By Ed Scott
March 1 2013

The expression ‘must win game’ is not one that I care to use much, but I feel impossible to avoid when previewing Bath’s home game against local rivals Gloucester this Friday. Bath now sit six points adrift of that all important Heineken Cup spot and anything less than a win this weekend is going to make it extremely difficult to claw back what will turn into a growing void between us and the top six. 

Last Saturday Bath put in an encouraging performance away from home against Northampton, but disciplinary lapses, coupled with some poor defending, resulted in Bath only taking a losing bonus point from the match. I do believe that this Bath team are improving, but they quickly need to get themselves back on track this week. It may be that the developments have come too late to really impact this Premiership season, but it does seem right now that we are moving in the right direction.

In order to make any sort of progress, Bath need to turn The Rec into a fortress again. Even only a few years ago, Bath were deemed very difficult to beat at home and they need to focus on putting teams on edge before they arrive. The visiting men from Kingsholm will be hugely up for this game and Bath must silence the away fans by dominating the early exchanges and getting on the scoreboard as soon as possible.

Gloucester are due to be missing a handful of players on Friday, but are boosted by the availability of Freddie Burns, as well as having the reliable boot (if not highly unorthodox kicking style) of Rob Cook. They have a lightening backline and Bath will need to concentrate hard when giving any sort of space to Sharples or May. Aimlessly kicking ball to their back three, as well as conceding penalties away in our own half, could both result in quick easy points for Gloucester if Bath are not careful.

The majority of games do tend to be won in the forwards, and with the cooler temperatures and wetter conditions of a Friday night, this game will be largely dominated by the team who gets an upper hand up front. Bath are boosted by the return of Paul James and Davey Wilson, who combined two weeks ago to give London Irish a free lesson in the art of scrummaging. I don’t think that they will get the same dominance against the Gloucester pack, especially with Nick Wood present, but I do still feel that it’s an area of the game that we could potentially come out of on top.

In the battle of the backrows I must confess to being extremely pleased that Francois Louw is fit to play. Along with Fearns and Skirving (who was superb in the lineout against Saints) they have a real job on their hands against a strong Gloucester back row, led by the superb Qera, who in my opinion is one of the most outstanding backrow players in the Premiership. He is like a rock in defence, but it’s his attacking prowess that is superb. I would imagine that he will try and run down Tom Heathcote’s channel as much as possible in an attempt to a) make considerable ground and b) try and shake Tom’s confidence as much as possible. He is a man more than capable of doing both and Bath need to stop him at source.

Gloucester will probably be feeling a little hard done by that Billy Twelvetrees has not been released back to them to play this weekend after no game time against the French, but still have the evergreen Mike Tindall to rely on in the centres. Tindall has really impressed me this season and always plays well against us. At scrum half I think we should keep an eye on the name Dan Robson, who I genuinely think could be one for the future. Although they lost the game, I thought he played far beyond his age and experience against Wasps a couple of weeks ago and should not be considered a weak link.

Bath have pretty much a full strength team out this weekend, so in my mind, there is no reason why we shouldn’t win. If you want to be in the top six, you have to be able to put teams away who are close to you in the table, especially when at home. Gloucester are one of the teams above who we need to put below us. I am not necessarily expecting a win, but also won’t accept excuses if we lose. We will simply have to accept that this season we are not a top 6 team, as the table doesn’t lie.

I often talk about form going out of the window when it comes to local derbies and I think we can certainly ignore the LV game at Kingsholm as a guide to a result in this match. That said, we cannot discount the hurt that we caused and it will undoubtedly be one of the things driving the Gloucester players on Friday night.

Bath have their own score to settle, having only beaten Gloucester once in the league in the last four years. Once a place where Gloucester never won has turned into a ground where they’ve not lost since December 2009. I have always enjoyed the tradition of this derby, but even more I loved the tradition of always winning! Time to return to that I think, we’ve all missed it.

Match Preview - Back on the Horse

Discussion started by Comeonmylovers.co.uk (IP Logged), 01/03/2013 14:10

Comeonmylovers.co.uk
01/03/2013 14:10

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:03:14:23:17:39 by TCM2007.

Reply Quote Report

dabos
01/03/2013 14:59

Good preview, as always, Ed, fairly reflecting the hopes and fears of the majority of supporters. The slidey photos are very annoying though.

Reply Quote Report

abendanon-anon-anon
01/03/2013 17:10

Quote:

dabos
Good preview, as always, Ed, fairly reflecting the hopes and fears of the majority of supporters. The slidey photos are very annoying though.

+1

Reply Quote Report

Goto: Forum List•Message List•Search• Log In

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net