Captainhaircut wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 7:28 pm
Freeman brilliant- can’t comprehend how anyone is against him at 13. I get he doesn’t always play there but he’s always looked brilliant when he has.
Hard agree. With Todaro announcing himself so strongly this season and the other back 3 riches, I'd like to see Saints play him there more regularly.
It's getting easier and easier to see why Saints are willing to let Furbank go in order to keep the likes of Belleau and the bright young talents in the backline. Be interesting to see if Belleau is trialled at fullback from the start at some point.
Freeman needs to polish up some of his skills a bit in terms of passing and kicking. He's a very good edge defender though with his pace allowing him to make up metres quickly. Physical as hell to. Hard to find blokes that big, that quick and with those rugby instincts.
Freeman scoring a terrific hat trick and Lawrence fumbling with the line at his mercy provided a stark comparison. I rate Lawrence but he's got to erase handling errors like this from his game.
Thought a few unsung players really stood up for Saints, Smith, Prowse, Munga and Chick were excellent.
Yeah Munga really stepped up - hopefully this continues as he's always had promise but hasn't really pushed previously. Prowse too has been very impressive at lock this season, especially as he was essentially going nowhere as a TH prop a couple of seasons ago. Hats off to the coaches and Ed for making the change and making it work so well.
Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 6:08 pm
Obano has got his back turned. That’s arse!
Yeah that's not a good call by the officials. He is held but he's not going to fill that gap, also a Bath player is still able to attempt a tackle. If that happens on any other ruck it won't be a penalty.
I will say that Obano was dragged into that ruck (rather than entering it himself) by a Saints player who then lay on the floor and clung onto his leg. Obano may not've shown much interest in trying to fill in at guard, but the way Bath spread out and left the gap meant that their inside man assumed that he would. While you're correct that most other rucks that's just ignored, it is a definite penalty, in the same way that tackling someone off the ball reverses a jackalling penalty, even if that player probably wouldn't've cleared out.
Plus I don't like that Saints scored that try by attacking the side of the ruck that De Glanville was injured on. Probably not an intentional or malicious decision, but it compromised Bath's defence to have the injured man in the way and could've been extremely dangerous if he'd had a severe back injury. The ref should've stopped the play, so I don't mind that try being called back.
Overall though, incredible win by Saints. Bath looked clueless and overwedded to outmanning their opposition. Freeman's 13 display was very intriguing - I do want to see more of him playing there regularly, as I am concerned about his decision-making and ability to release others, but that will only come with experience.
Watching the highlights and Freeman’s second try shows why Borthwick is always having Lawrence defend at 12 rather than 13 (with both Dingwall and Slade attacking at 12 but defending 13).
His lateral movement is really poor and he just gets ran around as if he isn’t there.
I think it holds him back a lot as an international as there’s no guarantee we pick a 12 who can defend in that outside channel and even then it’s a bit of a compromise because Dingwall isn’t the most agile to be defending there either.
Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 5:43 pm
Jesus Saints have been hard done by there on about three separate decisions! Really poor officiating!
Out-thought, out-skilled and out-bloody-minded us.
Never accepted the tackle to set up the ruck, always changing the point of attack, always asking questions (often the same one) that Bath had no answer for.
This is everything I love about rugby, even as a fan of the losing side.
One of the best performances I've seen at the Race, by any team - with a heavily rotated team and 3 disallowed tries.
On which, first absolutely should have been run in before blowing the whistle, and then checked properly. This one was huge, because the change in possession directly led to Bath's first try.
2nd is one of those bits of shithousery you see (and I hate) at every ruck. Usually ignored as immaterial, in this case it was materially significant, but he wasn't exact trying hard to get back in position. If you give the ref a decision to make, you can't complain too much when he makes it (I'm not sure either way if I'd have allowed the try, it certainly was a penalty offence, and certainly was "material", just feels a bit... pathetic). I was personally more annoyed that ref allowed play on top of injured player on the ground. TdG got away with it, but that had the potential to be really nasty (I don't care that he was out of the field of play, it's a matter of safety)
3rd probably was short, but I often disagree with ref.s and TMOs on where "probable" becomes "clear and obvious". If you give the ref a decision to make, you can't complain too much when he makes it (even though I'd have allowed the try). Ultimately immaterial as Saints scored from that forward forward field position anyway.
I know the commentators were saying "at 21-14, everyone expected Bath to run away with it"... They certainly weren't including me in "everyone" we were second best from first second to last. There have been matches where we've been 10 points down, and I never felt we'd lose. This was one where we were 7 points up, and I never felt we were favourites.
