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Bath head to Montpellier on Friday night knowing they must win to have any chance of qualifying from pool four. - 04/12/2014 11:29
Bath head to Montpellier on Friday night knowing they must win to have any chance of qualifying from pool four.
The Aviva Premiership outfit have only one losing bonus point to show for their efforts in rounds one and two after defeats to Glasgow Warriors and Toulouse. It leaves them eight points behind early leaders Glasgow, who travel to Toulouse on Saturday.
Defeat would all-but-end Bath’s hopes of making the knockout stages and flanker Carl Fearns admits they can’t afford to slip up in France.
“We are going into it (Europe) with some form but in this fixture I don't think form comes into it,” said Fearns. “It's basically a knockout game. We can turn around our tournament if we get a win.
“It is going to be massive in the set piece this Friday and we need to dominate there. This is a competition we want to play in and it is a massive stage so it’s about now and putting right the first two games.”
Meetings between the two sides have traditionally been very close, with the home side coming out on top in their last two Heineken Cup clashes by three points or less.
Bath lost by two points when they last went to Montpellier in 2012 but they will go into this season’s encounter off the back of some excellent form in the Premiership. They sit in second place after nine rounds of action, two points behind leaders Northampton Saints.
“I’m proud of the boys,” added Fearns. “When the international boys went away we kept the momentum going and the guys that have stepped in have done really well.
“I don’t think we were worried because we have got a big squad and everyone is pushing each other and putting their hands up. We relished this period really – everyone gets to play and gets a chance and some experience.”
Match Facts
- The clubs have met four times before in Europe, twice in the Challenge Cup and twice in the Heineken Cup; both sides won one apiece when they met in Europe’s premier competition.
- In their two Heineken Cup meetings, both games were won by the home side by three points or less.
- If George Ford manages 10 or more points in this fixture he will go through the 100-point mark for Bath in European competition as well as jumping up to fourth on the list of the club’s all-time top point scorers in Europe. Montpellier’s Akapusi Qera (7) has made the most offloads in this season’s tournament so far.
Bath inflicted a record beating on Montpellier in their own back yard
Bath inflicted a record beating on Montpellier in their own back yard, but failed to take enough advantage of three yellow cards to pick up a try bonus point.
The Aviva Premiership side scored three tries in 50 minutes, but weren’t able to pick up a priceless fourth to put themselves back in the hunt in Pool 4 of the European Rugby Champions Cup.
Bath came into the game knowing that a third successive defeat would end any slim hopes they still had of going through to the knock-out stages. Defeats in Glasgow and at home against Toulouse had more or less put them out of the reckoning in October, but head coach Mike Ford said he hadn’t given up hope.
The conditions at the Altrad Stadium were atrocious, but so was the home side’s from coming into the game. Montpellier also lost their opening two Pool matches and parted company with forwards coach Mario Ledesma as a result.
Head coach Fabien Galthie has suffered lots of injuries and his team started badly, got even worse and found themselves 23-0 behind at the break.
The opening 40 minutes belonged to Bath’s new England No 10 George Ford, who was calmness personified on a miserable night. He helped his side to build a score, dropping a 30 metre goal and then kicking two penalties, and always ensured his side were playing the game in the right areas.
Up front, the Bath scrum worked its magic and as the penalties from Welsh referee Ian Davies’s whistle began to mount against the home side, so the frustration began to show in the Montpellier players.
Springbok prop Patric Cilliers crumpled at the first scrum, back row man Antoine Battut tried to take the head off Bath scrum half Chris Cook and then skipper Thibault Privat followed Battut to the sin-bin for taking out Henry Thomas at a line-out.
Bath kept their cool, made the most of their numerical advantage and ended the first-half in great shape. It was Thomas himself who picked up the first try of the night after some great driving play from Alafoti Fa’Osiliva and Ford added the extras from the side of the posts.
Then, no sooner had Privat left the field, than Thomas and co flexed their muscles at scrum time to pick up a penalty try that once again Ford converted to bring the half to a rousing end for the visitors.
They maintained their composure and form in the second half and picked up a third try from Leroy Houston after 50 minutes following some great inter-play between the forwards and backs up the right touchline. Ford converted off the touchline and Bath were left with half-an-hour to conjure up the bonus point try.
It didn’t help the home cause that they picked up a third yellow card when replacement hooker Charles Geli was given 10 minutes on the sidelines for failing to release at the breakdown. But Bath also lost skipper Stuart Hooper to a yellow card before the end when he was adjudged to have taken a player out in the air at a line-out.
That came after 68 minutes as Montpellier drove a line-out over the line and No 8 Alex Tulou picked up a try that broke the home duck. That was the end of the scoring and certainly the end of Montpellier's hopes in Europe this season.
Bath now have to hope the two unbeaten teams in the Pool, Glasgow Warriors and Toulouse, take points off each other in rounds three and four, and that they can pick up the full five points at The Recreation Ground when Montpellier arrive for the return leg next Friday night.
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