European Rugby Champions Cup: Bath hammer Montpellier 30-5 in France
Last Updated: 08/12/14 7:58am
Bath produced a fantastic forwards' display in the mud of Montpellier to claim a 30-5 European Rugby Champions Cup Pool 4 victory.
Henry Thomas, a penalty try and Leroy Houston supplemented 15 points from the boot of George Ford as the visitors took advantage of three yellow cards for the hosts, silencing Altrad Stadium and moving off the bottom of the group.
Ford showed maturity beyond his years to win an early tactical kicking battle but was wayward with his first attempt at goal in the fourth minute, shortly before Bath flanker Carl Fearns was forced off with a neck injury.
The England fly-half eventually opened the scoring with a firmly-struck 11th-minute drop-goal while at the other end, scrum-half Benoit Paillaugue failed to convert Montpellier's only kickable penalty of the first half.
Ford doubled the advantage to punish the collapsing of a promising Bath maul and the struggling home pack began to lose discipline when Antoine Battut delivered a forearm smash on visiting scrum-half Chris Cook for which he was lucky to be shown only yellow.
Ford gleefully knocked over the resulting penalty and veteran Peter Stringer entered the fray for the dazed Cook, proving equally effective in marshalling a dominant Bath pack.
Inevitable
The forwards' score that seemed inevitable arrived four minutes before the interval when Thomas barged over from close range and the frustration of the hosts boiled over again when Thibaut Privat was binned for an inexplicable challenge on the England prop at a line-out.
With seconds to go before the half, Bath opted for the scrum and were immediately awarded a penalty try as the depleted home pack crumpled under the pressure - offering Ford the simplest of conversions and Bath a commanding 23-0 lead to take into half-time.
In the 49th minute, Bath ran in a truly memorable try. Ford was the initial architect, throwing an outrageous dummy on halfway and exchanging passes with Leroy Houston before Thomas and Eastmond got in on the act with textbook offloads that provided Houston with a routine finish in the corner. Ford converted from out wide.
Sam Burgess and England stars Dave Attwood and Rob Webber were three of a host of changes made by Mike Ford soon after but it was Montpellier's ill-discipline that continued to cost them as Charles Geli was shown yellow for cynically killing the ball.
With the pitch cutting up and scrummaging proving increasingly difficult, the game became scrappy and with 10 minutes remaining, Montpellier finally registered on the scoreboard as a driving maul allowed Alex Tulou to touch down.
Stuart Hooper was perhaps harshly sin-binned in the aftermath for pulling down an airborne player at a line-out - stifling Bath's attempts to find a fourth try and resulting bonus point.
