Bath were knocked out of the European Champions Cup despite securing a dominant 47-28 triumph over Benetton.
Todd Blackadder’s men were reliant on the Scarlets-Toulon result going in their favour but the Welsh region’s victory, combined with the Frenchmen getting a bonus-point, meant that they were ousted from the competition.
The West Countrymen will ultimately rue their heavy loss to the Scarlets last weekend after they went down 35-17 at the Rec.
They were improved on Saturday evening as, despite Luca Sperandio opening the scoring for the Treviso-based outfit, the away side hit back via Tom Dunn, Matt Banahan, Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph.
Blackadder’s side were also awarded a penalty try for a comfortable 35-7 half-time advantage before Sebastian Negri and Tommaso Benvenuti reduced the deficit for Benetton.
Bath then reasserted their control on the encounter and touched down twice more with Zach Mercer and Luke Charteris going over, although Benetton had the final word through Monty Ioane.
The Premiership outfit needed a victory from this encounter to give themselves an opportunity of qualifying but they got off to the worst possible start.
Benetton kept the ball well in the early exchanges and, after they had moved the ball wide to Sperandio, the wing kicked the ball ahead and benefited from Freddie Burns’ misjudged attempt at a catch to touch down.
Bath, however, were unperturbed and they particularly found the maul to their liking. Firstly, Dunn went over following a dominant drive before they were awarded a penalty try after Edoardo Gori was penalised.
Gori was sent to the sin-bin and the visitors took advantage of his yellow card as Watson fed Matt Banahan to touch down.
Blackadder’s side were now expanding their game and they produced a superb move to score the all-important fourth try when good hands sent Aled Brew clear and the wing gave Watson an easy run to the line.
Although the hosts’ scrum-half returned from 10 minutes off the field, it did not stop the momentum and Joseph took an excellent angle to take the West Countrymen 28 points ahead at the break.
Despite the comfortable buffer, Bath began the second period like they did the first and were on the back foot. They were stunned by two quick-fire tries as Negri and Benvenuti both crossed the whitewash to reduce the arrears with over half-an-hour remaining.
Bath were struggling for fluency and mistakes initially prevented them from adding to their score, but they got their act together to touch down for a sixth time through Mercer’s close-range try.
That effort killed off any hopes the hosts had of making a comeback and the visitors went away with a comfortable win after Charteris powered over.
Ioane crossed for Benetton in the last minute but ultimately both teams went home disappointed.
The scorers:
For Benetton:
Tries: Sperandio, Negri, Benvenuti, Ioane
Cons: Allan 4
Yellow Card: Gori
For Bath:
Tries: Dunn, Penalty try, Banahan, Watson, Joseph, Mercer, Charteris
Cons: Burns 5
Benetton: 15 Ian McKinley, 14 Luca Sperandio, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Tommy Allan, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Robert Barbieri, 7 Sebastian Negri, 6 Whetu Douglas, 5 Dean Budd, 4 Ira Herbst, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Tomas Baravalle, 1 Nicola Quaglio
Replacements: 16 Hame Faiva, 17 Alberto de Marchi, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Alessandro Zanni, 21 Braam Steyn, 22 Giorgio Bronzini, 23 Tommaso Iannone
Bath: 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Matt Banahan, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Aled Brew, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Kahn Fotuali’i, 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Matt Garvey (c), 5 Elliott Stooke, 4 James Phillips, 3 Henry Thomas, 2 Tom Dunn, 1 Lucas Noguera
Replacements: 16 Michael van Vuuren, 17 Nick Auterac, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 Luke Charteris, 20 Paul Grant, 21 Darren Allinson, 22 Josh Lewis, 23 James Wilson
Referee: Pascal Gaüzère (France)
Assistant referees: Laurent Cardona (France), Jean-Luc Rebollal (France)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)
The post Bath out despite defeating Benetton appeared first on Planet Rugby.