Home sweet home for men’s 1st XV in BUCS Rugby Champs semi-final after stunning win in Northumbria

29 March 2018

The University of Bath men’s 1st XV will have home advantage in the semi-finals of the BUCS Rugby Championship as they look to secure their place at Twickenham.

The IKON Construction-sponsored team, who are also supported by Investigo, will take on Severn Derby rivals Cardiff Met at the Sports Training Village on Wednesday, April 4 (7pm kick-off) and admission to spectators is free.

Victory that night would see Bath through to the national final at England Rugby’s Twickenham headquarters, against either Exeter University or Hartpury College, and they are hoping for a big crowd at the STV to cheer them on as they look to build on last night’s outstanding 43-29 victory at Northumbria University.

After their ten-try win over Cardiff University in the last 16, Bath travelled to Newcastle Falcons’ Kingston Park ground with confidence high – despite having been edged out by Northumbria in their two previous league meetings this season.

The hosts took an early lead through a penalty but Bath responded in style as fly-half Will Flinn dummied to pass before cutting through to score under the posts, leaving Will Partington with a simple conversion.

Northumbria had finished second in the BUCS Super Rugby league table and fought back strongly as two tries from captain Oli Robinson, one converted, gave them a 15-7 lead.

However, Bath again rose to the challenge and another converted try meant the gap was down to one at half-time.

They then started the second half superbly and regained the lead when influential full-back Partington (pictured) danced through the Northumbria defence to touch down. He added the extras and then kicked a penalty which went in off both posts to put Bath 24-15 up.

Northumbria had a chance to get back in the contest but lost the ball on the Bath line. The subsequent clearance was then collected by the visitors and winger Harry Close was on hand to go over in the corner.

Bath now held a 14-point lead but that was wiped out in the space of four minutes as Northumbria scored two converted tries. However, the visitors refused to let their heads drop and capitalised on a lineout error to go back in front with another try converted by Partington.

Victory was confirmed when an intercept allowed Jack Davies to run through from 35m to score Bath’s sixth try of the match, with Partington again adding the extras.

Don’t forget, entry to the Cardiff Met semi-final is free so come and back the boys in Blue and Gold!

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