By Web Team
August 17 2003

The Celtic Warriors welcomed Bath to Sardis Road for a friendly fixture on Sunday afternoon but unfortunately, the Warriors couldn't build on last weekends victory and they ended up losing by 29 points to 22. For a review of the game read on.

Celtic Warriors 22 - 29 Bath

    In their first game on home soil the Celtic Warriors suffered their first ever loss going down by 29 points to 22 against English opposition Bath. Both teams were without a number of key players for the friendly encounter due to international fixtures but the Warriors still had a number of experienced players in Neil Jenkins, Paul John, Gareth Wyatt, Nathan Budgett and Richard Bryan.

    The Celtic Warriors made an impressive start as they won the ball from the kickoff and launched an attack upfield. Some good work from the forwards presented Neil Jenkins with the opportunity to kick for touch from a penalty and from the resulting lineout Chris Horsman was able to cross for the games first points. Neil Jenkins then added the conversion to put the Warriors into an early 7 - 0 lead.

    Minutes later the lead was extended after more hard work from the forwards forced Bath to concede a penalty which Neil Jenkins duly slotted over to increase the lead to 10 - 0. However, Bath were not going to lie down and let the Warriors storm further ahead and when the Warriors made a mistake in the Bath half, some quick ball allowed the Bath backs to advance upfield and eventually winger Brendon Daniel touched down for Baths first try which Olly Barkley converted.

     The Warriors then had a number of chances to make their lead more secure as Matthew Nuthall and Gareth Wyatt started to break through the initial lines of defence. There were then further chances after both Neil Jenkins and Jonathan Bryant made breaks but on both occasions Aesia Havili was unable to score out wide. However, Bath made the most of the limited amount of possession they were getting and when Mike Catt did an up and under Gareth Wyatt was unable to deal with it, allowing the ball to fall back over his own line leading to an easy score for Brendon Daniel. Barkley again converted from in front of the posts and Bath were into a 14 - 10 lead.

    Form then on the Warriors went into a downward spiral as poor handling and many basic errors allowed Bath to take possession which led to a further 2 unconverted tries in the first half. Brendan Daniel was first to score to give him a hattrick and soon after he was joined on the scoresheet by centre Alex Crockett to leave Bath in a commanding 24 - 10 lead..

    However, the Warriors were able to pull back some points before the break thanks to a try from Matthew Nuthall. Some positive attacking play was rewarded with a penalty which was taken quickly and eventually the ball appeared in the hands of Nuthall who had the task of beating the last couple of players and diving over the line out wide. Unfortunately Jenkins couldn't add the conversion which meant that the half time score stood at 24 - 15.

    In the second half it was all change for Bath (with the exception of Mike Catt) although neither team was able to cross for tries in the early stages. However, midway through the second half Bath added a fifth try from a lineout to put them in the driving seat but the Warriors didn't give up and were rewarded when Ryan Jones crossed for their third try. Jenkins added the conversion and with the Warriors mow only trailing by 7 points we were in for an exciting last ten minutes.

    Unfortunately, despite many bursts through the defence, from Gareth Cull in particular, the Warriors were unable to score a try mainly due to the high number of basic errors which were being made and so they ended up losing by 29 points to 22.

So what will the Warriors have learnt from this game?

Well, they may not have won but they were provided with a useful runout allowing them to familiarise themselves with their new team mates. Also, we saw glimpses of what the Warriors can do in attack but there were too many basic handling errors which let the team down for much of the game. The lineout didn't function as well as it could have done and the scrum was disrupted on a number of occasions but lets not forget, this was only a friendly and with so many new faces coming together there are bound to be a few teething problems.

 

What did you think of the game?

Let us know on the messageboard.

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WARRIORS STARTING XV

 

Nuthall, Wyatt, Bishop, Bryant, Havili, Jenkins, John. Cox, Joy, Horsman, R Jones, Budgett, Bryan (C), Harris, M. Lewis.

 

WARRIORS SCORERS

 

Tries: Horsman, Nuthall, Jones   Cons: Jenkins (2)   Pens: Jenkins (1)

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