I've got a semi - Bath vs Brizzle Friday

[Which Tyler]

Friday 6 June 2025; 19:45
Ref: Christophe Ridley
TJs: Luke Pearce & Anthony Woodthorpe
TMO: Andrew Jackson

Bath:
1 Beno Obano
2 Tom Dunn
3 Will Stuart
4 Quinn Roux
5 Charlie Ewels
6 Ted Hill
7 Guy Pepper
8 Alfie Barbeary

09 Ben Spencer ©
10 Finn Russell
11 Will Muir
12 Cameron Redpath
13 Max Ojomoh
14 Joe Cokanasiga
15 Tom de Glanville

16 Niall Annett, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Miles Reid, 23 Josh Bayliss
21 Tom Carr-Smith, 22 Ciaran Donoghue


Bristol:
1 Ellis Genge
2 Gabriel Oghre
3 George Kloska
4 James Dun
5 Joe Batley
6 Steven Luatua
7 Fitz Harding ©
8 Viliame Mata

09 Harry Randall
10 AJ MacGinty
11 Gabriel Ibitoye
12 James Williams
13 Benhard Janse van Rensburg
14 Kalaveti Ravouvou
15 Noah Heward

16 Harry Thacker, 17 Jake Woolmore, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 Pedro Rubiolo, 20 Santiago Grondona
21 Kieran Marmion, 22 Harry Byrne, 23 Jack Bates

[Puja]

Pat Lam busy stirring the pot: https://archive.ph/PyTKW

Puja

[FKAS]

Looks like this should be a cracking game.

Noah Heward starting at fullback for the first time since March last year I believe might be in for a tough evening. Otherwise looks like two sides that will give each other a tough game.

Re prices £60 is quite steep, I've got a standing ticket at WR for £25 for this Saturday.

[fivepointer]

Should be entertaining. Bristol wont die wondering and they do have the game that will test Bath, who must start as favourites.

[Which Tyler]

Pat Lam busy stirring the pot: https://archive.ph/PyTKW

Re prices £60 is quite steep, I've got a standing ticket at WR for £25 for this Saturday.

Worth noting that, despite Pat Lam - cheapest seats in the Bristol allocation were £45
But yeah, Bath seem to be (as ever) living rent-free in the heads of Bristolians. Whilst Bath are talking about being clinical, accurate and disciplined, Bristol are talking about being emotional, and driven by hatred*

For me, rugby derbies should be more like a sibling rivalry; you want to beat them the most, because they mean the most to you, but it's a rivalry built through love, not hatred.

TBH, even then, I don't consider Bristol to be our biggest rival (they definitely see us that way) - I'd place Gloucester and Leicester as matches I'm more desperate to win (whilst also wishing Gloucester well against anyone-but-Bath).

To me, the Bath v Bristol rivalry feels more like sibling rivalry with a notable age difference - with Bristol caring most about Bath, but Bath acknowledging that, but being busy with "bigger" rivalries.
A bit like England v Wales/Scotland/Ireland; or away from rugby, like France v Belgium, USA v Canada or Australia v NewZealand.
But then, whilst I have a fair few Bristolian friends, I don't live there, and don't interact with them on a daily basis any more. Maybe I'm also privileged in that the Bristol supporters I actually know, tend to agree that it's a friendly and respectful rivalry.

*IMO, rugby is still a sport that prides itself (mistakenly, but occasionally accurately) on the existence of sportsmanship and respect. "Hate" should have no part in the conversation.

[FKAS]

The whole seating thing does feel like Eddie/Gats style distraction BS.

[Adam_P]

Pat Lam busy stirring the pot: https://archive.ph/PyTKW

Re prices £60 is quite steep, I've got a standing ticket at WR for £25 for this Saturday.

"Hate" should have no part in the conversation.

Even if we're talking about Saracens?!

[Danno]

Pat Lam busy stirring the pot: https://archive.ph/PyTKW

Re prices £60 is quite steep, I've got a standing ticket at WR for £25 for this Saturday.

"Hate" should have no part in the conversation.

Even if we're talking about Saracens?!

Don't be silly

[Which Tyler]

"Hate" should have no part in the conversation.

Even if we're talking about Saracens?!

Correct.
At worst I can hate what Saracens did.
Personally, I reserve my hatred for people like Trump / Putin / those idiots who tried to burn a hotel full of immigrants - people who are actively harming lives; not for supporting / playing for a different rugby team.

[FKAS]

"Hate" should have no part in the conversation.

Even if we're talking about Saracens?!

Correct.
At worst I can hate what Saracens did.
Personally, I reserve my hatred for people like Trump / Putin / those idiots who tried to burn a hotel full of immigrants - people who are actively harming lives; not for supporting / playing for a different rugby team.

Aye, especially when having a bit of banter with opposition fans makes the game far more enjoyable.

[Which Tyler]

You've got to go with home advantage for both matches. 95% wins in home SFs over the last decade after all.
Surprisingly enough, I'm most interested in tonight's match.

Bristol are the team who are most up for it against Bath (like Wal/Sco/Ire against England) whilst we don't have the same emotional investment in them (like England against Wal/Sco/Ire). So the form book between these 2 teams since they returned to the Prem favours them heavily.
But it's also that under Lam, they're probably the best placed team to capitalise on our weaknesses (or certainly our weaknesses under JvG - obviously, under Hooper and Blackadder, our weakness was... playing rugby). We're not great at defending wide; especially if a team goes from one width to the other. We're okay, but not great, at playing fast and loose, a broken-field, off-the-cuff game.
The October loss at the rec makes me think of Eng v Aus final RWC'91 - if we do what we do, we really ought to win (whilst still being vulnerable out wide). If we let them get in our heads, and try to show that we can do what they do, they're simply better at it than us.

[Puja]

I've split the threads and changed the titles a touch, cause I do like having a separate thread for each game. Helps prevent one from getting overwhelmed by another and allows two different discussions.

Mod

[Which Tyler]

Wearing my Bath top around Tewkesbury - I've had people wishing us good luck for this evening!

[Which Tyler]

Good to see JJ back and supporting the boys

[FKAS]

Well Gengey is up for it.

[twitchy]

Great start.

[Adam_P]

"Hate" should have no part in the conversation.

Even if we're talking about Saracens?!

Correct.
At worst I can hate what Saracens did.
Personally, I reserve my hatred for people like Trump / Putin / those idiots who tried to burn a hotel full of immigrants - people who are actively harming lives; not for supporting / playing for a different rugby team.

Yeah my comment was fully tongue in cheek - strong agree with everything you say.

Enjoyable game so far this, nice and physical. Hard to know who to back as I quite like both teams involved today

[FKAS]

Pepper is perhaps a touch lucky there. If Pepper doesn't concede the penalty and the 3pts there's numbers for Bristol on the other side with momentum. If the ref had gone yellow there would have been no complaint.

[Adam_P]

Ravouvou is some player

[twitchy]

Insane.

[Which Tyler]

Dammit, that was beautiful

[FKAS]

Ravouvou is some player

Well that aged like an open can of Carling in a greenhouse.

What a dumb yellow card, needless and lazy to just lie there after the tackle instead of getting back to his feet.

[Which Tyler]

Spencer could have tackled Ibitoye at source then, but wanted to appeal to the ref instead

[FKAS]

What is McGinty doing? If he goes to the men and space instead of going himself, TWICE, then Bristol probably score another.

[FKAS]

Bristol are coping brilliantly with this yellow card periods so far. This rolling maul could wind down a lot of the remaining two mins.