| Bath (14) 22 |
| Tries: Rokoduguni, Ojomoh, De Glanville Cons: Bailey 2 Pen: Bailey |
| Worcester (19) 19 |
| Tries: Shillcock, Batley, Simpson Cons: Smith 2 |
Bath recorded their first Premiership win of the season despite a gallant effort from Worcester who played almost the whole match with 14 men.
Tom de Glanville’s try and an Orlando Bailey penalty eventually edged the hosts into a decisive lead.
Semesa Rokoduguni and Max Ojomoh had crossed in the first half but Worcester took a surprise lead before the break.
Jamie Shillcock, Joe Batley and Gareth Simpson all went over but Warriors could not add to it in the second half.
Despite their first win in 12 matches this season, Bath remain bottom of the table on an afternoon when they also were awarded two points from their cancelled trip to London Irish on 3 January.
Warriors, who almost defied the odds to come away with more than a losing-bonus point, found themselves on the back foot just 75 seconds in when Scotland and Lions prop Rory Sutherland was sent off.
Following long deliberations by referee Craig Maxwell-Keys over television replays, he deemed Sutherland had illegally made contact with the head of Bath’s Will Stuart.
Bath opened the scoring shortly after when winger Rokoduguni went over in the corner for their first try.
But Worcester showed grit and responded first with a try from full-back Shillcock and then further scores from lock Batley and scrum-half Simpson either side of Ojomoh with Bath’s second.
Despite the man disadvantage, Warriors led 19-14 at the interval and Bath’s problems increased early in the second half when Josh Bayliss was sin-binned for collapsing a Warriors maul.
However, they escaped falling further behind while also a man short and levelled the scores when full-back De Glanville crossed for their third try, darting to the corner from Rokoduguni’s offload.
Bailey kept his composure shortly after to kick them into the lead on 69 minutes and despite Warriors scrapping right until the last second, the efforts of the 14 men eventually fell short and saw Bath end their longest sequence without a win in the competition.
Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper told BBC Radio Bristol:
“We haven’t found that feeling of winning a game for a long time, so there’s genuinely a feeling of relief.
“We played badly and we weren’t good at all but sometimes, with how far we are into a losing run, you have to take what’s given to you.
“There’s always going to be parts of a game where you look back and say, ‘we could’ve been better there’, but that winning feeling after such a long time without it, is something that’s going to transform the spirit among the players.
“It has happened now and it’s done and what we’ve got to aim to do now, is build on it. We’ve got to work to get people available again and build on the spirit you can see among the group.”
Bath: De Glanville; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Ojomoh, Prydie; Bailey, Fox; Boyce, Doughty, Stuart, McNally, Ewels (capt), Ellis, Richards, Bayliss.
Replacements: Du Toit, Schoeman, Rae, Spencer, Williams, Simpson, Clark, McConnochie.
Sin-bin: Bayliss (46).
Worcester: Shillcock; Humphreys, Venter (co-capt), Beck, Van der Merwe; Smith, Simpson; Sutherland, Annett, Judge, Batley, Kitchener, Hatherell, Hill (co-capt), Kvesic.
Replacements: Baldwin, Waller, Tyack, Garvey, Dodd, Chudley, Morris, Doel.
Sent-off: Sutherland (2).
Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys (RFU).
