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Hooper: Bath changing room 'gutted' after Clermont rout

Aled Brew caught in a mid-air collision

Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper bemoaned a shocking first-half performance as his team were hammered 52-26 by Clermont Auvergne in the Heineken Champions Cup.

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Hooper’s men were 40-14 down at the break after conceding six tries as Clermont recorded a bonus point inside just 20 minutes.

Alivereti Raka and George Moala both grabbed doubles after tries from John Ulugia and Damian Penaud, before well-beaten Bath regrouped in the second half to grab a bonus point of their own.

Hooper said: “It was always going to be a tough ask to come here and win. In the first half we were absolutely nowhere near where we needed to be.

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“We made error upon error and gave a quick and powerful team the opportunity to get into the game. We were out there, but not competing.

“As we went into the second half we talked about giving ourselves an opportunity and scoring four tries was the outcome of that.

“Clermont are a quality team and when we gave up possession and penalties it gave them an opportunity.

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“When we get under pressure we need to be better at adapting to that. We have to address it and get more width in our defence.

“The changing room is obviously gutted. No one in there wants to put in that sort of performance and rightly so.

“We can’t be in a position where that is acceptable and we need to respond now going into the London Irish week.”

Camille Lopez and Jake McIntyre completed Clermont’s eight-try haul after the break, but the French side did not hit the same heights in the second half.

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Jack Walker and Ruaridh McConnochie scored for Bath before the break and the visitors did rally as the game went on.

It allowed Tom Dunn and Josh Bayliss to both score and secure the bonus point before Sam Nixon was yellow carded for cynically trying to stop a Clermont attack.

Clermont are now a point behind Ulster at the top of Pool 3.

Number eight Fritz Lee said: “Credit to our team, it wasn’t an easy game. We score a lot of tries in the first 20 minutes of games, but then it’s a challenge physically and mentally.

“This win will give us massive confidence. Ulster’s win over Harlequins made it difficult for us and every single point matters.

“We have to focus on ourselves and not focus on anybody else. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies, but we are looking forward to playing against Ulster.

“I think we have the team to go all the way, it’s just a matter of injuries.

“Hopefully some guys will come back to help us and we’ve got a massive opportunity with two games to go.”

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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