Henry Arundell’s two tries helped Bath to a tight victory over Saracens as they squeezed their way into the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup. The English champions trailed 10-0 at the break against a Sarries side unrecognisable from the one crushed here in the Prem, but the introduction of their heavyweight bench, with Thomas du Toit to the fore and man of the match, turned the contest.
The game, in which the referee, Nika Amashukeli, was replaced at half-time for Ben Connor after coming off second-best in a collision with the Bath back-row Josh Bayliss, went down to the wire and a late try from Noah Caluori set up a nervy finish. But Arundell’s second with the final play settled the outcome for a relieved Bath and booked a last-eight tie at home to Northampton on Friday night.
“Sometimes in knockout rugby, you just need to get the job done. That’s what it feels like today,” said Bath captain Ben Spencer. “We know we’re under no illusions that we’re going to have to be a lot better to get through to the semi-finals.”
A fortnight ago, Bath thrashed Saracens 62-15, a result that pointed to only one outcome, but at the back of their minds Bath would have been wary. Saracens have it within themselves to produce a big performance – they beat Toulouse in the pool stage – and with Maro Itoje and Jamie George stiffening the side this time around they dug out another one.
In the first half Bath’s basics were off. Passes went to ground and the lineout went astray. Even Finn Russell fumbled. At the same time, Saracens were impressively resolute. Their maul defence was especially strong, stopping Bath at source, and Rhys Carré’s power made the scrum a plentiful penalty source.
The visitors took the lead in the 14th minute through their zippy scrum-half, Charlie Bracken, who fooled Bath’s blind-side cover with a dummy and had the pace to race over. But in the second half, with Bath’s scrum reinforced by the arrival of Du Toit – “one of the best players in the whole of rugby” according to the Bath director of rugby, Johann van Graan – the game took on a different flavour.
The three-time winners Toulon reached the last eight with a nerve-wracking 28-27 win at home to Stormers.
The Top 14 side made a perfect start at the Stade Mayol as Ben White slithered through for an early try. But the Cape Town-based Stormers came back with a penalty before lock Adré Smith piled over for a converted try.
The lead did not last long as a superb long pass from Argentina fly-half Tomás Albornoz found Gaël Dréan (pictured) in space on the left. The France wing collected, cut inside and dotted down, but Jurie Matthee’s penalty cut Toulon’s lead to 14-13 at the break.
Stormers reclaimed the lead when Warrick Gelant chased down replacement Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s through kick, recycling for Evan Roos to crash over. Toulon’s reclaimed their one-point lead with a converted try from Mathis Ferté and stretched that further when Fiji wing Seta Tuicuvu jinked his way through the South African defence 15 minutes from the end.
If Toulon thought it was all over at 28-20, Stormers had other ideas with the replacement scrum-half Imad Khan going over two minutes from time to narrow the gap to a single point. With 19 seconds remaining Toulon’s All Black legend Ma’a Nonu, 43, collected a yellow and gave away a penalty for a dangerous tackle. Stormers kicked for touch and launched a fierce assault on the Toulon line. Smith thought he had won the match with his second try but the video referee saw no clear evidence and Toulon got through by the skin of their teeth.
Sale's experienced George Ford won the battle of the England fly-halves, kicking 16 points against Marcus Smith’s Harlequins in a 26-17 victory in west London.
Sale will face Leinster or Edinburgh, who face off in Dublin on Sunday, in the next round.
Glasgow edged the Bulls 25-21 and will welcome Toulon next week. The Warriors were 14-12 behind at half-time in driving rain before Patrick Schickerling and Stafford McDowall scored in the second half for Franco Smith’s side.
The France centre Kalvin Gourgues scored two scintillating tries as Toulouse reached the quarter-finals with a 59-26 hammering of Bristol. Gourgues crossed twice in the first half in glorious sunshine in south-west France to set up a last eight-tie next weekend against the holders, Bordeaux Bègles, or Leicester, who meet on Sunday.
The wings Matthis Lebel and Teddy Thomas also claimed doubles while Antoine Dupont provided four assists for Toulouse’s nine tries in total. Fitz Harding, Kalaveti Ravouvou, James Williams and Noah Heward touched down in a losing effort for Bristol. AFP
Four minutes in, the speedster Arundell came off his wing to take a pass from Charlie Ewels and scorch through the defence to score his first try from 40 metres out. In the 49th minute they took the lead through a try from Joe Cokanasiga even though they were shorthanded at the time with Beno Obano in the sin-bin.
They stretched away with the try of the afternoon from Spencer. Andy Onyeama-Christie spilled what would have been a scoring pass on the Bath goalline and in a flash the home side were on the counterattack. Pepper, back from a first-half spell in the sin-bin, shipped the ball on to Cokanasiga who outpaced the first wave of cover before finding Barbeary who sent Spencer on his way.
The Rec rose in adulation thinking the job was done, but the cussed visitors hit back with another score from Max Malins in the left corner from Caluroi’s pass.
Ollie Lawrence muscled his way over for Bath’s fourth try with the Saracens second-row Harry Wilson in the sin-bin, but still the visitors would not go away. Caluori brought them back within strike range with six minutes remaining, but Bath finally killed Saracens off after a relentless forward barrage as the exhausted visitors ran out of numbers.
Bath Carreras; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh (Redpath 72), Arundell; Russell, Spencer; Obano (van Wyk 71), Dunn (Tuipulotu 63), Griffin (du Toit 41), Roux (Hill 61), Ewels, Bayliss (Underhill 61), Pepper (Van Wyk 47-57), Barbeary (Reid 67). Tries Arundell 2, Cokanasiga, Spencer, Lawrence. Cons Russell 3. Yellow cards Pepper 27, Obano 47.
Saracens Daly; Caluori, Tompkins, Farrell (Lozowski 71), Elliott (Malins 63); Burke, Bracken (Van Zyl 57); Carre (Mawi 57), George (Dan 57), Street (Riccioni 41), Itoje, Tizard (Wilson 57), McFarland, Onyeama-Christie, Willis.
Tries Bracken, Malins, Caluori. Cons Farrell, Burke. Pen Farrell. Yellow card Wilson 69.
Referee Nika Amashukeli (Geo); Ben Connor (Wal) ht. Attendance 14,509.
It was a result that left the Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall, disappointed, but a performance that made him proud. “I know we’ve got a good team, but we’ve been really Jekyll and Hyde all year,” he said. “I cannot remember which one’s the good one, but we were that one today.”
“It’s a hard place to come – they’re a very good side, one of the best in Europe – and to go toe to toe shows our team what they’re capable of. It’s more enjoyable to play the way we did today than it was two weeks ago.”
