Rusty Bath labour to pre-season victory against Dragons
Bath’s strongest available side stuttered to an unconvincing 26-3 win over the Dragons on Friday night in their final pre-season game of the summer.
Despite Ollie Lawrence, Ben Spencer, Will Muir and Alfie Barbeary making their first appearances of the campaign, the English side’s combinations failed to click for large swathes of the contest at the Recreation Ground as they looked miles off the side that bravely pushed eventual champions Northampton Saints all the way in last season’s Gallagher Premiership final.
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With a rematch of that game just seven days away there will need to be a dramatic improvement by Johann van Graan’s side for the Premiership opener. They scored four tries against the Dragons, crossing the line through Will Muir, Ted Hill, Niall Annett and Guy Pepper, with Finn Russell landing one of his two conversions and Sam Harris notching both his efforts.
The frankly woeful Dragons, managed just an early penalty from Lloyd Evans as they offered very little other than stubborn resistance.
The Dragons took the lead in just the second minute via the boot of fly-half Evans after Miles Reid conceded a penalty right in front of the posts after going off his feet at a ruck but that proved to be the highlight for the visitors.
After Will Stuart harshly had a diving effort in the corner scrubbed off for being in touch, Bath opened the try scoring after 15 minutes with Russell the architect as he sprayed a flat pass out to returning winger Muir who narrowly survived the attempt to drive him into touch to dot the ball down. Russell missed with the wide-left conversion.
Muir should have had his second score five minutes later after winning the battle in the air to go up for a cross-field kick from Ben Spencer but he knocked the ball on in the dead ball area. That was all too indicative of a laboured first half as Bath were riddled with errors as their combinations lacked cohesion and basic handling errors let the Dragons off the hook whenever the English side looked to be building momentum.
Moments of quality were far too irregular for both sides, but it was Lawrence who shone brightest in the backs as he repeatedly found ways to cut through the Dragons’ defence. However, it was flanker Hill who struck a blow for the hosts after the break, spinning out of the tackle of Shane Lewis-Hughes on the edge of the 22 before racing in to score under the sticks to hand Russell and easy conversion.
With almost an entirely new pack on the pitch, Bath added a third try with a driving maul from a close-range lineout to deliver Annett over the tryline. A repeat of the set-piece routine, this time on the other side of the pitch, then delivered Pepper over the whitewash for his first try for the Blue, Black and White having joined the club from Newcastle in the summer.
With the Dragons pushing for a late consolation try, Ruaridh McConnochie was shown a yellow card for killing the ball close to his line, but even with a man advantage the Welsh side couldn’t score and Bath saw out the game.
Bath Rugby: 15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Orlando Bailey, 11 Will Muir, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben Spencer (capt); 1 Arthur Cordwell, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Will Stuart, 4 Quinn Roux, 5 Charlie Ewels, 6 Ted Hill, 7 Miles Reid, 8 Alfie Barbeary
Replacements: Niall Annett, Josh Bayliss, Will Butt, Tom Carr-Smith, Jacques du Plessis, Austin Emens, Hame Faiva, Archie Griffin, Sam Harris, Louie Hennessey, Ruaridh McConnochie, Ross Molony, Tyler Offiah, Guy Pepper, Ewan Richards, Louis Schreuder, Billy Sela, Ethan Staddon, Francois van Wyk
Dragons RFC: 15 Cai Evans, 14 Rio Dyer, 13 Jared Rosser, 12 Aneurin Owen, 11 Ewan Rosser, 10 Lloyd Evans, 9 Rhodri Williams; 1 Rodrigo Martinez, 2 Brodie Coghlan, 3 Leon Brown, 4 Matthew Screech, 5 Ben Carter (c), 6 Ryan Woodman, 7 Harri Keddie, 8 Shane Lewis-Hughes
Replacements: Rhodri Jones, James Benjamin, Oli Burrows, Luke Yendle, Owain James, Nick Thomas, George Nott, Evan Minto, George Young, Dane Blacker, Will Reed, Steff Hughes, Huw Anderson, Harry Rees-Weldon
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe
Assistant referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys and John Meredith.