The Quarter-Finals of the European Rugby Championsip Cup were held on the weekend with teams from England (4), France (3) and Ireland in the hunt to advance to the Semi-Finals.
Leinster 18 – Bath 15.
Leinster had a fine record “in Europe” winning three times in the last six seasons, but they were not tracking well in the Pro12.
Bath were lucky to be in the Quarters at all after losing the first two pool games, but they won the remaining four.
First half
Bath’s discipline was poor in the first half and 12 Ian Madigan took points for Leinster five times, Their handling was full of blemishes also and their star centre paring of Kyle Eastmond and Jonathan Joseph hardly fired a shot.
Bath flyhalf George Ford produced their one moment of magic in the first period after winger Horacio Argulla and flanker Francois Louw gained ground, and he threaded a path through forwards to score. Though he missed the comfortable conversion Bath took the lead 5-3 at 22 minutes.
Madigan slotted his second penalty and soon after Bath fullback Anthony Watson challenged clumsily for a high ball and was carded. A player short had the visitors scrambling, and infringing more, which enabled Madigan to take two more chances. By the time Watson returned to duty Leinster was ahead 12-5.
Things looked ominous for Bath when they infringed at a lineout drive just before the break and Madigan stepped up again.
Although Leinster hogged the ball in the half they missed a lot of tackles when Bath had it, but the English team faltered too much in their execution and self-control to hurt the home team as much as they should have.
The half-time score was Madigan 15 – Bath 5.
Leroy Houston – played well for Bath .
Second half
Bath looked better after the break and one of their best forwards, Aussie no. 8 Leroy Houston, made a dangerous sortie. After a poor clearance by Leinster, Ford went on his second major run of the day, again targeting forwards, but this time dishing the ball out to his skipper, lock Stuart Hooper, and he scored, handy.
At 47 minutes Leinster still led but now by only 15-12; though Madigan intervened five minutes later with a goal from a scrum penalty: 18-12 Leinster.
On the hour mark Sam Burgess of Bath came off the bench, no doubt aiming to knock over his South Sydney Rabbitoh team mate from the 2014 NRL Grand Final—Ben Te’o of Leinster, who started the game. Both played in the forwards on the dark side of rugby but in the mid-field on the bright side.
Ben Te’o – tackled Stuart Hooper but too late .
Bath looked like a different team by this time with a superior kicking game deciding where the rugby was played. When Ford kicked a penalty for Bath with seven minutes remaining, after a ruck infringement, the score was18-15 for the home team and the Leinster crowd got nervous.
Should Bath slot another goal, a final score of 18-18 would see Bath go into the Semi-Final. Under the regulations for the finals’ series there were tie-breakers after 80 minutes and the first was the number of tries scored—and Leinster hadn’t scored any.
There were some close run things in the last few minutes including a Bath forward pass that otherwise would have been deadly, and a charge down of a box kick that went over the Leinster goal line but was saved just in time.
Leinster lasted, just, and won 18-15.
Madigan was the man ot the match for slotting six out of six, but Ford would have won it had Bath prevailed, because of the two Bath tries from his two significant runs.
George Ford – two significant runs for Bath tries .
Scoring
Leinster 18 – (I.Madigan 6 pens) def. Bath 15 – (G.Ford, S.Hooper tries; Ford pen, con.)
