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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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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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