At the end of another turbulent week for English rugby there was a collective need for some wintry cheer beside the River Avon. Warm it was not but there was enough crackle and bite to this West Country tussle to hold everyone’s attention right up until the final quarter when a free-flowing Bath properly cut loose.
The second of two tries for the energetic Alfie Barbeary helped to put the icing on an increasingly productive home performance which should also encourage the England management as they look ahead to 2024. Sam Underhill, in particular, was a reliable menace at the breakdown for Bath, and currently looks the obvious replacement for the sadly injured Tom Curry at openside.
Bath’s other star man was their captain, Ben Spencer, who provided a splendid link between his backs and forwards and continues to look a high-class scrum-half in all departments. In harness with Finn Russell, he is giving an upwardly mobile Bath a visibly different level of control that is paying increasing dividends. “They’re as good as they’ve been for years,” said Exeter’s Rob Baxter, acknowledging his young team had finished second in most of the game’s pivotal areas.
One of them was shaping the game at crucial moments, as Spencer did by creating and scoring the day’s keynote try just two minutes into the second half. With nothing much on around his own 22, he feinted to move the ball left from a scrum and instead headed down the short side with Joe Cokanasiga for company. If there was a hint of a forward shovel about the big wing’s final pass it did not bother the officials and Spencer gleefully finished what he had started.
While a young Chiefs side did have their occasional moments, the 61st-minute yellow card shown to the scrum-half Stu Townsend for flopping over a ruck – “It killed us”, said Baxter – was another critical development. Chiefs were 20-17 down at the time but Bath made the most of their numerical advantage, found another gear and produced scores for Cokanasiga and Will Butt.
It made for a decent afternoon for those wearing enough layers. A chill glaze of hoar frost and fog had shrouded Somerset all morning but for a while in the first half there were rays of sunshine and milky blue skies. Both sides were keen to play where possible but it was Bath who struck first when a prolonged attacking maul eventually delivered a try for the bullocking Barbeary, looking to rediscover the same ball-carrying zest that made him a favourite at his previous club Wasps.
Behind him Russell did not always have everything his own way but, behind a beefed-up pack, the fly-half’s mere presence is giving those around him the confidence to express themselves more often. There were some nice flicks and twists even before the classy Cameron Redpath surged on to a cunningly delayed pop pass from Spencer and stepped off his left to increase the home side’s lead to 12-0.
Exeter needed a response and found a fine one straight off a lineout, a straight-running Joe Hawkins serving up a lovely pass for Henry Slade to slice through and score. The centre added a conversion and a subsequent penalty and, with the temperature starting to drop again, it was a two-point ball game at the interval.
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It was all the more crucial for Bath, therefore, when Spencer set off on his blindside adventure and had the pace to finish what he had started. Exeter will lament one or two moments of indiscipline but there was no doubting Bath’s quality in the all-important red zone. Cokanasiga crashed over within a minute of Townsend’s departure, Barbeary burst away untouched off the side of an attacking ruck and Butt was the beneficiary of a brilliant pick‑up from Will Muir.
Ehren Painter’s late try in the gloaming was a strictly modest consolation for Exeter, leaving both teams to look ahead to the start of Europe this weekend. Bath, who entertain Ulster next Saturday, should have almost all their leading players available, including the South African prop Thomas du Toit, but their director of rugby, Johann van Graan, would not confirm whether the Rugby World Cup-winning Springbok lock forward RG Snyman – “He’s a player I’ve coached from his schooldays … but no comment” – would be wearing a blue, black and white jersey next season after his scheduled departure from Munster.
