Monday, 19 October 2009

Stade leave it late to break Bath hearts

Bath slumped to their second successive defeat in Europe
A stunning try from Ollie Phillips sparked a dramatic comeback from Stade Francais as they came from behind to beat Bath 29-27 at The Rec.

A Nicky Little penalty had edged the home side six points in front with just nine minutes left, but five minutes later Phillips capped a fine Stade move to score in the corner. Julien Dupuy then struck a last minute penalty to seal victory.

The result leaves Bath stranded at the bottom of pool four with just a solitary point from their two games, while Stade are sitting pretty with nine points from their two games.

Bath coach Steve Meehan isn’t hopeful of his side’s chances of progressing from the pool.

“It’s going to take a really good effort in the last four games and all the results are going to have to go our way,” he said.

The home side started the game strongly and were firmly in control by half time thanks to tries from Little and Matthew Carraro.

Fly-half Little added 11 points with the boot as the hosts turned round 21-12 in front.

In the second half Bath found themselves the victims of a harsh refereeing decision as Matt Banahan was sin-binned for what seemed a fair tackle.

Stade pulled themselves back into the game during this period thanks largely to the boot of Dupuy.

However, when Little slotted over a penalty in the 71st minute it looked like Bath were closing out the win.

Indeed, Little could have put the game beyond the visitors’ reach but missed a drop goal attempt. Minutes later a second attempt was charged down and Stade took advantage to score.

The visitors moved the ball along their backline with pace, attacking the space where the injured Joe Maddock would have been, before Phillips raced over to score.

The English winger gave Dupuy a difficult conversion attempt, and when the scrum-half missed it looked costly.

Moments later, though, Dupuy was given the chance to break Bath hearts for the second time this year. It was a chance the Frenchman duly took.

Earlier in the day, the Ospreys survived a second half fight-back from Clermont Auvergne to win 25-24 at the Liberty Stadium.

The home side raced into a 22-3 half-time lead thanks to tries from Tommy Bowe, Ryan Jones and Barry Davies.

However, Clermont hit back in the second 40 with tries from Benoit Baby, Thomas Domingo and Alexandre Lapandry. A Dan Biggar penalty was enough though to hand the Ospreys victory.

The win was clouded somewhat by an ankle injury to Mike Phillips. The Wales scrum-half will have a scan on Monday and could be ruled out of the autumn internationals.ADNFCR-708-ID-19415817-ADNFCR

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