Bath Rugby beaten at Newport after Tom Heathcote misses last-gasp penalty

MATCH REPORT: Newport Gwent Dragons 22 Bath Rugby 20

Tom Heathcote missed a last-minute penalty as Bath Rugby suffered an agonising defeat in tonight’s pre-season friendly at Newport Gwent Dragons.

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   Tom Heathcote missed a last-minute penalty as Bath Rugby suffered an agonising pre-season defeat at Newport Gwent Dragons

   
   

The lead changed hands five times in an absorbing second half at Rodney Parade as Jason Tovey’s late kick was enough to give the home side the spoils.

Despite having two players sent to the sin-bin in the final ten minutes, Dragons held their nerve in a topsy-turvy encounter, with Scotland international Heathcote missing the chance to secure victory for Bath with the last kick of the match when he sent the ball narrowly wide of the posts.

 

Although disappointed with the defeat, Gary Gold’s side are likely to have learned much more from this contest than they did in last weekend’s 69-5 thrashing of local rivals Bristol at The Rec as they continue to build for the coming Aviva Premiership campaign.

After a cagey opening, Newport drew first blood in the 12th minute when full-back Dan Evans crashed over the whitewash. A quick break from a five-metre scrum by Jonathan Evans caught the Bath defence napping and the scrum-half released his namesake Dan into space for the score.

Tovey split the posts with the conversion and Bath saw an immediate chance to respond go begging when George Ford’s penalty from 35m drifted just wide.

The fly-half was not kept off the scoreboard for long, though, and had Bath’s first points after 20 minutes. A powerful drive from a lineout put the visitors deep in Newport territory, and another strong push from a scrum presented Ford with a penalty in front of the posts.

Bath got themselves ahead just before the half-hour mark when England international hooker Rob Webber smashed his way over the tryline from close range after several impressive phases.

A strong break from Matt Garvey powered Bath into Newport territory and when Leroy Houston got his hands on the ball he put Semesa Rokoduguni into the corner. The Fijian winger was stopped just short but scrum-half Micky Young got Bath moving across the field, and Webber was the man to complete the inevitable try, converted by Ford.

Dragons dominated possession for the remainder of the half but a solid defensive effort meant that – one missed penalty aside – they rarely looked like adding to their tally as Bath held firm to lead at the break.

Anthony Watson thought he had extended Bath’s advantage early in the second half but the replacement back’s scything run was halted inches short of the line. The visitors were then presented with several scrums deep in Dragons territory but failed to make them count.

Replacement kicker Kris Burton made them pay with two penalties just after the hour mark to put Dragons ahead as the game suddenly kicked into life.

Just a minute later, however, Bath were back in front when Watson pounced on a loose Newport pass. The blistering back chipped ahead and gathered his own kick before darting over the whitewash for a fine solo try.

Heathcote pushed Bath further clear with the conversion but a third Burton penalty quickly cut the gap to a single point with ten minutes to play.

Newport’s Lewis Evans was then sent to the sin-bin but that could not prevent them grabbing the lead again as Tovey came back on the field to land a 30m penalty.

Another yellow card – this time for Ian Nimmo – meant Dragons would finish the game with 13 men and Heathcote’s subsequent penalty saw the lead change hands again.

The Dragons continued to roar on, however, and another Tovey penalty put them in front. Still Bath had one final chance to wrap up the win with the last kick of the match, but Heathcote’s penalty drifted agonisingly wide of the posts much to the delight of the home crowd.

NEWPORT GWENT DRAGONS: D Evans, Prydie, Leach, Dixon, Hughes, Tovey, J Evans, Williams, Rhys-Thomas (c), Way, A Jones, Screech, Groves, Cudd, L Evans. Replacements: Gustafson, Coundley, Chaparro, Nimmo, Matthews, Rees, Burton, Amos, Buck, Parry, O Evans, W Evans, Wardle, Pewtner, Skinner, I Jones.

Try: D Evans Conversion: Tovey Penalties: Burton 3, Tovey 2

BATH RUGBY: Devoto, Rokoduguni (Watson 41), Joseph (Banahan 51), Eastmond (Fa’osiliva 51), Biggs, Ford (Heathcote 51), Young (Roberts 41 (Stringer 62)), Beech (Perenise 51), Webber (Batty 61 (Dunn 78)), Wilson (Palma-Newport 60), Hooper (c) (Day 51), Attwood (Spencer 62), Garvey (Koster 62), Mercer (Gilbert 62), Houston (Skuse 62).

Tries: Webber, Watson Conversions: Ford, Heathcote Penalties: Ford, Heathcote

Referee: Neil Hennessey

Attendance: 4,384

Bath Rugby beaten at Newport after Tom Heathcote misses last-gasp penalty