Injury-hit Montferrand go through
Bath went into the match without key backs Mike Tindall and Iain Balshaw and prop David Flatman, and their chances were not helped when tighthead prop Duncan Bell limped off after five minutes.
Montferrand took immediate advantage to take a 28-3 lead into the halftime break and never looked back as the Bath pack disintegrated and their backline began to panic.
Two tries in the last eight minutes narrowed Montferrand’s overall lead to two points, but it was too little, too late for Bath. Montferrand fullback Anthony Floch opened the scoring with an early penalty goal, and when home skipper Tony Marsh bulldozed his way over the try-line in the 15th minute, Bath’s 14-point first-leg advantage was looking very shaky.
It was virtually gone when Floch slotted a superb sideline conversion.
It took Bath 20 minutes to launch their first attack on the Montferrand tryline, and it ended in disaster. A loose ball in the Bath midfield was toed ahead by Pierre Mignoni, gathered by winger David Bory and passed back to Mignoni who had a trouble-free 65-metre sprint to the Bath posts. Floch converted and the French club suddenly had a three-point advantage in the two-leg tie.
Bath fly-half Olly Barkley and Floch (two) traded penalty goals as the home side took a 23-3 lead past the half-hour mark, and Marsh put the result beyond doubt with a try in the opposite corner to his first effort.
He went round Bath fullback Matt Perry and the television referee gave him the benefit of the doubt as he crashed over in the tackle of a desperate Barkley. Floch’s fourth penalty goal after 50 minutes resulted in coach John Connolly ringing the changes, dragging off Barkley and Perry and sending on Mike Catt in the hope the veteran fly-half would produce the game-changing performance he managed against Wales in the World Cup.
It backfired immediately. One minute after Catt’s arrival, star French flanker Olivier Magne found room out wide to repeat his try-scoring efforts of the first leg and Montferrand were never going to be caught.
: A Floch; A Rougerie, R Chanal, T Marsh (capt), S Kuzbik; G Merceron, P Mignoni; C Soulette (S Delpuech 80), O Azam, B Moyle, H Louw, T Privat, M Dieude (M Raynaud 20), O Magne, E Vermeulen (A Audebert 75)
: Tries - T Marsh (2), O Magne, P Mignoni; Cons - A Floch (3); Pens - A Floch (4);
: T Privat (55), E Vermeulen (60)
: M Perry (M Catt 50); W Human, R Fleck, K Maggs, S Danielli; O Barkley (C Malone 50), M Wood; D Barnes, J Humphreys (L Mears 39), D Bell (M Stevens 5), S Borthwick, D Grewcock (capt, R Fidler 72), A Beattie (S Gray 72), J Scaysbrook, I Feaunati
: Tries - I Feaunati, S Danielli, W Human; Cons - C Malone (2); Pen - O Barkley
: Donal Courtney (Ireland).
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