Dan Hipkiss was Excellent

By Lawrence Aggleton
August 13 2011

Just as you shouldn't get too down on yourselves in a pre-season loss, we shouldn't get too carried away with Friday night's victory either. But what you can say is that Bath utterly dominated this game.

Defence was solid and for any breaks the scramble defence was superb at sweeping it up. The scoreboard didn't really reflect the true balance of play as Bath turned down all shots at goal until the last play of the game. Bath rolled substitutes throughout the game and this disjointed the performance, but there were very impressive showings from Kane Palma-Newport (scorer of the first try) and new boys Ryan Caldwell and Danny Hipkiss (who looks sharp and powerful). Michael Claassens was excellent, Tom Biggs hungry for work and Nick Abendanon popped up for an interesting trick play at scrum half. I thought Sam Vesty was understated but really useful at 10. The scrum in general was superb and often marched the visitors back.

Even better for a pre-season game is areas to work on. Attack was, hmmm, a bit ponderous. Balls were often lost forward on a greasy surface. Decision making wasn't the best with the forwards often getting a bit carried with their scrum dominance and just driving the ball up when outside backs were in acres of space with numerous overlaps spurned. The lineout definitely needs some work.

But in general Bath players, coaches and fans should be very pleased with nilling a Super XV team. The defence was superb, the new boys looked like hungry and sharp, some of the younger players really look ready to step up and let's not forget this was a team missing potential starters Louw, Donald, Banahan, Moody, Mears, Barkley, Bell, Eastmond and Perinese. There looks to be really good depth in our squad and the omens are very positive for this season!

Bath Rugby

15. Nick Abendanon, 14. Nick Scott, 13. Danny Hipkiss, 12. Ben Williams, 11. Tom Biggs, 10. Sam Vesty, 9. Michael Claassens, 1. Nathan Catt, 2. Pieter Dixon, 3. Kane Palma-Newport, 4. Stuart Hooper (C), 5. Ryan Caldwell, 6. Carl Fearns, 7. Guy Mercer, 8. Ben Skirving

Replacements 16. Max Anderson, 17. David Flatman, 18. Mark Lilley, 19. Charlie Beech, 20. Will Spencer, 21. Will Skuse, 22. Simon Taylor, 23. Chris Cook, 24. Mark McMillan, 25. Tom Heathcote, 26. Paul Roberts, 27. Matt Carraro, 28. Ollie Woodburn

Melbourne Rebels

1 Eddie Aholelei, 2 Ged Robinson (Captain), 3 Laurie Weeks, 4 Hugh Pyle, 5 Cadeyrn Neville, 6 Luke Jones, 7 Michael Lipman, 8 Tim Davidson, 9 Richard Kingi, 10 Danny Cipriani, 11 Cooper Vuna, 12 Lachie Mitchell, 13 Stirling Mortlock, 14 Pama Fou, 15 Peter Betham

Replacements 16 Nic Henderson, 17 Luke Holmes, 18 Greg Somerville, 19 Jarrod Saffy, 20 Nigel Ah Wong, 21 David Hardisty, 22 Jimmy Hilgendorf, 23 Liam Windon, 24 Gareth Delve

Starry, Starry Night

Discussion started by BathRugbyEre.co.uk , 13/08/2011 22:39

BathRugbyEre.co.uk
13/08/2011 22:39

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:08:18:11:31:47 by stuart_mod.

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Dan Wiley
15/08/2011 08:34

Good review, I guess I'm interested in Rebels. Despite bod's post match dismissal of them, they are a regional team and it sounds like they just didn't perform at all? They do have plenty of names in that squad. That's probably not their strongest side, but then it is far from ours. They are on holiday, but then we're just getting back. Friendlies are often inconsistent, for both sides.

Did they just phone this one in (in which case what a wasted trip) or was it Bath's performance?

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Huxster
15/08/2011 10:01

..Paint your pallet blue and grey..

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Mike-s
15/08/2011 10:21

Rebels are " end of season " and as such are likely having a bit of "end of season jolly"
cant confirm this but waqs told that some of them were doing slammers in a bar in Bath on thurs night ?

COME ON YOU BATH
!!!!!!!
BATH, BATH, WHEREVER WE MAY BE WE ARE THE BOYS FROM THE WEST COUNTRY , AND WE'LL BEAT YOU ALL WHOEVER YOU MAY BE , BEAT YOU ALL FOR THE WEST COUNTRY !
Mike-s, in exile in Bridgwater

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Susanne
15/08/2011 11:34

Pretty much as I saw it Hasta - yes, Rebels were end of season and didn't perform as one might expect of a Super 15 team (if that is how they play normally, I can't see the franchise lasting!) but I think our play had a lot more positives than negatives in it.

Was our scrum as strong as it looked - or the result of the opposition being on the lash the night before?

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