In the area of geopolitics, countries strive to maintain and develop strategic advantage over each other by exerting a combination of what’s known in the business as hard and soft power. Hard power means getting your way by force whereas soft means by the power of persuasion. In a similar vein, Bath Rugby made a decent effort to wrestle back west country hegemony by deploying some serious ballistics in the weaponized trio of Bailey, Ojomoh and Muir, but Stuart Hooper’s gentler attempt to garner some influence on future results, by questioning the performance of the officials, was less soft persuasion and more sour grapes.
It masked the fact that in the second half, Bristol did finally get its geopolitical house in order with the pack exerting some control, pressure and domination by successfully invading Bath’s territory with a series of penalties, lineouts and rolling mauls which yielded two tries and a similar number of Bath related yellow cards. It was the rugby equivalent of the USA deploying its Pacific fleet to the South China Sea in response to a cheeky missile launch by North Korea.
That said, there is no question that Bath should have been further ahead at half time but whether they ‘deserved to’ is a moot point and there is nothing more unedifying than a Director Rugby diverting attention away from the failings of his charges than putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of the officials. Yes, maybe Tempo might have got the Ojomoh knock on wrong and yes, maybe there was some debate about the scrum penalties that went against them but you can’t moan too much about TMO intervention on one hand and then on the other, complain when a ref, who is literally on the spot, makes a call and sticks with it.
But what was also clear was that Charlie Ewels dropped both the ball and a bollock with the line at his mercy, Max Ojomoh just failed to dab down his own chip through, Orlando Bailey, for all his youthful brilliance and chutzpah, still missed some kicks at goal, Charles Piutau made a worldy of a last ditch tackle on Ellis, the Bristol pack put at least three promising red zone lineouts onto the butcher’s block and Semesa Rokoduguni was momentarily seen floating under the Suspension bridge when Steve Luatua sold him down the river with a dummy so huge that it allowed him to swan dive over the line with the exuberance and technique of Augustus Gloop toppling head first into Willy Wonka’s chocolate river.
All of these things contributed to the fact that the score was 8-15 at the break, and to single out one of those factors in isolation, by bleating on about one or two marginal decisions rather than seeing the whole half in its holistic context, is just a classic diversion tactic, but one that contains little subtlety and excess hubris and should have no place in the arena of rugby punditry. Rather, it should be consigned to the pile of filthy verbal detritus that sits at the bottom of the stinking cesspit of post-match football manager sound-bitery that is regularly filled by the uncontrollable spew flowing out of the mouths of the likes of Jose Mourinho, ‘big’ Sam Allardyce and the Grand Wizard of one-eyed opinion forming himself, Neil Warnock.
No, I have nothing personally against Stuart Hooper, but his post-match interview simply confirmed that he is a man under pressure and one who lacks the eloquence, vocabulary and soft power persuasion to talk himself out of it.
But now that’s out of the way, lets focus on the positives of what was a thrilling spectacle for the neutral and an excruciating stress-fest for the faithful.
Bath were superb in the first half and thoroughly deserved their lead but were helped by a Bears’ defensive line that wasn’t just at sixes and sevens but was more like at eights and nines, as Ioan Lloyd rushed out quicker than a school kid getting to the front of the tuck shop queue whilst his more elderly mates struggled to keep up and at times, Bristol’s centre paring of Bedlow and O’Conor looked more bemused than a couple of pensioners at a rave as the ball floated over their heads to Bath’s heavily populated and under marshalled wings. Orlando Bailey spent most of the time giving Callum Sheedy a masterclass in how to break a rush defence and Max Ojomoh simply brimmed with pace, power and panache. Bristol hung on by their fingertips but showed plenty of signs that they were well in the game with the marauding Meader, Joe Joyce and his hirsute sidekick Ed Holmes, hunting for collisions, the Thomas and Sinckler lump axis feasting in the scrums and Harry Randall always looking sharp around the park and solid with his clearing kicks.
The second half was, however, a horror show for Bath and after Will Capon got the bullet for the Bears’ creaking first half lineout effort, the introduction of Jake Kerr sparked a resurgence for the pack which not only put points on the board but also inspired a greater confidence in the backline that ultimately won Bristol the game, despite the inevitable nerve shredding finale of having to defend Bath’s last ditch rolling maul.
It wasn’t pretty but for the Bears but it was a necessary and essential win that kick-started their Premiership campaign after what appeared to be the two pre-season games that they never had in rounds one and two.
There were several performances that will keep the fan happy. The scrum has gone from poor to parity to powerful in the space of three games, the rolling maul that was absent at Wasps showed up in the second half here, and the back row shuffle looked balanced and secure with Chris Vui, Jake Heenan and Steve Luatua providing some antipodean cheer.
In the backs Purdy, Piatua and Lloyd ran with purpose when they had the chance and O’Conor and Bedlow grew into the game after the first half shock of Bailey and Ojomoh. Sam Bedlow, in particular, put in a performance that will go some way to softening the blow of hearing the hugely disappointing news that Semi Radrada will be out for an almost unbelievable 16 weeks. The Bears will need this underused weapon to mature fast as whilst he is currently a grenade that can cause sporadic damage, we need him to quickly become an intercontinental missile that has the potential for exerting maximum carnage on opposition centre lines if we are going to haul ourselves back up the table.
Post-match Pat looked relieved that we had won knowing that he has something to work with as he prepares the team for the journey to what will undoubtedly be a cock-a-hoop Stoop on Friday. The question of whether the squad has got over the nightmare of Bristanbul will soon be answered in south west London at 7.45pm on Friday and at the very least a gutsy performance is what fans will want, even if an away win may be a little too much to ask at this point.
Either way it is sure to be a fun game. C’mon Bris!
If want to hear more then click here for Episode 83 of Bears Beyond The Gate and hear what the lads from the Harlequins Pod think about their chances.
Filthy Rig 