Army Senior Men players played crucial parts in the derby day drama at Bath’s Recreation Ground on Saturday afternoon.
Bath hosted Bristol seeking both to regain their January form as well as a first win over the Bears in five attempts, while the visitors were themselves seeking to continue their return to winning ways.
For the first 15 minutes Bristol showed that they had come to the Rec to play, their dominance rewarded by three unanswered tries, including one for Pte Ratu ‘Siva’ Naulago (Yorks), who extended his scoring streak to four in four matches.
However while they were going over for tries, the Bears’ discipline was letting them down, no more so than when Pte Naulago put in a dangerous tackle on Bath’s Will Butt, for which he saw a red card.
Bath exploited the man advantage almost immediately, LCpl Semesa Rokoduguni (Scots DG) going over for a try. Bath followed this up with two more tries in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, and the contest stayed in the balance until the final whistle, which was brought up by Bath’s fifth and final try which earned them a 27-24 win.
“I thought as the second half went on we got better and better,” said Bath’s Head Coach, Neal Hatley. “We stopped the drive, that was a big weapon for them, and once we took that away from them they had to play away from that and that brought us into the game.
“The big turning points were the cards. We had a good plan to expose that man off the pitch and to score two really quick tries like we did to go 19-24 suddenly brought us massively back into the game.”
There was another derby on Saturday in the Premier 15s, although the London clash between Wasps and Harlequins was moved to Coventry’s CBS Arena, home of Wasps’ Premiership male counterparts.
Wasps needed a maximum haul of points to stay in touch with the top four, and while Harlequins – including Bdr Bethan Dainton (RA) on the bench – had come to Coventry on the back of the better results and got the first try it was Wasps – who had named Capt Gemma Rowland (RA) among their own replacements – who grabbed the contest by the scruff of the neck.
The hosts scored three tries before the break to lead 22-7, before getting a fourth 10 minutes into the second half. Harlequins did get a second try of their own with seven minutes to play, but by then Wasps had added a penalty and it was too late for the visitors to earn any reward from the game, Wasps winning 30-14.
Words © New Dogs, Old Tricks. Header and Feature image © Bath Rugby
