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Battling Bath beaten by Toulouse in Champions Cup
By PA
Bath were beaten 31-19 by Toulouse in their Investec Champions Cup clash at Stade Ernest-Wallon as the hosts finished top of Group B.
Both sides had already qualified for the last 16 but were aiming to keep their respective unbeaten runs going in the competition.
Toulouse led 12-0 and then 19-12, with Bath hitting back on both occasions to go in level at the break, but the home side proved too strong and scored two tries deep into the second half to earn a fourth win from four.
Toulouse took the lead in the sixth minute after an incredible 20 phases, Emmanuel Meafou bundling his way over the line despite the best efforts of Josh Bayliss. A TMO review confirmed the grounding, but Thomas Ramos hit a post with the conversion attempt.
Toulouse moved 12 points in front three minutes later. Following a penalty, Antoine Dupont took a quick tap and kicked in behind the Bath defence, Ramos latching on to the long ball before touching down in the corner. This time he made no mistake with the conversion.
Bath struck back quickly and had a try of their own five minutes later. After winning a penalty the five-metre line-out was executed to perfection as Beno Obano ran over the line before Ben Spencer added the extras from the left touchline.
Bath were level after 23 minutes when Thomas du Toit proved too powerful for the defensive line and crossed the whitewash from close range following a five-metre tap penalty.
Toulouse re-established their lead via a penalty try. They worked their way to within a metre of the line from a 10-metre line-out before Charlie Ewels illegally dropped the maul and was subsequently shown a yellow card.
Ramos hit a post with a penalty and Bath made Toulouse pay just before the break when Ollie Lawrence crossed to make it 19-19 at half-time.
However, Toulouse won it late on by crossing twice in the final 12 minutes.
Juan Cruz Mallia got on the end of Ramos’ kick and the win was sealed with three minutes to go when Dupont kicked behind the defence for Ramos to round off a 31-19 win.
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I guess the other option would be to start ALB, he's looked good in the 12 so far when he starts and sets up those outside him. But that would mean putting the vice captain on the bench, which is unlikely. Another option would be to drop Reiko to the bench and play Proctor, though he's gone home so that's not going to happen either.
Both of those players just offer more of the soft distribution skills good centres learn from playing their careers there. Unfortunately that's what's lacking with the current combo.
Go to commentsWhatever let's see if this load of waffle is still valid in 2 years time. ABs will rise we have a lot of new talent coming through. The NPC was the highest standard for years. The game is changing to suit the fast pace we like to play. We get to play the Springboks more, including the franchises, which will make us better! Overall I am optimistic. I will add having watched the England game multiple times we made most of the play. England are an awesome physical team, but you can expect the All Blacks to get better and better at executing the chances. It could easily have been 5 tries to one instead of 3 to 1.
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