Match Centre: Bath Rugby 13-15 Bristol Bears
Bath suffered a narrow defeat at The Recreation ground
©Steve Haag
Bath Rugby 13-15 Bristol Bears, The Recreation Ground
Piers Francis missed a 76th minute penalty goal as Bristol Bears edged out Bath Rugby 15-13 in the 18th round of the Gallagher Premiership at The Recreation Ground on Friday.
This is 10th defeat for Bath in 14 games as they are languishing at the bottom of the Gallagher Premiership table while Bristol have climbed to the ninth position following the victory.
Bath's woes continued as Piers Francis missed an early 8th minute penalty goal before Semi Radradra created the burst for James Williams to touchdown and AJ MacGinty kicked on the conversion to make it 0-7.
Francis missed a chance to reduce the arrears as another three-pointer from Francis drifted wide but they soon got their first points as a close-range tap allowed Miles Reid dived under the posts. Francis landed the conversion to level the scores.
As the break was approaching, Francis helped the home side gain advantage with a disputed penalty as the opening half completed with the home side having slender 10-7 lead.
Two minutes into the second half, a long pass from Radradra allowed Siva Naulago to go past Matt Gallagher to crossover but Williams missed out on the conversion making it 10-12.
The 52nd minute saw the visitors reduced to 14 players temporarily with MacGinty sin-binned and Francis landed the penalty goal to make it 13-12. Just as MacGinty returned from the sin-bin, he kicked the decisive penalty goal with 15 minutes remaining as Bath's indiscipline costed them dearly allowing Pat Lam's side to complete a thrilling victory.
Team line up:
Bath: De Glanville, Cokanasiga, Redpath, Ojomoh, Gallagher, Francis, Spencer (c); Obano, Annett, Rae, Attwood, Roux, Bayliss, Underhill, Reid.
Reserves: Dunn, Schoeman, Stuart, Van Velze, Coetzee, Schreude, Bailey, Cloete.
Bristol Bears: Piutau, Naulago, Radradra, Williams, Ibitoye, MacGinty, Randall (c); Thomas, Thacker, Lahiff, Joyce, Vui, Jeffries, Harding, Bradbury.
Reserves: B Byrne, Woolmore, Kloska, Heenan, Lewis, Uren, Bedlow, Lloyd.
