Exeter Chiefs were deserving winners of their PREM Rugby semi-final clash with Bath on Saturday at The Rec, but the home fans will rue missed opportunities.
One such moment came in the final play of the game, when Bath ploughed through 4o phases in an effort to squeeze over the line to take victory at the death.
Despite being in almost the perfect position to slot the drop goal to win the match, fly-half Santiago Carreras elected to leave the ball with the tiring forwards, as they charged with all their might towards the try line. Despite facing play after play, the Chiefs held strong, halting the Bath forwards short of the line.
The pressure kept coming, but the defence never folded, eventually holding the ball up in the in-goal area, signaling an end to a spectacular 26-27 comeback win. The result means that the Chiefs will now travel up to Twickenham next Saturday to face Northampton Saints in the grand final.
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A missed score?
While Chiefs fans are celebrating their epic victory, Bath supporters have spotted a potential refereeing error that may have cost them the opportunity to defend their title.
An image shared on X by Bath fan ‘DelBoy80s’ shows a Bath player diving for the line in the final moments. On careful reflection, we have identified the image as belonging to the 39th phase, the one before the Chiefs hold Vilikesa Sela up over the line.
The reason the footage could prove so controversial is that, to the naked eye, substitute Kepu Tuipulotu appears to have placed the ball on the line, which, if reviewed, could have resulted in a Bath victory.
During the match itself, neither referee Christophe Ridley nor any of his officials called for TMO intervention, and, as a result, Bath’s season is now over.
View the full footage below to make up your own mind:
“You can never blame anyone for missing a shot”
Whether it was a try or not, there was no doubt that Exeter deserved the win for the heart and effort they put in to come back and score 17 unanswered points in the second half, after trailing 26-10 at the interval. And it must be said that, perhaps with better game management skills, Bath should not have been in that position at all.
In fact, Santiago Carreras was in the perfect position for the drop goal at the death – a point argued by Brian O’Driscoll and Sam Warburton.
Speaking on TNT Sports, O’Driscoll said: “It’s a cup game, it’s a one-point game. A drop goal wins it for you, and he doesn’t pull the trigger. Never scored a drop goal for Argentina, for Gloucester, or for Bath. What happens? You’ve got to fire a shot.
“From about 15 phases, where they got into position, maybe it was even a bit later than that, maybe it was 18, 19, 20 phases, when they were deep down in the territory they wanted to be. That is the prime position to find yourself in, under the sticks, maybe favouring one side of the post as a right footer, maybe when it’s set up on the left-hand side.”
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Warburton added: “I feel bad saying that Carerras has to step up, but he has to step up in that moment.
“We were watching it on the screen, I bet there were 10s [fly halves] screaming at the TV. It was the perfect opportunity to take the three. The forwards have gone 80 minutes into the game, over 30 phases, you’ve got to step up.”
“They’ll rue the missed opportunity of just taking a shot,” O’Driscoll agreed. “You can never blame anyone for missing a shot. You’ve got to take a shot.”
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