Bath hold out against Glasgow in Heineken Cup but holes must be plugged
Bath clung on by their fingernails to secure an invaluable bonus-point win over a superbly inventive young Glasgow side. Those thronging the shops just over the Pulteney Bridge were badly short-changed - the real goodies and treats on offer were right here at the Rec.
Glasgow garnered five tries away from home and could have snaffled more. But for a front-line goal-kicker they would have won this game and kick-started their own Heineken Cup campaign. Instead only Bath are now in a position to give chase to mighty Toulouse and a pulsating showdown at the Rec at the end of next month is very much on.
Before that, however, Bath must sharpen up their defence or suffer the consequences with a return trip this week to Glasgow in prospect and then a tricky visit to Gwent Dragons.
Bath are a joy to watch in attack but this enterprising Glasgow side, featuring a batch of unheralded names on the way up, exposed gaping holes in their defence. Glasgow play clever rugby in the image of their coach, Sean Lineen, the ‘Kilted Kiwi’ who was always 20 years ahead of his time as a player and is doing a fine job on slender resources.
Glasgow, although slightly misfiring in Europe until yesterday, have started the Magners League in fine fettle and are leading the chasing pack behind Munster. They fancied their chances on the journey south even if nobody else did.
They started in superb style with Pumas full-back Bernardo Stortoni counter-attacking in trademark fashion to feed centre Max Evans on a promising break. Evans kicked ahead, Bath full-back Nick Abendanon was done by the bounce and from the second phase possession brother Thom Evans strolled over.
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