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Bath Rugby have taken themselves to the brink of quarter-final qualification - but they still have unfinished business to attend to when they welcome Agen to the Recreation Ground in Round 5. - 10/01/2013 15:23
Bath Rugby face a second match on the road when they go to France to take on Agen at Stade Armandie in a contest between the top two teams in Pool 4.
Both teams opened with bonus point wins from away fixtures and the signs are that the Round 2 and Round 5 meetings between these two could settle qualification for the knock-out stages as Pool winners.
Bath, the 2008 tournament champions, the 2003 and 2007 finalists and 1998 Heineken Cup winners, will know that back-to-back wins on the road will put them in prime position but Agen, 12th in the Top 14 after eight rounds, will want to give their home fans something to cheer about.
Having not reached the knock-out stages of the competition since 2005, Agen paved the way for that to possibly change with a narrow five-point victory over Calvisano while head coach Gary Gold’s Bath team took less than 60 seconds to kick-start their campaign against Bucharest Wolves en route to a 40-17 victory.
Après une défaite inaugurale légèrement accrochée
Francois Louw’s last-gasp try secured a vital away win for Bath at Agen on Thursday night.
Springbok flanker Louw burrowed over from close-range with just 30 seconds remaining to ensure Bath will top Pool 4 at the end of Round 2.
Louw’s dramatic intervention from the base of a ruck just a metre shy of the Agen line provided a fitting finale to a compelling encounter in which the lead changed hands five times at the Stade Armandie.
Agen looked set for a second successive win themselves after Raphael Lagarde kicked his fifth penalty with nine minutes remaining but Louw’s late, late converted score made it 27-22 as Bath stunned the home support at the death.
The South African’s effort also brought Bath a try-scoring bonus point, with the visitors having earlier crossed through scrum-half Michael Claassens, wing Kyle Eastmond and fly-half Stephen Donald.
Agen actually led for the entirety of the first half as Benjamin Petre touched down with just three minutes played and Lagarde added a 21st-minute penalty to his successful conversion.
But Bath scored three times in a 20-minute spell either side of the break, with Claassens cutting the gap on 33 minutes, Eastmond leveling the scores after 46 minutes and Donald giving Bath a 20-16 lead after Lagarde had kept the scoreboard ticking over for the hosts.
The other fixture in this pool sees Bucharest Wolves host Cammi Rugby Calvisano in Romania after both those sides lost their opening fixtures.
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