Bath Saracens 54 – Chippenham 3rds 19
On a perfect day and on a near perfect pitch for running rugby Bath Saracens produced their best performance of the season thus far, with all facets of their game showing cohesion and coordination.
After a protracted warm up where for the first time we had time to introduce some new unit and sub unit exercises before the game to add a bit more detail to our performances we kicked off under the glorious blue Bath skies looking sharp and ready to go.
Though the quick score from Chippenham would have suggested otherwise. A well crafted line break by the young Chippenham no.9 (who was dangerous all day ball in hand) was followed up well by support runners and the away team trotted under the post after 2-3 minutes to take up a 7-0 lead. A lead that wasn’t to last long and a glimpse of a capability that would be well managed and snuffed out for the next 70 minutes of the game.
From there on out though it was all Bath Saracens play that rose to out shine the glorious weather. With our units and sub units performing and interacting excellently in both attack and defence to starve Chippenham of time and space on the ball and work extremely hard to try and get back with Saracens at one point racking up an impressive 14 phases of play before Chippenham were forced into giving a penalty to the home side and thus conceding territory from which Saracens would then go on to score from.
Tries from Rob Abbeywood, Jack Goodfriend, JP Abbeywood (yes we have a few guys all with the same surname) and a late first half try (sorry forgot who got no.4) saw Saracens complete their first objective of the day to score four tries and notch up the bonus point just before half time.
With what was a dominant and controlled performance within the team at half time. The half time message was pretty much more of the same please and that’s exactly what Saracens delivered with 4 more second half tries in the next 30 minutes before Chippenham eventually got some field position and their electric young whipper snapper of no.9 put on his dancing shoes and danced away through some bewildered Saracens defenders who were pretty adamant the guy was there a second ago when they tried to tackle him to dot down for Chippenham’s second of three tries. The third coming hot on the heels of the second before Saracens got there second wind and the game finished with Saracens camped in the Chippenham 22 pushing for try no.9 and the 60 points which wasn’t to be and the game ended 54-19 to a very deserved home team.
From a coach’s perspective yesterday was a far better performance and win than the 54 points scored against Combe Down the week before. The win the previous week was as much a result of a few individual efforts capitalising on Combe Down errors than a team performance. Yesterday was a solid performance with all the units and sub units working well together.
The back three of Pete Astley Max Morlet and Paddy Thomas were excellent throughout. Their positioning in defence was first class and all three were solid under the high ball and the support lines and options they offered allowed us to counter attack with purpose and intent.
The centre pairings of JP Peter Baldwin/Joshua Jones when Pete wasn’t seeing little birdies much like the back three were rock solid in defence with good line speed putting pressure of the Chippenham mid field forcing error after error as well as being strong and powerful in attack forging out numerous line breaks from which we gained good territory or scored from.
The half backs of Owen Swabey and Eddie Bell showed their best on the day as well with a fine selection of distribution and game management to help provide the strike runners with lots of go forward ball. All of which culminated in an excellent taking first phase try deep in the second half from a line out in the Chippenham 22.
Which naturally brings us to the unsung heroes of the piece. No set of backs can enjoy the time space and front ball the crave without the hard work of the guys up front.
The tight five were industrious throughout and the introduction of a new call less line out system provided much more ball from that area than previously enjoyed and the front row of Mohamed Joseph El-Ali Robbie Lawrence and Allan (Who no doubt was Eddie’s man of the match just for showing up) along with Tom Burke and Nick Haden gave us parity and a platform to work from in the scrum. With the back row of Jack Goodfriend Rob Abbeywood Spike Hart and Ollie Abbeywood all providing the athleticism and dynamic edge upfront that helped tire a larger Chippenham front 5 out and allow us to play an attractive and enjoyable expansive game of rugby.
And here comes the coaches but even with everything going so well for us on the day there’s still room for improvement. Even with 8 tries we left 3 or 4 out there where we dropped the ball over the line or squandered 2 on 1 situations to put our wingers away. So as good as it was it could still be better.
On the whole though a fine day at the office and certainly a performance that thoroughly deserved the result.
Ian Caple
