side out today. Hipkiss and Bananaman v Dixon and Leach could be good, but I fancy your two centres will be licking their lips looking at our defence at times this season. Our backrow is very untried and there's always a worry over the Dragons scrum.

[Guest]

Can't see anything other than a Bath win, but plan on having a good trip up anyway.

[GavinDragon]

Cheers all!

[PJHolybloke]

Waiting at Birmingham New Street for the 10:12 to Brizzle.

Looking forward to having a half with you Rev, I have my lucky drinking pants on though, so I may go nuts and have a pint.

[gregortree]

Sorry to hear that PJ Holy.
New St is a miserable dump. It is slated for a major new overhaul - which I hope they get on with. Enjoy todays game.

[Guest]

Waiting at Birmingham New Street for the 10:12 to Brizzle.

Looking forward to having a half with you Rev, I have my lucky drinking pants on though, so I may go nuts and have a pint.

Oh heck, a full pint? I don't think I'm ready.

[HERSH]

Good win - Bath 36 - 15 Newport-Gwent

Just the tonic us BB&W fans needed after last weekend.

[PJHolybloke]

Sorry to hear that PJ Holy.
New St is a miserable dump. It is slated for a major new overhaul - which I hope they get on with. Enjoy todays game.

Call me PJ or Peej, Gregor, everybody does... apart from those who call me Mr Winklechops.

Had a good day on the lash, met up with Rev, Mrs Rev, pops-in-law Rev and others, the game was OK, but I think the Dragons will take more from it than Bath.

The scoreline was a bit flattering, but the try count (3-2) is pretty much where the two teams were, perhaps the most worrying aspect of Bath's performance though, was that 2 of those trys were against 14 men.

Don't get me wrong, Bath controlled large parts of the game both in terms of territory and possession, but here's a note to Gary Gold, points boss, points win prizes, Dragons got into Bath's "red zone" 4 times, on 3 of those occasions they went away with points.

Compare that to the 20 minutes Bath spent camped on the Dragons 5 metre line in the second half, only to come away completely pointless and, I think, right there is the crux of the problem Bath have suffered from all season.

Feck the percentages GG, you're at Bath now, let them make their own stats up. If you keep on churning out this bilge, the ship wont go down, but all of the paying passengers will get off 'til things improve.

Today wasn't worth steerage class.

[GavinDragon]

cheers for the tip on the pulteney arms PJ. A lovely pub, good food too! would recommend for any away fans in future!

Shame about both results from a welsh and dragons perspective but walking arounfbath after certainly took my mind off it. A beautiful city!

[Guest]

Yeah thoroughly enjoyed yesterday. Big fan of the Rec and the City is lovely too. Think the last pint of Thatchers did me in though.

Would definitely go back again. Result wasn't good, but the game was closer than it suggests. Bath did a good job in the Remembrance tribute too. Nice touch.

[Bathite]

cheers for the tip on the pulteney arms PJ. A lovely pub, good food too! would recommend for any away fans in future!

Shame about both results from a welsh and dragons perspective but walking arounfbath after certainly took my mind off it. A beautiful city!

Glad you enjoyed it mate. Cracking pub, awesome for the 6Ns as well, as strangely loads of the locals are Welshman, so there's good banter. Miss working there a lot (except for the barman's wage!)

[sirtidychris]

Carl Fearns and Ben Skirving out for seven weeks with Louw away on bokke duty meaning skuse, mercer and ovens get there chance to show their worth alongside old boy taylour and exciting prospect koster...looking forward to academy boys getting a chance to shine in the 1st team backrow.

Also loaned Alan Cotter from munster for a month this really annoys me....yes he is meant to be a strong scrummager but we are developing a player for munster....this international window with wilson and james away is our chance to bring on Catt, Beech and KPN in support of Perenise...but instead we loan a talent from another club...bath academy players must get so fed up ! At least SIM brought tonnes of youngsters through despite his failings.

[Bathite]

I thought that Catt was injured, leaving us only KPN Beech and Perenise as fit senior props. Makes perfect sense to get another short term loan for cover, or we will be where we were last season with Tanner the only fit hooker and Lilley having to play there!

[sirtidychris]

In which case i shall eat some humble pie sir !

[Bathite]

I see that Tom Heathcote has been called into the Scotland training squad! Having played all the age groups for England, it seems a bit odd! Andy Robinson has come back and stolen him!

http://www.bathrugby.com/news/team-news/heathcote-added-to-scotland-squad

[DaveM]

He's represented England at u16, u18 and u20 level, and been living in the south of England I believe since at least the age of 6. This is the flip-side of the nationality debate - just because he was born in Scotland some would argue he should be able to play for them, but every bit of his rugby education has been in England and I presume he has no plans to move to Scotland.

Doesn't feel right to me.

[Bathman_in_London]

While pleased that a bath player is getting international recognition, I am a bit gutted he has decided he doesn't want to/ isn't going to make it as the England FH. It's strange that he has turned down a call up in the past only to go for it now, I wonder if an agent turned his head.

Still good luck to him and I hope he comes back a better player for Bath.

[formerly known as Sam]

Scotland continue to plunder on. A loss to England. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ford, Hodgson and Bell all given Saxon time to secure the future England 10s.

It's a loss for Bath as well as he'll now spend more time away on international duty whilst facing SRU pressure to move up north.

[Bathman_in_London]

Frankly I'd call up anyone young and decent who could be nabbed by another country, there are a lot of Scottish grannies out there!

I'd hoped that the fh's you named Sam along with Heathcote would provide some real competition in the future along with those already in the limelight. As you say if he does well he will be under pressure to move tp Scotland when he is 100% a Bath/England product.

[Captain_Sensible]

there are a lot of Scottish grannies out there!

There are also a lot of people born in Scotland, as Heathcote was. Inverness to be exact.

[Bathman_in_London]

My point was more a general one. But yes you are right, Tom qualifies on him being born there rather than blood ties.

[LondonTiger]

He qualifies, so he can do as he wishes. Strange choice though as he has no link to Scottish rugby and he had described himself as English. Of course unless he plays he is not tied to Scotland.

[formerly known as Sam]

True LT but Scotland seem to want him so will probably use him off the bench to tie him to them. I assume he's been convinced that he'll get more caps more quickly with Scotland rather than fighting his way past the half dozen English options all of which are under 30.

[sirtidychris]

I can understand his decision what with Flood, Ford, Burns, Cipriani, Botica, Farrell and even (although unlikley) myler, gegarthy, lamb all competing over the next 5 years to be the england stand off, england also don't seem to like bath players that much (just an opinion) so why not play for scotland and start getting international games and playing on the biggest and most exciting stages. Scotland are starting to gather some real talent as well with ansbro on the road to recovery, visser in the blue and now maitland scotland may not be such a bad team in the coming years. I just hope heathcote stay in bath and car shares with robbo.

[Bathite]

Teams Up, 7.30 on Sky Sports

Huge call to have Roko at 13, but an exciting looking centre combination.

Bath:
15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Kyle Eastmond, 13 Semesa Rokoduguni, 12 Matt Banahan, 11 Tom Biggs, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Simon Taylor, 7 Guy Mercer, 6 Josh Ovens, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Stuart Hooper (c), 3 Anthony Perenise, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Charlie Beech.

Replacements: 16 Brett Sheehan, 17 Alan Cotter, 18 Kane Palma-Newport, 19 Dominic Day, 20 Ryan Caldwell, 21 Will Skuse, 22 Mark McMillan, 23 Jack Cuthbert.

Harlequins:
15 Tom Williams, 14 Ugo Monye, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Sam Smith, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Karl Dickson, 8 Nick Easter (c), 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Tom Guest, 5 George Robson, 4 Olly Kohn, 3 Will Collier, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Mark Lambert.

Replacements: 16 Rob Buchanan, 17 Darryl Marfo, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Pete Browne, 20 Joe Trayfoot, 21 Jordan Burns, 22 Rory Clegg, 23 Seb Stegmann.

[Bathman_in_London]

Sad to say I think our back row are going to be out-gunned and with it will go the match.

Thats a very muscular centre combo, Roko has done seriously well. I hope we see Kyle at first reciever with Roko/Banners running lines off him. Then set back, have donald at 10, runners off him again and then third phase unlease Biggsy.
Sounds so easy!

[Bathite]

That's assuming we get some ball from that powder puff front row and penalty machine back row!

[Bathman_in_London]

True, Perenise needs to pull his finger out, on current form he will give away at least 3 penalties in the scrum. I hope KPN gets some decent game time, I'd like to see him becoming Wilson's back up sooner rather than later.

[HongKongCherry]

Bathman & Bathite, I noticed when I watched your boys against Exeter that Eastmond would regularly come in off the wing and stand at OC with Williams moving out to the wing. I know there's lots of discussion about where he will end up, but do you feel he is going to move inside or remain in the back 3?

[Bathite]

Bathman & Bathite, I noticed when I watched your boys against Exeter that Eastmond would regularly come in off the wing and stand at OC with Williams moving out to the wing. I know there's lots of discussion about where he will end up, but do you feel he is going to move inside or remain in the back 3?

Yeah, he's been popping up at 2nd or 1st receiver quite a bit during games. He will almost certainly end up moving inside, as we need him to get his hands on the ball more often. Most of us lot haven't decided where the best position will be, with 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15 all discussed. In a couple of the Amlin games he has played 10 for the last 30 mins and he will cover that position on Saturday. I think realistically 12 or 13 are the best options long term and that's also where we have least options. It's common knowledge that he's playing on the wing to learn his game and it's where it's easiest from a defensive positioning point of view. PLaying him on the wing and getting him involved in attacks is a great compromise and also adds variety to our attack. It's not dissimilar from what we saw Goode doing for England. In fact, they almost certainly stole the idea from us!

[ChequeredJersey]

Really hope O'Shea brings on at least a couple of Burns, Sinckler and Trayfoot

[nathan]

Why has Easter not been sent to the bin?

[EnglishReign]

Well done Bath .

Opened the door for Glaws to get top spot if we batter Sale! (We will).

[ChequeredJersey]

Well won, bit disappointing that

[LondonTiger]

Well won, bit disappointing that

Conditions were horrid, Bath were exceptional at the breakdown.

[ChequeredJersey]

If we want to challenge this year we need to win the tight ones though

[LondonTiger]

Quins tend to struggle in those conditions - so long as they can make the top 4 (should do, but it is very competetive this year) the conditions come May are much more suited to them

[LondonTiger]

Well done Bath .

Opened the door for Glaws to get top spot if we batter Sale! (We will).

Worcester have helped as well. Quite pleased to correctly predict both matches today

[ChequeredJersey]

Quins tend to struggle in those conditions - so long as they can make the top 4 (should do, but it is very competetive this year) the conditions come May are much more suited to them

We do, and so we need to fix that, though I suppose our pack is where we have lost most of our players with JJ, Marler, Robshaw and Mo. Dd Sinckler get a run out?

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