Bath Rugby

DOUBLE GLOUCESTER by Midian Orpin

Twice Try Scoring Gloucester Make History at the Rec

Gloucester finally beat Bath in a gripping derby at the Rec, thanks to tries from Luke Narraway and Willie Walker.

Gloucester came into the game as underdogs, having lost to Leicester at Kingsholm last time out and having never won a league encounter at the Recreation Ground.  They got off to a perfect start: Tom Cheeseman was forced into touch from the kcik off, and Willie Walker slotted home a drop goal.

Walker got a second chance for points, but his long range effort dipped just under the posts.  Bath skipper Michael Lipman got the hosts on the board with a well worked try.  Peter Short took the line out, passed down to Jonny Fa’amatuainu who darted forward and put Lipman in 5 metres out.

12 minutes later, Walker put Gloucester 6-5 up: but just 5 minutes after that the ‘cherry-and-whites’ were down to 14 men, due to Will James getting involved (for the second time) after referee Wayne Barnes’ whistle.  This, however, appeared to spark the visitors into life, and after sustained pressure Willie Walker extended Gloucester’s advantage and a well-earned penalty.

After the break, Gloucester were straight into Bath’s 22.  After a turn over, a clever kick from Butch James almost put Matt Banahan under the sticks, but the bounce was unkind on the 6’7” winger.

1 minute later, James got a chance for points, but missed his kick from in front of the posts; he then missed again on the 59th minute. 3 minutes passed before Rory Lawson’s ‘garryowen’ was knocked on by Nick Abendanon, and from the resulting scrum, Luke Narraway beat Stuart Hooper to score.

With the clock on 66 minutes, Bath looked out of the game.  Butch James (who had kicked poorly all day) was charged down by Walker, who scored under the posts before converting the try.  However the hosts rallied, and on 71 minutes Joe Maddock latched onto a beautiful pass from Shaun Berne beating two defenders to score.  Berne converted.

On 78 minutes, Bath’s star performed, Nick Abendanon, darted through to score Bath’s third try of the match.  Bath looked like they could produce a phenomenal come back, a last hurrah, but Peter Short knocked on 24 metres out, ending the match.  Bath 17.  Gloucester 21.

After the game, Luke Narraway said, “It feels like winning the league.  I’ve been coming here for six or seven years but never won.  It was a bit nervous at the end but at least we won.” 

BLANDFORD RFC U11s v LYTCHETT MINSTER RFC U11s by Mathew Riglar

The Blandford v Lytchett game was always going to be very close, as Blandford found out.

The game started well with us winning the toss and choosing ends and playing downhill to start.  We pushed forward, but Lytchett were defending well.  Then it went downhill.  Lytchett broke from a maul and our backs had been dragged in.  The Lychett centre broke and we couldn't catch him.  He scored and they converted to take a 7-nil lead.

We fought back after the kick-off, gaining lots of ground when finally our outside centre, Keelan, broke through a gap and scored a try.  What's more he converted; 7-7.  We kept up the pressure and Keelan, again, found another gap and avoided the desperate defence to score.  He sweetly converted a wonderful try!! 14-7 to Blandford at the break.

The second half was fairly even until again Lytchett gained possession in mid field and fed their left wing.  I chased him down and attempted a last ditch tap tackle, but it did not slow him down and he scored in the corner.  Lytchett converted, 14-14.

They looked favourites to win at this point, but in the last quarter Keelan ran past all the defenders, with snake hips, and completed his hat-trick of tries.  He also completed his hat-trick of conversions.  We held on to beat Lytchett by 21 points to 14.

After winning only twice last season we hope to keep up the form when we play our next matches away at Okemedians with Weymouth as well.  Revenge would be sweet as Weymouth beat us 28-26 in our first match earlier this season.

Thank you Matthew - and keep us posted on how Blandford RFC U11s get on this season!