Bath v Racing 92: Five takeaways from Champions Cup thriller as several England hopefuls press their case

James While
Bath back-row Alfie Barbeary celebrates.

Bath back-row Alfie Barbeary celebrates.

Following a 29-25 victory for Bath over Racing 92 in a thrilling Champions Cup clash, here’s our five takeaways from the game at the Recreation Ground.

The top line

14-man Bath showed their new-found resilience in a brilliant fightback at the Rec against an outstanding display from visitors Racing 92, who pushed the hosts all the way in a thriller that saw all sorts of drama, notably a red card for England hopeful Alfie Barbeary, who left the field after collecting his second yellow of the afternoon as he was deemed to have handed off Nolann Le Garrec illegally.

Bath‘s four tries came courtesy of Thomas du Toit (34′), Barbeary (60′), Joe Cokanasiga (63′) and Will Muir (73′) whilst Racing 92’s three came from Le Garrec (19′), Kitione Kamikamica (43′) and Henry Arundell (52’).

The win takes Bath to second place level on points with Toulouse in Pool 2 and should ensure they qualify with a home fixture for the last 16, which takes place after the Six Nations. But it was a match where the excellent Rec outfit were pushed every step of the way and it’s a credit to their new-found resilience that they found it within themselves to mount a comeback in yet another outstanding performance under Johann van Graan.

Coaches comments

Van Graan spoke after the match and observed that this was a game that showed the new resilience of Bath in a situation that they would have probably not closed out a year ago: “They are a powerful side,” he commented. “Staying in the fight when you’re eight points down was an illustration of the composure we discussed at half-time. It’s belief that makes the difference in that situation – and also a word for the impact of our bench after 60 which was significant.

“We were really good in the last quarter against a championship level team who boast a number of world class players and compared to where we were 18 months ago this performance is a testimony to the hard work that we’ve put in during our journey.”

Stuart Lancaster, a close friend of Van Graan reflected: “I’m a lot more pleased with that performance than I was with the Quins loss. Today wasn’t to be and maybe if a couple of calls had gone our way the outcome may have been different. But we’re also growing, as are Bath. We’re just behind them on our journey and our challenge is to maintain cohesion and intensity once we’ve broken the first wave of defence, something that we struggled with a little today.”

Obano impresses

With only four days to go before Steve Borthwick names his initial Six Nations training squad, Beno Obano demonstrated his continuing improvement with a powerful scrummaging display that saw him and his cohorts Tom Dunn and Du Toit simply school a very experienced Racing 92 front-row.

Sure, at times there’s a question mark over big ‘Bob’s’ driving angles, but as long as the man with the whistle deems you legal there’s no real immediate issue and Obano crunched his way to five penalties against the experienced Thomas Laclayat, a mark of the Bath player’s impact in every competition this season. Post match, French hooker Camile Chat remarked: “He is remarkably powerful and I believe he’s already good enough to perform at Test standard. He gave us a lot of problems with his power today and I’ll look forward to following his progress.”

With Ellis Genge just coming back from injury and Joe Marler still off games with a sick note courtesy of his bicep injury, Obano’s run of form couldn’t be timelier and both he and the man alongside him, Dunn, put in big claims to be part of that initial England training squad announced on Wednesday lunchtime.

Test hopefuls, part one

Outside of Obano’s excellence, the selectorial spotlight of Six Nations selections fell on a number of the Bath contingent. At 10, Finn Russell teased and tantalised but a mark of his personal development under Van Graan has been an uplift in his defensive work and his smashing of his former teammate, the huge Cameron Woki, was a moment to remember, and one celebrated by a quick handshake between two old friends after the event. But for a brilliant tap tackle by Maxime Baudonne, Russell may well have scored in the 59th minute but today wasn’t to be his day.

Barbeary will have an anxious wait to see what sanction his pair of yellow cards and subsequent red will attract but other than that unfortunate hand-off of Le Garrec when the eight was bashing his way out of poor scrummage ball, he put in his usual barrelling display in carry and powered over for a short range try after 59 minutes displaying a trademark combination of agility and power.

Test hopefuls, part two

With Cokanasiga effective in three key facets – carry, catch and clatter – he emphasised his credentials for an England recall in opposition to the Racing 92 flyer Henry Arundell (although Arundell played a lot on the right wing wearing 11) where we saw both men get their names on the scorecard, whilst at outside centre the duel between two magnificent exponents of the 13 shirt, Ollie Lawrence and Gael Fickou, was a match within a match with Fickou’s defensive superiority against the Bath man’s direct power in attack, a quality that led to the crucial try for another outstanding hopeful, Will Muir.

With Ben Spencer enjoying an incredible personal duel at half-back and Elliott Stooke also adding massive impact off the bench it’s certain there’s going to be a number of blue black and white representatives in the home unions test squads in the next couple of months.

But for all the excellence of the England hopefuls, one Frenchman stood head and shoulders above any other on the pitch; at nine Le Garrec put in a performance that underlined his claims to the shirt vacated by Antoine Dupont for the Six Nations as the Racing half-back delivered an assured display of running and passing control. His speed and variety are almost clones of the great Dupont and judging on his showing at the Rec there’s little doubt he’ll be an integral part of France’s matchday 23 in the 2023 Six Nations.

READ MORE: ‘He’d be a great signing’ – Racing 92 boss hints that Owen Farrell deal is on the cards

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