Bath Rugby head coach Mike Ford pleased with derby-day dominance despite ...

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Head coach Mike Ford believes Bath Rugby’s 15-13 victory over local rivals Gloucester in the Aviva Premiership was a lot nervier than it needed to be.

The home side looked in control for large parts of the West Country derby at The Rec but failed to convert it into a sizeable points advantage.

Gloucester’s ill-discipline rewarded Bath with a succession of penalties but fly-half George Ford landed just five of his nine kicks at goal.

Opposite number Freddie Burns, who got all of the Cherry and Whites’ points, also charged down a Ford clearing kick for the game’s only try on the hour mark, setting up a tense conclusion.

Bath held on in the closing stages, though, to temporarily climb to second in the league table.

“It was a two-point win so I was a bit nervous near the end,” said Ford. “We put ourselves under pressure, missed a few goal kicks and got a kick charged down but apart from that I thought we dominated the game.

“If we kick our goals it puts us further away. We didn’t which kept them in the game.

“Freddie took his chance really well which made us a bit jittery near the end but in the last ten minutes we closed it out.

“We were disappointed we didn’t get over the tryline but it’s positive. We are lying second at the moment. The other teams have got to play so we will probably end up fourth again after the weekend after six games. We are pleased with where we are.

“There are some pleasing things. I’m not disappointed about winning a derby game.”

Soaking weather denied Bath the chance to really shine in attack but Ford was quick to praise his side’s discipline in a fiery derby clash, with the hosts limiting Burns to just three penalty attempts at the posts.

“We talk about taking the referee out of the equation and I think we did that tonight,” said Ford.

“If you watch our offside line you can see clear daylight between that and the ruck. We want to give referees no reason to penalise us.

“We got it wrong once or twice, unluckily I thought, but that’s possibly one of the reasons we won the game tonight because of our discipline.

“We believe we have only just scratched the surface of what we can achieve in attack but we didn’t see anything tonight because of the conditions.”

Article source: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/focus-rugby-welsh-regions-face-6137964

Bath Rugby head coach Mike Ford pleased with derby-day dominance despite ...