14 May 1, 2022The Sunday Times 2GS
Rugby Union
This was a rout. We’ll come to that
soon enough. First the refereeing. An
early card in Gloucester versus Bath
is no great surprise. The fixture has
history. But when Gloucester’s
Santiago Carreras was caught by a
“high tackle” with the Argentine full
back so low as to be almost sitting on
the pitch, you wondered about the
complete capitulation of sanity in the
impossible pursuit of absolute safety.
Valeriy Morozov was sent to the bin.
His ten minutes lasted double that in
real time as the referee double-
checked everything.
Christophe Ridley doesn’t take
risks, either with a player’s health or
the accuracy of his decisions. Two
tries were disallowed in an opening
12 minutes that dragged on for 20
minutes. Yet officiating remains
objective. A man in the crowd
shouted: “Come on, ref, I’ve got to go
to work on Monday.” It’s a bank
holiday but you got his point.
When there was some rugby
through the endless interruptions,
Gloucester played nearly all of it.
They were the team fighting for
fourth place. Bath — with the
muscular exception of Sam Underhill
— looked a shadow of former sides
that once travelled with a snarl.
It took 12 minutes of rugby for
Gloucester to open the scoring with
Chris Harris touching down. He and
Mark Atkinson were a combined
threat throughout. Perhaps the finest
moment of the disrupted first half
was Atkinson’s gentle, one-handed
offload to send the by-then recovered
and impressive Carreras across for
the fourth and bonus-point try on the
stroke of half-time.
Between these two tries, Louis
Rees-Zammit helped himself to a pair.
The first after Bath’s shambolic
lineout turned over possession in
their own 22 in the 29th minute. His
step to leave Will Muir face down on
the artificial turf was a delight.
His second came as he kicked and
chased his way through demoralised
defence. Joe Cokanasiga appearing as
uninterested as a player whose team
is bottom of the league without the
threat of relegation could be. “It’s a
crying shame there’s no relegation,”
shouted a Gloucester fan, “because
they would be down.”
It was 24-0 at half-time in this once
most red-blooded of derbies. Bath
may not be relegated but there’s still
pride. It was going to take an
incredible turnaround for Bath to
dent Gloucester and their dreams.
Only 55 seconds into the second
half, Rees-Zammit turned provider
for Ben Morgan. Gloucester raced 95
metres for their sixth try; the
excellent Atkinson deserving his try
as Bath’s defence parted, pathetic
apart from Underhill.
It was the Gloucester open-side
and skipper, Lewis Ludlow, who
swept through the flimsy last line of
defence for a seventh try on the hour
mark. Ludlow received a standing
ovation as he left the field. Bath
received Gloucester’s traditional
“ee-ore”. It was tough on donkeys.
Ridley resumed his intolerant
ways, carding Tom Seabrook for a
high tackle on Will Muir. But Shed
disaffection didn’t last long as Ben
Meehan scored an eighth try. “Can
we play you every week?” they sang.
Jamal Ford-Robinson sprinted in
for the ninth try. Matias Alemanno
rounded it off with a tenth.
Gloucester should not be playing
their old rivals once next season.
Bath deserve to be relegated. 64-0;
Gloucester’s biggest Premiership win
and against their fallen rivals.Star man: Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester)
Scorers: Gloucester: Tries Harris (12min), Rees-
Zammit 2 (29, 36), Carreras (40), Morgan (42),
Atkinson (49), Ludlow (60), Meehan (67), Ford-
Robinson (74), Alemanno (77). Cons Hastings 7.
Gloucester S Carreras; L Rees-Zammit, C Harris,
M Atkinson (B Twelvetrees 62), O Thorley
(T Seabrook 62); A Hastings, C Chapman (B
Meehan 51); H Elrington (J Ford-Robinson 65),
J Singleton (S Socino 44), K Gotovtsev (F Balmain
65), F Clarke (A Davidson 65), M Alemanno,
R Ackermann, L Ludlow (J Reid 62), B Morgan
Yellow card Seabrook 65-75
Bath T de Glanville; J Cokanasiga, J Joseph,
M Clark (O Bailey 39-40), W Muir; D Cipriani,
B Spencer (O Fox 77); V Morozov (J Du Toit 61),
T Dunn (D Rae 61), M Fia (A Cordwell 61),
M Williams (H Casson 68), C Ewels, M Reid,
S Underhill (J Coetzee 64), T Faletau
Yellow card: Morozov 3-13, Clark 14-24.
Referee C Ridley.Bath humiliated by
West Country rivals
GLOUCESTER 64
BATH 0
Stuart Barnes
Ben Meehan scores in the corner as Gloucester thrash their local rivals
13
Times this
season, in all
competitions,
that Bath have
conceded 40 or
more pointsTHE
GOLDEN
AGE OF
EUROPE
Leicester legend Leon Lloyd
recalls his greatest day in a
rugby shirt and life after it
STEPHEN
JONESRugby Correspondent
If you saw the Manchester City v
Real Madrid European Cup semi-
final first leg on Tuesday, you will
appreciate how competitions
involving Europe’s giants can add
a wonderful dimension to sport.
Leicester Tigers v Leinster in
Saturday’s Heineken Champions
Cup semi-final will be rugby’s
mammoth of the moment, although
otherwise the game cannot compare.
But football’s European Cup had to go
through formative seasons. What a
start rugby made. The Heineken Cup
began in 1996 but by year five, in 2001,the competition was already bathed
in magic.
That year Stade Français and
Leicester played a Herculean final on
a hot spring day at the Parc des Prin-
ces, and the old bearpit was alive with
passion and class. Both sides fielded
galacticos. Leon Lloyd, the England
wing, was at centre for Leicester — he
was underrated by some and oddly, as
we shall see, by himself. But at his best
he was a quite magnificent player and
left his signature on the occasion.
He scored two famous tries, to
bring the cup home to England for theMICHAEL STEELE/GETTY IMAGES
Doctor’s
return so
soon after
ban is
deplorable
One minute after midnight struck on
Thursday, Nigel Rayner, the doctor
for the England Under-20 team, was
allowed to resume his role. His
suspension was over with a precise
pomposity: the written judgment,
on what I consider one of the worst
episodes of its type I have ever seen,
said that at 00.01 he was “free”.
Five days before his “release”,
Rayner had been sentenced to a
suspension of eight weeks for playing
a leading role in a disturbing incident
in which the doctor was castigated by
the media. For me, his behaviour
came across as arrogant, especially at
a time when the sport is grappling
with its response to head injuries.
Let us go back 11 weeks, to the
incident itself, during the Italy v
England Under-20 Six Nations match
in Treviso. It is hard to believe that
it took so long for the Six Nations
committee to find a panel and begin
the procedings. When Joe Marler
abused an opponent in the 2020
tournament he was sentenced within
36 hours. For the abuse of an official,it took 76 days. It is traditional for
some rugby authorities to move at a
snail’s pace, but the snail now seems
to have pulled a hamstring.
The incident? Deago Bailey, the
England full back, collided in the air
with Italy’s Lorenzo Pani as they both
jumped for a ball. No offences were
committed — both players had their
eyes on the ball as they jumped. Poor
Bailey sank to the ground on his
front, initially tried to get up, but
then sank down again.
Rayner ran on, indicating a
potential head injury, having seen
Bailey’s head bash into the ground.
After a consultation with Rayner,
Bailey rose to his feet. Rayner
declared his man fit to resume, which
many — including the broadcasters —
found disturrbing.
But the independent match-day
doctor, who sits off the field with
access to screens, immediately
ordered a head injury assessment
to be conducted off the field. His
words countermand anything from
a team doctor.
The referee, Aurélie Groizeleau,
was immediately put under pressureStephen Jones