Butch shines as Bath hang on
7 Dec 2008
Bath withstood a late fightback by Glasgow Warriors to secure a 35-31 bonus-point win at The Rec Ground on Sunday.
Bath were cruising to victory having already bagged the four-try bonus, but some ordinary passing allowed the Scots to hit back by the way of an intercept try. Glasgow flyhalf Ruaridh Jackson almost had what would have been his second and the game’s decisive score, but the pivot’s kick and chase for the corner came to nought as the ball dribbled into touch.
Springbok flyhalf Butch James was in a fine form for Bath both with the boot and with ball in hand. His superior option-taking set up his team-mates for linebreaks on several occasions.
Bath now have a realistic chance at topping their European Cup group and will host Toulouse at The Rec in a crucial fixture next month.
63 Comments
Pages: « 1 [2] Show All
8 Dec 2008, 13:13 pm
#45 Big Hit: Plumtree’s attention to detail allied to the Sharks squad’s potential has seen them push on in the last 18 months.
Interesting. It took a Kiwi to come over to take the Sharks to the next level.
#49 Rugby Tator: I think NZ will struggle if they lose more players to Europe. However, they made up for their reduced depth this year pretty well.
In saying that, how many more NZ/SA/Oz/Arg/Pacific Islander players can Europe accommodate? I think they are near saturation point already, unless of course they no longer want to see local talent being given a chance.
8 Dec 2008, 13:18 pm
#44 Big Hit: What’s your point? International rugby is the pinnacle of the game.
The best coaches in each country should always be coaching their national team, not the clubs and provinces.
England appear to have forgotten this. SA, after a sluggish start, appear to be on the right track.
The NZ triumvirate are the most experienced coaching team in the game, bar none. They’ve coached all over, with varying degrees of success. Their experiences have honed their attention to detail. It means they are more aware of how to extract 100% out of the players at their disposal.
The Lions coaching team this year will be similarly experienced, although McGeechan is much more senior in terms of experience over Gatland, Edwards and Howley than Henry is over Smith and Hansen. Hopefully that is a sign that will bode well for the Lions.
8 Dec 2008, 13:23 pm
#50 Cheetha Champs:
Well in my very first post I agreed that Afrikaans boys definitely have talent. I just thought their blatant thuggery overshadowed this sometimes
8 Dec 2008, 14:37 pm
#52 stodders: the point is that NZ hire better coaches than SA and thats why they have better consistency. The current NZ coaches are good but not the best NZ has to offer, I rate Gatland and Deans above them given how poor Henry and Hansen both were with Wales.
England have a similar problem to NZ in terms of coaches in that only homegrown coaches get the nod (and not even the right ones). Dean Richards is the best coach we have and he isn’t that great.
8 Dec 2008, 14:42 pm
Lol ! Can someone pls come back with an objective view on Butch’s complete performance after watching the game? I watched the game. The whole game. I’m not sure you can call that “shining”. Please watch a tape/repeat of the game and give your objective view. Watch him in defense and attack.
8 Dec 2008, 14:58 pm
#55 Grape White: you have to admit he’s playing great expansive rugby though, those mis-passes are wicked
8 Dec 2008, 16:30 pm
Good on Butch for shinng in the NH, but I am glad he is staying there and out of the Bok setup. This goes for all the NH S.African players.
PDV was correct in changing his stance on the whole overseas based players, Springbok policy. He too saw that because we are playing a different set of rules here, it would complicate matters for overseas based players who were not. I think the whole Matfield/ Butch slump in the Tri-Nations shocked the coaching trio too! There is also alot of inconsistency with the global ELV’s but SANZAR sticks together with what rules we play in Super 14 and Tri-Nations. Because of this, bringing in a NH SA player into either of these competitions will have them shown up while they take about 3 – 4 games (perhaps more) to adjust.
The ELV’s have made a big difference this year and things could have been different in the NH end of year tour if they had been playing the ELV’s as long as the SH teams had. The NH teams have partly the IRB to blame for their poor showing against SH teams this year.
8 Dec 2008, 17:07 pm
#57 Smallz: very fair points, but I would add that SANZAR didn’t necessarily stick togather, the SARU wanted global ELVs for the S14.
9 Dec 2008, 02:24 am
#18 DonutDunning: Totally agree with you. But dont you think that SA, of the SH teams, is the most hurt by ELV’s? I think that we’ve been marginalised so much for so long that we agree to things that are’nt entirely in our best interests. We are the biggest union, should’nt we at least have a bigger say without NZ and the Aussie unions lambasting us for it.
9 Dec 2008, 19:49 pm
#42 Big Hit: How the hell would know what GH would want or not want, jeez you can’t even predict a game of rugby, let alone what a NZ coach wants.
GH has stated on numerous occasions, that overseas players if and when they come back to NZ, will have to prove that they are worth their place in the AB’s, and from what I have heard from Smitty & co is that Cool Hand Luke wouldn’t get anywhere near the AB’s, he is way down the pecking order, behind Nonu, Ice, Brett, Jefferson and others, and Major probably wouldn’t make a S14 team!!
9 Dec 2008, 19:58 pm
#54 Big Hit: Jeez another golden drop of wisdom from some pom that knows sweet FA about NZ or its systems, you don’t become IRB coach of the year just beacause you beat the poms, when will you learn, Deans has had is day with the AB’s, was found wanting, Gatland has to serve as an apprentice and show he is good enough, seems as though our home grown coaches seem to doing ok, eh, in SA, Scotland, Wales, Aus, France, Japan need I go on, and Tana will not be getting the sack, see you still believe what you read, silly silly boy, thats why the only thing you can pick is your nose!
9 Dec 2008, 20:02 pm
#49 Rugby Tator: And what issue would that be, what are you talking about? Lack of so called depth didn’t stop us winning the trinations did it??
9 Dec 2008, 20:15 pm
#45 Big Hit: And yes Plumtree will be back in NZ for 2010 in the coaching team for the AB’s!!
Pages: « 1 [2] Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.