Holders may have more style but Bath showed in their arm wrestle with Saints they can go the distance with anybody
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ast week Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson, made an interesting comparison between boxing and rugby. He suggested there was a decent chance his side’s Champions Cup quarter-final against Bath would prove good viewing because of the clubs’ contrasting philosophies around how best to play the game. “Styles make fights” is a familiar ring mantra and the same is increasingly true in top-level rugby.
On the one hand you had Northampton, all razor-sharp angles and dextrous hands. On the other was Bath, renowned for their knack of wearing their rivals down and then picking them off in the closing stages. The upshot on Friday night, just as Dowson had predicted, was a truly classic knock-out tie in which Bath overcame an early 28-7 deficit to win 43-41 and reach their first European Cup semi-final in 20 years.
By comparison the glossy all-French duel involving Bordeaux Bègles and Toulouse on Sunday did not, at first glance, hit quite the same heights. The two sides know each other extremely well and, for a long time, the upshot was a cagey contest most notable for some exceptional defence and a stunning all-round individual display by Toulouse’s English flanker Jack Willis.
