Bath Rugby : Bath vanquish Pirates in Cornish adventure

Chas Williamson

Bath vanquish Pirates in Cornish adventure

24 October 2006, 12:12 pm

Match report by Hilary Weale

In a match full of outstanding individual performances, Bath U21 Development team defeated their counterparts from the Cornish Pirates 13-17 last night.

After a lot of rain both on the Sunday and most of the day on Monday, the pitch at the Menaye Field was in excellent condition and this allowed both young academy squads to put on a great show for the large crowd of more than 600.

Bath kicked off and for the next 14 minutes came under extreme pressure from the home team and this resulted in two well-struck penalties by fly half Mike Provis on 4 minutes & 11 minutes. However the Bath defence held out well and did not concede a try from the rapid attacks from the home team during this period. The following 15 minutes of play was more in the home team’s half of the field and after a series of five-metre scrums that either went down or got turned around the referee awarded a penalty try to Bath, converted by fly half Luke Cozens which made it 6-7 at the half-hour mark.

A deep kick ahead was well fielded by full back Charlie Perry, who counter-attacked, and after several phases of possession the ball was worked wide for flanker Adam Clayton to show his pace in out-stripping the home defence to score in the clubhouse corner. This was converted by Cozens with an excellent kick from the touch line. As half-time approached the home backs were caught off side at a ruck and Cozens kicked the penalty from 40 metres out to make the score 6-17 at the break.

During the second half both teams used all seven subs but the standard of play was always kept high, with large crowd entertained by some great attack and defence from both sets of players. After 24 minutes of the second half home No 8 and captain Adam Nicholls scored in the clubhouse corner. This was converted by Provis. Despite Cozens hitting the post with a penalty and the cross bar with a snap drop goal attempt Bath could not add to their first-half scores.

In the last few minutes replacement full back Lee Audis saved what looked like a certain score when the home team cross-kicked to the in-goal area but Audis won the race to touch down first. For the last few minutes of the match Bath kept the home side deep in their own half with some excellent kicking by the half backs Sam Alford and Cozens, so that at full-time it was 13-17 to Bath.

Both sets of coaches were delighted by the high standard of play and adventure shown by their respective teams.

The return match will take place on Monday 19th February 2007, kick-off 7:15pm, at the Rec.