Bath United Worthy Winners at Night of Remembrance

The Armed Forces fought out a tough competitive game against a Bath United side including 16 senior academy players. The final score line 35-7 to Bath, reflected their superior handling, excellent running rugby and exploitation of the sin binning of Armed Forces captain Will Jones. The Armed Forces were dominant in the scrum throughout but couldn’t convert the forward pressure into points.

A still night at the Rec,the rain falling relentlessly, as the teams assembled for the Remembrance ceremony. The band of the Royal Artillery fell silent, the crowd joining them, only the sounds of the traffic and river heard; the act of the Remembrance all too real for players and crowd with so many with close connections to the Forces.

When the last post ended, a brief respectful pause gave way to the roar of the crowd. The players to their places. The Rec magnificent beneath lights.

This was a match that honoured the fallen in every way. A hard, competitive yet sporting contest between two sides full of talent, both equally determined to win. The first 20 minutes were played out in the Armed Forces half. Bath’s handling errors, part induced by ferocious Armed Forces defence, preventing a score. Time and again Bath attacked, and though the Armed Forces repeatedly won the turn over to kick clear Bath were soon back piling on the pressure.   On 6 minutes Bath’s no. 9 Jonathan Evans was denied a try when called back for a forward pass. A Bath break through the centre was only stopped by a driving tackle from the Armed Forces Owain Davies. On 15 minutes Bath crossed the line, no. 15 Max Clark scoring the try and no. 10 Rory Jennings converting.

But even in this early period the Armed Forces scrum was dominant, driving Bath back at every scrum and maul, forcing errors and penalties. The remainder of the half was of much the same character – some great Bath offloads and running Rugby, strong Armed Forces defence and a dominant Armed Forces pack at the set pieces. After 33 minutes a No15 Chris Leatham scored a memorable Armed Forces try, turning the ball over in his 22 and shrugging off two tackles as he covered 75m to score in the corner. Owain Davies kicked the difficult conversion from the touchline, and the final 7 minutes of the half saw some sustained Armed Forces pressure with ball in hand for the first time. 7-7 at half time.

Not long after the restart Bath 14 Jeff Williams crossed and 10 Jennings converted again to put the Armed Forces under pressure. Another period of sustained Armed Forces pressure ensued but they were stopped inches short in 3 phases of play that saw the match begin to move away from them. As Bath kicked and chased clear on 62 minutes and the Armed Forces held them on the half way line Armed Forces captain Will Jones infringed and was shown the yellow card. Bath 22 Owain Waters crossed shortly after and Jennings again converted. 21-7. The Forces could count themselves unfortunate at this stage, the try coming very much against the run of play. But in the final 20 minutes Bath were dominant. Max Clarke, Gareth Atkins both crossing the lines and seeing their tries converted to make the score 35-7 by the time Manning returned to the field on 72 minutes.   Jones’ return saw the Armed Forces rally, 3 times they forced the penalties from Bath deep in their opponents half. 3 times they kicked for the corner. Stopped just short in two aggressive passages of play the Armed Forces clearly had Bath on the back foot, as reflected in the fraying temper of Bath’s no20 Britton, a recent introduction as a substitute who returned to his seat with a yellow card on 78 minutes. Bath kicked clear and attacked right up to the Forces try line. The Armed Forces turned the ball over but despite a long last few minutes with the ball in hand the Armed Forces could not get out of their half to muster one final attack.   The final whistle blew with the score at 35-7. Bath will feel justly rewarded for their attacking intent, the Armed Forces disappointed to lose a contest where they exerted real dominance in the pack and had prolonged periods of pressure. In the end, this was a fine act of Remembrance witnessed by a crowd of around 3500 and with significant amount of money raised for the Royal British Legions Poppy Appeal, the exact amount to be calculated and by the RBL and announced on our Twitter feed in the coming days.