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Late Annett try sends Bath to the final for first time since 2015

Bath's Ted Hill celebrates Beno Obano's try (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

This was wicked, a belter of a semi-final where the fireworks ignited were even more entertaining than the epic drama that unfolded the previous evening when Northampton dethroned the champions Saracens in a 22-20 helter-skelter.

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In the end, this second semi came down to a training ground play that Bath would have executed time and time again out at Farleigh.

Having led from the fourth minute, they had fallen behind when sucker punched by a wonderfully opportunistic Tom O’Flaherty counter-attacking finish, but they were back in the lead by a point when the contest was decisively decided by a converted Niall Annett try six minutes from the finish.

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How The Rec faithful celebrated, their 31-23 win proving a red rag to the bull that is Jonny Hill, the unavailable Sale lock who got himself involved in an unsavory altercation after full-time in the main stand.

That left a sour taste following a gripping contest that ebbed and flowed before ending with a Finn Russell-inspired Bath qualifying for their first final since 2015.

Fixture
Gallagher Premiership
Bath
31 - 23
Full-time
Sale
All Stats and Data

The exchanges were gladiatorial from the beginning and it was the eagle-eyed referee Luke Pearce who allowed the hosts to open the scoring on four minutes through a Russell penalty, spotting that Joe Cokanasiga was illegally bumped by Bevan Rodd and Cobus Wiese when galloping after a Ben Spencer Garryowen from halfway.

Seven minutes later, the opening try followed. A fantastic meaty carry from the rampaging Ted Hill was the genesis and after a secondary advance from Russell, the menacing Spencer lofted a kick that produced a bounce deceptive to the Sale defence but perfect for Hill, who had stayed out wide, to score.

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We’d like to say we watched it all unfold but such are the restricted sight lines at The Rec, it was the cheering main stand crowd in the right-hand corner that had the exclusive view of Hill doing the business. Fair play to them. Russell was wide with the conversion but the hosts were eight points up and looking promising.

A blip followed, though, when they got themselves into an offside muddle when a Spencer kick was blocked on halfway. The infringement allowed George Ford to kick to the corner and after Ernst van Rhyn took the catch, Ben Curry was driven over for an unconverted score.

Bath weren’t ruffled. A peach of a Will Muir 50:22 kick resulted in Ollie Lawrence and Alfie Barbeary making valuable inroads following the lineout and when the forwards then camped at the line near the posts, Beno Obano burrowed over and Russell converted for 15-5.

The exchanges were now fizzing. Just when Sale were celebrating a penalty for a no-release from a bottled-up Russell, a cleanout from Sam Dugdale on Barbeary on halfway came to the attention of the officials, resulting in the penalty being reversed and Russell showing chutzpah to land the resulting kick and stretch the margin to 13 points.

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What now for Sale? Well, quite an exhibition of character. A belting Lawrence tackle soon denied O’Flaherty from lodging a riposte in the corner but there was no denying Tommy Taylor on 34 minutes from making it over off a driving maul.

Ford’s successful extras further cut the gap and then when Sam Underhill couldn’t resist illegally playing the ball at a ruck, Ford was back on the tee to land the penalty that left it 18-15 in a half that ended with Sale’s confidence further enflamed by winning a scrum penalty on their 22.

Five minutes after the restart, the scrum was again the talking point after a Barbeary spill. Obano collapsed, Ford levelled with the ensuing kick from the 10-metre line and before Russell could launch his restart, Tom Curry was intriguingly sent into the fray for his first match since England’s bronze medal win last October at the Rugby World Cup.

He was immediately under the pump with his pals, part of the pack that collapsed a maul and invited Russell to score Bath’s first points since the 27th minute. Back came Sale, Cokanasiga’s fumble igniting a counter from halfway involving three players before a delicious Joe Carpenter kick bounced sweetly for the scoring O’Flaherty.

That unconverted try put Sale in the lead for the first time, 23-21, and the exchanges ratcheted up even further from here. Chicanery at the ruck from sub Agustin Creevy was the reason Russell was confidently kicking Bath back into the lead on 66 minutes from the 10-metre.

Despite narrowly missing with a cheeky long-range drop goal and then a penalty after a Matt Gallagher aerial catch was the prompt for an offside, Bath didn’t flinch and after a lineout was won deep in Sale territory, sub Annett was gleefully touching down for the try that Russell added polish to and make it a two-score, 31-23 game.

That margin of comfort ignited wild Bath celebrations. Twickenham, here they come.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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