MATCH REPORT: Bath Rugby 40 London Welsh 25
Bath Rugby overcame a spirited London Welsh performance to record a bonus-point victory at The Rec and keep alive their hopes of a top-six finish in the Aviva Premiership.
The hosts ran in five tries in a pulsating encounter but the result was in doubt right up until the final whistle as a Welsh side fighting for their Premiership survival refused to roll over.
Matt Banahan, Carl Fearns, Semesa Rokoduguni, Horacio Agulla and Michael Claassens all crossed the whitewash for Gary Gold's side but 20 points from the boot of Alex Davies kept Bath honest throughout.
"Five tries to one, we'll take that any day but it was more stressful than I would have liked with that sort of scoreline," said Bath first-team coach Mike Ford.
"We started the game really well and were very positive. We scored two tries and were 13 points up but then for whatever reason we seemed to get a little bit loose in attack and that brought them back into the game.
"Fair play to them, they picked us off with three points here and there and at one stage it was 13-9.
"I thought when Roko scored at the end of the first half that was a true reflection of the scoreboard but it was a bit of a sharpener for us to say 'Look, this team are going to be dangerous throughout the game.'
"Again in the second half they started pretty well and in the first 15 to 20 minutes we didn't play well, but in the last 20 we controlled the game again."
Banahan gave Bath a dream start with a try inside 90 seconds of the kick-off. Stephen Donald picked out the giant centre just inside the Welsh 22 and Banahan barged his way through the defence to crash over the whitewash.
Donald missed a tricky conversion from the touchline and made the home side's intentions to go for all five league points clear when he declined a kickable penalty in front of the posts soon afterwards, instead putting Bath into the corner.
The call proved worthwhile when Bath grabbed a second try after just nine minutes. Dominic Day claimed Rob Webber's lineout throw and knocked the ball down to Fearns, who charged through a crowd of bodies and over the tryline.
Donald's conversion attempt came back off the post and Bath's momentum was suddenly derailed when Banahan was forced to depart after 15 minutes with a serious-looking knee injury.
Although Donald split the posts with a close-range penalty to increase the lead to 13-0, a spirited Welsh rally threatened to give the half a completely different outlook.
Three penalties in the space of seven minutes from scrum-half Davies brought them within four points, and the visitors' total would have been greater had Rokoduguni not forced Phil MacKenzie into touch just as the winger looked to dot down in the corner.
With head coach Gold already having rewritten his half-time team-talk, Bath got their act together and finished the half just as they started it, scoring a third try in the final minute.
Following a lineout on halfway, Donald picked out Rokoduguni with a perfectly-weighted pass and the Fijian cut inside two Welsh defenders to charge 40 metres to the line. Donald converted in front of the posts to put the home side 11 points up at the break.
The game took another twist as the second half got under way, however, with Welsh quickly getting back on the front foot as Bath struggled to settle.
Again Davies was the architect of the visitors' revival, with the scrum-half firing over three more penalties to bring Welsh within two points with a quarter of the game to play.
It took Bath 23 second-half minutes to add any further points of their own but when they did, they came in a flurry.
Donald split the posts with a close-range penalty before a fine break from Rokoduguni saw the hosts add the bonus-point try. The Fijian back returned Welsh's restart with interest, beating five visiting players with a blistering break before releasing Agulla to finish the score. Replacement Tom Heathcote converted.
The visitors are determined to go down fighting in the battle for Premiership survival, though, and Seb Jewell crossed the whitewash for a try from close range before Davies' conversion brought Welsh back to within five points.
A penalty from Heathcote eased Bath's nerves, however, before Claassens darted over for a converted try two minutes from time to bring the curtain down on an entertaining afternoon.
BATH RUGBY: Devoto, Agulla, Banahan (Abendanon 15), Eastmond, Rokoduguni, Donald (Heathcote 63), Stringer (Claassens 57), James (Catt 59), Webber (Batty 51), Wilson (Perenise 59), Hooper, Day, Louw, Gilbert (Skirving 61), Fearns (Skuse 62).
Tries: Banahan, Fearns, Rokoduguni, Agulla, Claassens. Conversions: Donald, Heathcote 2. Penalties: Donald 2, Heathcote.
LONDON WELSH: Jewell, MacKenzie, Tiesi (J Lewis 39), Parker, Stegmann, Ross, Davies, Bristow (Joly 73), Bateman (George 63), Ion, Mills, Kulemin (Corker 65), Cabello-Farias (Balding 38-40), Hills, Browne. Replacements not used: Tideswell, R Lewis, Scott.
Try: Jewell. Conversion: Davies. Penalties: Davies 6.
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Attendance: 11,621
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