M_W wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:03 pm
That was just one of those games. Bath were the better team and we had no answer to the tight game as was the fear pre game. Not a huge fan of the Exeter style 3 player pre bind on the pick and go, but it seems to be legal, so can't really complain.
We made far to many errors to deserve to get anything out of the game really. Having to play Stokes at 13 so early didn't help either.
I agree. If, heaven forbid, I were a Bath fan I’d be pretty pleased with their effort last night. They stepped their performance up a couple of levels compared to the previous two weeks and executed a fairly simple game plan very effectively. Anthony Watson was looking a bit more like his normal self and Zac Mercer was a constant nuisance.
We, on the other hand, didn’t raise our game and allowed far too many errors, a result, perhaps, of the pressure Bath were putting us under. Sadly, we reverted to a few consistent themes: Phipps giving away a dumb penalty; Albert dropping the ball at crucial moments; OHC not giving the final pass; the line out going awry near their line; and the ball being dropped or coughed up too readily. One small consolation was that Harry Elrington didn’t get absolutely murdered in the scrum - I only recall one free kick and one penalty against him, which isn’t too bad given the pressure they put us under.
Still, as others have said, I prefer the 5 points in the league to the chance of getting slaughtered in the semi-finals, so it’s off to Franklin’s Gardens for yet another Friday night game.