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Cipriani inspires Gloucester as Bahanan denies Bath, Vunipola scores on Saracens return
By Rob Lancaster
Bath were denied victory over local rivals Gloucester by a familiar face, while Billy Vunipola marked his return to action with a try for Saracens on a busy Saturday in the Premiership.
Tom Dunn scored two tries as Bath fought back from a 21-0 deficit to lead 31-24 going into the closing minutes, but former player Matt Banahan denied them with a score created by a sensational no-look pass from Danny Cipriani.
Billy Twelvetrees kicked the conversion to level the scores at the Rec, securing Gloucester – who recorded an impressive win over Northampton Saints in the opening round of fixtures – a dramatic 31-31 draw.
Bristol Bears looked to be on course for an upset when they led Saracens 18-13 at half-time, only for the reigning champions to hit back.
Liam Williams scored a 25-minute hat-trick off the bench as Sarries claimed a bonus-point triumph against the top-flight new boys, though the hosts were aided by the dismissal of Bristol's George Smith for a dangerous tackle early in the second half.
Replacement Vunipola also touched down on his comeback from a broken arm suffered on England's tour to South Africa in June, while international team-mate Owen Farrell booted four conversions and a pair of penalties.
Last year's beaten finalists Exeter Chiefs have started the campaign impressively, their second successive bonus-point triumph coming away at Wasps.
Sam Simmonds and Henry Slade grabbed two tries apiece as the Chiefs pulled away in the second half to win 42-31.
Wasps' cause was not helped by the loss of England forwards Brad Shields and Nathan Hughes to injury, the former seeing his debut cut short following a collision with Exeter scrum-half Stu Townsend.
Leicester Tigers began life under Geordan Murphy with a 49-33 victory over Newcastle Falcons, giving their former player a successful start as interim head coach after he replaced Matt O'Connor at the helm.
The Tigers led 40-19 by the interval, Jonny May collecting a brace of tries while George Ford also crossed once, helping the fly-half finish the contest with a personal haul of 29 points.
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Latest Comments
Larry Brown was 63 when he won the NBA, and Phil Jackson was 64.
I guess my general feeling in rugby is that most coaches seem to decline quite a bit when they hit 60, and to be coaching at the top level when you’re 65 or older is extremely rare. Maybe in american sports people have another 5 years, but that doesn’t seem like a massive difference.
Either way, I’m going to stick with my verdict that appointing Les Kiss at age 60 would be ok as a short term deal - but appointing him at 63 and expecting him to last 4 years would be foolish.
Go to commentsWe come off a loss and a big one to Moana Pasifika and 2 years in a row losing to the Drua. The motivation to reverse that is huge. This competition has been unpredictable. I believe the return of inform players like Antonio Shalfoon , Christian Lio-Willie will make a huge difference.Tom Christie, who played so well in his 2 starts and Corrie Kellow will be raring to go. We missed David Havili, the form second five and captain last week, he thankfully will be back soon. But Codie Taylor is a great choice to captain in the mean time in David’s absence.
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