Rising Star....

By TheSaracens
May 11 2023

Bath’s a trip I always look forward to – it’s a lovely city, the ground though basic is quirky and charming, the fans are friendly enough, the beer’s good and the food’s fine. The weather improved as kick-off approached , and we’d spent a very pleasant couple of hours in the Boater watching bits of the Coronation coverage. Sarries had selected a VERY youthful squad for a game that wouldn’t impact on us as top spot in the league had been secured against London Irish and a home semi-final before then, with several youngsters including one C. Bracken set to make their Premiership debuts. A more seasoned campaigner, one E. Daly, was making a very welcome return to action after four months out through injury. Bath, still needing a convincing win to ensure their qualification for next season’s Heineken Champions Cup, had picked a virtually full-strength squad including the – on his day – terrifying Ollie Lawrence. This would be a great – if potentially chastening – experience for our lads, hopefully not mirroring the 54-7 thrashing at Kingsholm in similar circumstances at the end of last season.

Not at all surprisingly given that there was much at stake in this game for Bath they made the early running and opened the scoring after only 3 minutes when a penalty took them deep into Sarries’ territory, from which pressure on our young defence built until an opening was created for Reid to go over at short range, with Spencer adding the extras for 7-0.

Sarries, perhaps sensing even at this stage that they may as well “go for it”, responded to the early setback with a spell of open running rugby, Harris, who I continue to rate highly,  nearly creating an opportunity before, on 7 minutes the returning Daly showed that any rigng rust had quickly been shaken off by adeptly drawing a defender and setting up Segun to cross the line and put Sarries on the scoreboard – Manu missed the conversion to leave matters at 7-5.

Mawi was yellow carded which gave Bath the chance to wrest the initiative back from Sarries, and  with 12 minutes gone, with another penalty, kicked gto the corner this time, proved to be Sarries undoing when another strong maul rumbled forward and Dunn finished things off. Spencer again converted successfully as Bath edged 9 points to the good at 14-5.

Once more, though, Sarries responded well, and 4 minutes later some lovely work between De Haas and Manu in the middle of Bath’s half set up Hartley to surge through the Bath defence and with Manu this time successfully converting the game was nip-and-tuck at 14-12.

It may have been a very, very, young Sarries side against a very experienced Bath XV, but our kids looked happy to go toe-to-toe with the bigger boys.

Bath looked to take control of the game as they hammered away to add to their points tally but at this point Sarries’ youthful defence looked every bit as well-drilled as their senior and seasoned colleagues as they showed guts and good organisation, eventually reaping its reward when the ball was turned over when Bath were held up.

As we approached the half-hour mark, and having dealt for now with all that Bath could throw at them,  it was Sarries’ turn to apply  some pressure of their own as we in the “naughty step seats” in Block EH” roared them on – with the noise increasing further as Hartley cleverly picked up his own “dink” to go over under the posts – this looked even better watching it later on TV- giving Manu a straightforward chance to convert for 14-19 on 27 minutes. This was definitely not looking like Kingsholm last May…

Bath were not to be denied, though, and replied with another defence-testing spell of pressure which culminated on 33 minutes with the powerhouse Obano doing Sarries no “family favours” by bludgeoning his way over Sarries’ line, Spencer’s trusty left boot putting Bath’s noses on front by 21-19.

For a third time, though, Sarries hit back when Bath were taken into touch and from the ensuing line-out a driving Sarries maul put Lewis over for a classic Sarries Hooker Try and although Manu missed the conversion, both the squad and the travelling fans adjourned for the interval delighted with our performance, the score and an unnecessary but nice bonus point.

I couldn’t quite figure out if Bath were a little tense, this being the one opportunity for something to salvage from what had been a difficult season, following on as it had from a few previous difficult years, but that couldn’t detract from a wonderful first-half performance from Sarries’ tyros, with setbacks being dealt with brilliantly and some superb defensive work where needed. There’s something about this special club of ours, call it what you will - DNA, culture, excellent coaching - that breeds an iron will alongside rugby skills in successive generations of players. It’s as if a little bit of Brad Barritt is injected into everyone who signs for Sarries….

Daly, absent for nearly four months has looked he’s never been away – his work considered to have been done and with the semi-final in mind, however, he was substituted at the beginning of the second half.

Perhaps after the kind of dressing room conversation over the half-time cuppa that so often fires Sarries up, Bath’s straps were firmly hit as the second half opened and on 42 minutes a repeat performance from the at times unstoppable Obano was enacted when a spell of severe pressure following a Bath penalty culminated in Maro’s disloyal relative powering over, with Spencer taking the score to 28-24.

Bath took command at this stage of the game, and the young Sarries side, for the first time, began to look embattled and a little weary as their older and considerably more experienced opponents began to wear them down.

On 51 minutes, the game looked to be moving beyond Sarries (but this season you never know….) when in a similar move to his first try Dunn powered over for his brace after a strong driving maul, with Spencer’s trusty left pin putting Bath 35-24 in front.

3 minutes later, and in a remarkably similar try to his second, Dunn made the game something like safe when he drove over off a maul for his hat-trick and Bath’s sixth score - with Spencer inevitably topping things off, Bath started to look pretty comfortable at 42-24.

The hour mark approached, and Sarries despite their entirely understandable weariness showed a flash of defiance not to say brilliance on 58 minutes when Manu picked up the ball, and from long range danced his way through the Bath defence to score a truly wonderful try that even outshone his effort at Saints a few weeks back – this is an element he’s clearly added to his game – and although he failed to convert his own try the plaudits from his team-mates and the Prisoners in Cell Block EH (sorry….I’ve been dying to use that line..) were richly deserved.

At 42-29 Sarries were still within comeback range albeit that Bath’s big hitters, the likes of Dunn, Lawrence, Cokanasiga and Obano had done their damage.

Sarries were beginning to empty their bench.

Moving into the last 15 minutes of the game, Bath dealt a probably fatal blow to Sarries, hopes of a comeback, looking far the stronger side as Cloete scored from close range and, yes, Spencer converted for a seventh time to put Bath 49-29 ahead.   

Shortly after this, a further contingent of Sarries substitutes came on, including one figure who gave me a very slight “I’m getting old” moment – that of Charlie – as in Kyran - Bracken, a highly promising prospect in his Dad’s position.

Bath were stepping up the pace and power now, motivated it later transpired by the news that Bristol were beating Gloucester (although it turned out that a late penalty try for Gloucester eventually put Bath above Bristol in the table), and although a Dom Morris break got us briefly excited, the ball was lost and a sweeping counter-attack from Bath culminated in Bailey scoring on 73 minutes….and, yes, Ben did it for the eighth time to give them an unassailable 56-29 lead.

The game had moved past 80 minutes when Sarries tried to keep playing – hoping perhaps to end a tough game on a high - but for reasons none of us could fathom Manu chose to kick in-field, giving Lawrence the chance for Bath to finish with a flourish as the big centre ran nearly half the length of the field to take the home side past 60 points……this time Spencer fluffed his lines to leave a final score of 61-29.

I was astonished by the Bath fan sat behind me loudly proclaiming after the game that he couldn’t believe Sarries were top of the table after that score….I smilingly pointed out to him that what he’d witnessed had been basically our academy team putting five tries past Bath’s senior XV.

For me, the scoreline wasn’t anywhere near as important as the performance, and in particular gave me a feeling of excitement for the future as, certainly in the first half, our youngest Premiership side for some years more than matched a side whose strength belied their league position and did so with a hell of a lot of verve. Yes, they tired as the game wore on, but that’s OK – strength and stamina, like experience, will come. 

TEAMS:

 Bath: Gallagher; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh, McConnochie; Bailey, Spencer (capt); Obano, Dunn, Stuart, McNally, Van Velze, Hill, Cloete, Reid.

Replacements: Annett, Schoeman, Rae, Attwood, Bayliss, Green, Francis, Joseph.

Saracens: Daly (co-capt); Segun, Hallett, Hartley, Harris; Vunipola, de Haas; Mawi, Lewis (co-capt), Judge, Wardell, Hunter-Hill, Michelow, Knight, Stonham.

Replacements: Adejimi, Hislop, Beaton, Pearce-Paul, Eke, Bracken, Morris, Elliott.

Referee: Christophe Ridley.