Bath power into semi-finals

Sunday 6 April 2014

Horacio Agulla races clear to score Bath's fifth try

©Press Association

	Bath 39	Brive 7
Tries:	Abendanon, Agulla 3, Rokoduguni, Young	Murphy
Cons:	Ford 3	Laranjeira
Pens:	Ford 1

The semi-finals of the Amlin Challenge Cup will be an all-English affair after Bath thrashed Brive 39-7 to join Harlequins, Northampton and one of Wasps or Gloucester in the last four.

Bath will travel to Wasps on 25th April after wing Horacio Agulla scored a hat-trick at the Recreation Ground to brush aside the French team.

Nick Abendanon, Semesa Rokoduguni and Micky Young also crossed with fly-half George Ford kicking three conversions and a penalty.

Brive scored a try in the second half through number eight Keiran Murphy, which centre Thomas Laranjeira converted, but that was all they could muster.

That came as little surprise given they headed to England with a second-string team, resting players ahead of their Top 14 clash against Toulouse next weekend.

Bath not rushing Henson decision

Bath have not yet made a decision over whether to retain the services of Gavin Henson next season.

The 32-year-old signed a one-year deal with Bath last summer, joining from London Welsh and speculation has linked him with a move to Newport Gwent Dragons.

"We are talking to Gavin at the moment," head coach Mike Ford said.

"He has been brilliant in the respect that he is not rushing us to make a decision on him.

"He understands exactly what is going on. He has been as good as gold in terms of his attitude and his training. He prepares himself as well as any other player at Bath.

"We will make a decision on him when it's right. The quality of his performance today was good.

"He gives us strength and depth to our squad. He is a different player to Kyle (Eastmond) at 12, but you need those players so you can play different ways.

"He can kick a ball a million miles, he can be a little bit more direct and he can kick goals for us. Now he is fully fit and he has got a run of games, it's looking well for the business end."

Nevertheless, Bath produced a superb performance which will give them plenty of confidenc ahead of important Premiership games against Gloucester and Worcester in the next 14 days.

Lock Dave Attwood captained Bath with regular skipper Stuart Hooper on the bench while Gavin Henson started alongside Matt Banahan in midfield.

Brive made 14 changes from their previous match, a win over Clermont, with lock Julien Le Devedec the ony player to retain his place.

Henson made an immediate impact, breaking free to set up a move that almost put Abandenon over only for Brive to make a last-ditch tackle.

Bath were ahead after just nine minutes, however, when Agulla finished smartly when under pressure. Kicking against a strong breeze, Ford's conversion attempt fell short.

He did land a 14th-minute penalty after Murphy blatantly killed Bath possession and was perhaps fortunate not to receive a yellow card.

Brive showed plenty of fight up front, but Bath showed too much pace and panache with ball in hand, and quick thinking from Young created the second try 11 minutes before the break.

He took a quick penalty, ran deep into Brive territory and fed the unmarked Abendanon for an easy try, which was converted by Ford.

Two tries in three minutes from Rokoduguni and Agulla all but ended the match as a contest soon after.

Rokoduguni showed strength to power over from 25 metres out and Agulla scored following a blistering counter-attack and although Ford missed both conversions, Bath had raced into a 25-0 lead.

Just three minutes into the second half, Young pounced to score himself from close range and Agulla completed his hat-trick, Ford adding the conversion and Bath were 39-0 up midway through the final quarter.

Murphy claimed a consolation try in the closing stages after Brive's replacements helped them shore up their defence.

And although Brive ended the game with 14 men after Hugues Briatte was sin-binned, Bath could add no further score despite the best efforts of Kyle Eastmond and Anthony Watson.