Bath dent Gloucester title hopes

13 April 2012

They were the best of enemies, with the bruises to prove it, but Danny Grewcock and Michael Foley are fighting a common cause now, united in the task of saving Bath's season and future.

'It is a bit odd to be working with him but that's the way rugby goes now,' admitted Grewcock, the Bath and England lock who squared up to Wallaby hooker Foley several times during last summer's Lions series, such as when the first scrum erupted in the match against Queensland.

Foley's coaching career got off to a flyer as struggling Bath, led by Grewcock's storming example, exposed Gloucester's title pretensions as just that with a gutsy 12-9 victory at a packed and passionate Recreation Ground.

Foley also owned up to some trepidation at suddenly becoming Grewcock's immediate boss.

'I wondered how I would be received,' said Foley. 'You play against these guys and Danny autographed my body in a number of places when we've gone up against each other, but you just wonder what it will be like coaching-them.' Foley the player called it a day after the Wallabies' autumn tour to Europe and the morning after his farewell appearance against the Barbarians in Cardiff he turned up to introduce himself to his new Bath charges.

Grewcock was the first to offer a handshake and Foley appreciated the gesture. 'It was special for Danny to come up to me on my first day and stick a big hand out and wish me all the best. To have a guy like that, a guy of world XV stature, say: "Good to have you here?, meant a lot.'

It was a bold move for Bath to look to an untried coach to solve the problems that left them sharing bottom place in the Premiership on Saturday morning. But his first week in a Bath tracksuit has brought startling results.

Where the side regressed into a fumbling shambles at Wasps the previous weekend, Bath got back to basics at the Rec, where they have lost only once this season.

It was all about character and heart, personified in Grewcock and his fellow England lock Steve Borthwick. They stole 11 Gloucester line-outs to leave the team which began the game second in the table, and the form side in the Premiership, without the ball and still without a win at the Rec in 14 years of league rugby.

Referee Steve Lander hammered Gloucester in the penalty count, too, particularly at the tackle, and Matt Perry banged over all three chances which were within his range. Gloucester coach Philippe Saint-Andre was unhappy with Lander and the time he allowed Bath to recycle the ball but admitted that the title is now beyond his team, who trail Leicester by 10 points.

'When our line-out doesn't work, we panic too much,' he said. 'We must learn to change the tactics.'

Bath and Lander allowed the Premiership's most prolific kicker, Ludovic Mercier, only one shot at goal and that was not until the 77th minute. The Frenchman dropped two goals as well, the second with a four-man overlap waiting outside. But his side simply never had the ball long enough to impose themselves.

Prop David Barnes wasted Bath's best chance by ignoring the unmarked Borthwick but otherwise the Gloucester defence, where Henry Paul showed that tackling is the one part of his union game which is in perfect working order, held firm.

Iain Balshaw did manage his first points of his wretched season if only via a short-range dropped goal, but nobody at Bath cared much about the lack of tries, such was the importance of winning.

And Foley's input was crucial in achieving that. Grewcock said: 'He has proven himself this week as an admirable coach. He said a lot of simple things but as soon as he said them you thought: "Yes, you're right".'

As welcomes go, it was warm enough for Foley.

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