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1 day ago
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Almost everything is going swimmingly for Bath right now. At long last their long-awaited stadium redevelopment looks ready to happen and, on the field, the champions are two from two after the first couple of weekends. With Finn Russell due back in action next week to regain the fly-half baton, it is going to take a seriously good side to steal their crown.
On a wet and windy night in Somerset, even so, they were made to work extremely hard for it by a stubborn Sale team who stuck in the fight and refused to go away. It was only with three minutes left that Max Ojomoh slid in to score his side’s bonus point try to maintain his squad’s perfect start to the campaign.
This was Sale’s fourth successive loss on their opponents’ ground and the manner of it was largely familiar. Bath make a virtue of squeezing teams in the final quarter of games and here was another example of it. The hosts might have made life easier for themselves had they opted to kick an earlier penalty to extend their lead to eight points but, ultimately, Ojomoh had the final word.
The watching England head coach Steve Borthwick had no shortage of other players to check out, with Ollie Lawrence and Henry Arundell also looking keen to catch his eye. Sale’s Nathan Jibulu claimed a second-half try and is clearly a young player on the rise while the generalship and kicking accuracy of the composed George Ford stood out in testing conditions.
It was another of those sodden nights when a roof on the open temporary stand would have spared its soaking inhabitants. Their tickets can still cost £100 but a reprieve is finally on the horizon. After decades of arguing, planning permission has been given for an 18,000-capacity stadium with Unesco and the secretary of state having given the decision their blessing.
That merely leaves Bath awaiting formal signed approval which the club hope will materialise within a couple of months. And as and when Bath do finally have their own riverside palace to complement their extraordinarily squad depth, life is going to become no easier for future visitors.
Not that Sale were in any mood to be intimidated in a physical if slightly staccato first half. Bath were unfortunate to lose their England lock Charlie Ewels to a knee injury inside eight minutes and the Sharks’s scrum also made some early headway. It was Bath, though, who dug in and registered the game’s first try, Just when Sale were threatening they were unzipped down the left by Lawrence before the speedy Arundell whizzed around Tom O’Flaherty to score his first home Prem try for his childhood club.
It was to be the story of the half; encouraging visiting flashes only for Bath to strike with devastating effectiveness. The game was still less than 30 minutes old when they scored again, Miles Reid slicing clear off the back of a home lineout and feeding Cameron Redpath on his inside to finish exuberantly.
Luckily Sale still had the outstanding Ford to keep them in touch. The England fly-half had already landed a finely judged penalty and a smart drop-goal when a Bath drop-out skidded directly to him on the halfway line. Having taken a second to steady himself the No 10 nailed another inch-perfect drop to narrow the gap before Beno Obano, from close range, claimed Bath’s third try with Sale’s captain Ernst Van Rhyn absent in the sin bin.
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Coming back from 21-9 away from home would be a tough assignment anywhere, let alone against a Bath team with a numerical advantage and a stacked bench. It was a credit to Sale’s resolve, then, when they worked Jibulu over from close range just seven minutes after the restart to puncture any home complacency.
Usually that is the signal for Bath to shift up a couple of gears but this time the Sharks were forewarned. They made their own raft of changes and, at 21-16, it required a stunning tackle from Sam Underhill to halt the seriously hard running Marius Louw. A massive hit by Tom Burrow also forced Ted Hill to leave the field prematurely but where it really counted, up on the scoreboard, Bath always find a way these days.
