Ospreys too sleek for bumbling Bath

Saturday 07th October 2006

Who needs the likes of Henson and Marshall?

Despite the absence of their brightest stars, the Ospreys conquered the Rec on Saturday by recording a tense 31-24 victory over Bath, extinguishing the home side's hope of a play-off spot in the EDF Energy Cup.

After days of autumnal drizzle, the sun shone over the West Country on Saturday, producing a fine day for rugby.

It was also perfect conditions for the army of petitioners who spent the morning seeking signatures for their 'Keep Rugby at the Rec' campaign. And with the sight of the abbey peeking over the famous makeshift stands, who could not put pen to paper? The moneymen must have been squirming in their boxes.

One of the plans being touted is to move this ancient club to Swindon. But to relocate a team, you need - at the very least - something resembling a team.

Unfortunately, the current crop of Bath players falls short of that definition. Indeed, if the fans were to send them anywhere, Coventry might be more appropriate in the fans' eyes.

Not for the first time this season, Bath were at sixes and sevens during long spells of the game. Despite their size and impressive kit, one could mistake this lot for a pub XV, hastily thrown together for a groggy kickabout on a soggy Sunday morning.

Bath seem to be a side which prefers to visualise Thursday's whiteboard rather than a gap in the opposition's lines. They are rugby's shire horses, and they were duly undone by the sleek showponies from Swansea.

Whilst the locals huffed and puffed and got into each other's way, the Ospreys stayed calm and waited for the opportunities to come their way.

And come they did, flowing from the cracked pipes of Bath's awkward recycling unit, with energetic Jason Spice and cerebral Shaun Connor happy to channel the pilfered possession and indulge the exuberance of James Hook and the cloyless hunger of Stefan Terblanche.

Bath's backline paled in comparison. Matt Perry, still England's most-capped full-back, was asked to fill the No.10 shirt for only the second time in his first-class career; and he had a horrible time. Scrum-half Nick Walshe was left to kick the goals; he missed a fair few.

Ironically, Walshe and Perry were amongst Bath's better performers - it was one of those afternoon.

But still, Bath got within touching distance of their guests during the third quarter. One suspects that the improvement came once the rigid gameplan had been tossed overboard and the players felt at liberty to tap into their instincts.

Be that as it may, the basics were missing for the full eighty minutes. Had the Ospreys not chosen to rest their Wales stars and former New Zealand scrum-half Justin Marshall, things could have got slightly out of hand.

The absence of the Ospreys' Test stars meant only four of the XV from last week's demolition of Gloucester started, and the visitors showed far more appetite than their lacklustre guests.

But it was Bath who opened the scoring. Walshe slotted an easy penalty after five minutes before missing a 40-metre effort shortly afterwards when he might have been allowed to play advantage.

Instead the Ospreys set up camp on Bath's line and Shaun Connor's flighted pass put Jonny Vaughton over in the corner for an unconverted try after 18 minutes.

Walshe replied with another penalty but the Ospreys hit back immediately as Hook took advantage of indecision in the Bath ranks.

The centre gathered a slap-back from Spice's bomb before wriggling out of a tackle by Walshe. He then showed he had power to match his poise by deftly handing off Nick Abendanon on the way to the whitewash.

Connor's conversion was good and the fly-half opened up an 18-6 lead by the half-hour with a drop-goal and penalty.

Spice then killed a Bath attack and won a yellow card for his efforts. But all Bath managed in his absence was another penalty to Walshe to leave the scoreboard reading 18-9 at the break.

Bath were in desperate need of a dressing down, and it looked like they got one under the stands for they came out for the second period with flames snorting from their nostrils.

With the blues camped on the Welsh line courtesy of a deft Walshe break, Ian Evans became the second Ospreys player to be sent to the sin-bin after ignoring a warning to his side for persistent infringement. Walshe landed a penalty and Bath went all out in attack against 14 men.

But then disaster: Lyndon Bateman stole the ball from a messy ruck on the line and fed Andrew Millward who sent out a pass to Terblanche. The former Springbok flyer set forth from eighty yards out, wrong-footing the hapless Abendanon with a step worthy of 'Come Dancing' before touching down.

Connor converted and it seemed, at 25-12, Bath's plug had been well and truly pulled.

Two tries in two minutes on the hour by Bath centre Tom Cheeseman breathed life into the home side as they clawed their way back to 25-24.

But Connor's second drop-goal after 75 minutes, and another by Hook five minutes from time, killed off any hopes of a  revival.

For Bath:
Tries: Cheeseman 2
Con: Walshe
Pens: Walshe 4

For Ospreys:
Tries: Vaughton, Hook, Terblanche
Cons: Connor 2
Pens: Connor
Drops: Connor, Terblanche, Hook

Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Ian Davey, 13 Tom Cheeseman, 12 Joe Maddock, 11 David Bory, 10 Matt Perry, 9 Nick Walshe (c), 8 Chris Goodman, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Andy Beattie, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Dan Smith, 3 Duncan Bell, 2 Dave Ward, 1 David Flatman.
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 David Barnes, 18 Peter Short, 19 Jonny Faamatuainu, 20 Mike Mangeolles, 21 Michael Stephenson, 22 Pietro Travagli.

Ospreys: 15 Stefan Terblanche, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Tal Selley, 12 James Hook, 11 Jonathan Vaughton, 10 Shaun Connor, 9 Jason Spice, 8 Jonathan Thomas, 7 Steve Tandy, 6 Lee Beach, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Lyndon Bateman, 3 Andrew Millward, 2 Barry Williams, 1 Paul James (c).
Replacements: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 Cai Griffiths, 18 Mike Powell, 19 Alun Wyn Jones, 20 Martin Roberts, 21 Andrew Bishop, 22 Lee Byrne.
 
Referee: Dave Pearson
Touch judges: David Rose, Kevin Stewart
Television match official: Matt Peters, Chris Rees

By Andy Jackson