Champions Cup Feature Match - Bath Rugby vs. Leinster Rugby

With the memories of last year’s quarter-final defeat in the back of Bath Rugby’s minds and the hurt of being utterly taken apart at home featuring heavily on Leinster’s Saturday afternoon’s Round 2 Champions Cup clash was always going to have plenty of bite to it. 

To add further Bath Rugby headed into the match having never beat Leinster on home soil in the European competition before and Leo Cullan's side knew that a loss would effectively end their European hopes this season with a double bill against RC Toulon on the way after.

In beautiful conditions at The Recreation Ground Bath’s pack were outstanding from start to finish and it was their industry as well as the assurance and boot of George Ford that proved to be the difference on the day. 

“At 16-9 I thought that we had the foothold in the game that we wanted," said Mike Ford after the match. "I thought that we should have gone on and made it a 10 point lead however we did one or two stupid things which showed our inexperience which put them back into the game. But, we found a way to win which is crucial for this team, for the belief and for their confidence although we tried to give it to them again when we lost the football but luckily Stuart Hooper nicked that last lineout.”

The depth in the front row that Mike Ford has at his disposable is the envy of most in the Aviva Premiership let alone Europe as when you can have a front three on the bench that you would trust to start the game it pays dividends. One individual that shone was Nick Auterac, described after the game by his Director of Rugby as ‘a bit of a steal’ from Saracens and at just twenty three years old he has plenty more development ahead of him. Auterac had the small matter of Mike Ross to handle in the scrummage, he did so tremendously and then added so much more around the park highlighting that he really is what Ford calls ‘modern day prop’.  Auterac was one third of a front row that turned all of our heads and you expect Eddie Jones' too, with Henry Thomas also stating his case loud and clear. 

Behind the pack Bath’s backs didn’t deliver a pristine performance... it was stronger than we have seen however not perfect just yet. The fact is that last season they set themselves an extremely high benchmark, particularly towards the latter end of the year and now they are working back up towards that. George Ford, no doubt spurred on by the performance of England team-mate Owen Farrell the night before, controlled the match masterfully and in my view eclipsed his International counterpart Jonathan Sexton in all areas. As soon as Bath’s pack won what proved to be the decisive penalty there was never any doubt that the ball would be soaring through the middle of the uprights. 

The fact is that Bath won this fixture without playing to their full potential, they took another step forwards however there is more to come. Francois Louw's presence in the back row was divine, his work at the breakdown and across the park adds so much and now they have a full contingent back Bath must press on. 

With all due respect at this moment in time Leinster look a shadow of their former selves with Leo Cullan saying after the match ‘we are very early in our workings with this group so people need to stay patient with us…’ however with back to back fixtures against Toulon, starting away from home, this competition waits for no-one. Bath will head to Coventry in three weeks time after two tough domestic figures against Leicester and the Northampton Saints... as long as injuries are kind to them and they press on from this performance then they'll be in a good place in Pool 5 with their fixture against Toulon still to be re-arranged. 

Opta Facts & Stats

• Saturday's victory was Bath's first against Leinster Rugby in Europe at The Recreation ground and only their second win in eight European meetings between the two 
• Bath Rugby delivered an 83% scrum success winning 10 scrums and losing just 2
• Leinster Rugby's Rhys Ruddock made the most tackles of the match with 12 to his name and the side achieved an 83% tackle success rate.
• The positive result means that Bath Rugby deliver their first three match European home winning run since the 2001/2 pool stage where they were undefeated.