THE REC — There was a kind of nobility in Johann van Graan’s defence of his Bath players for refusing a drop at goal at the end of their 27-26 defeat by Exeter Chiefs in Saturday’s Prem semi-final.
But it doesn’t fully account for the deficiency in preparation and execution that has condemned last season’s champions to the familiar hollow feeling of being bereft of a trophy.
And Bath’s owners, Bruce Craig and Sir James Dyson, and the club’s fans, are entitled to demand an explanation.
It is easy to say that it looked like a simple task for Bath’s fly-half Santiago Carreras, a high-quality player, to demand the ball from his forwards and knock it over the bar, 15 metres away and directly in front of him.
And two superstar ex-players Brian O’Driscoll and Sam Warburton on TV did say it – as did Stuart Barnes, the former Bath and England fly-half, who was next to me in the press seats, and calling loudly for the drop as 41 phases of mostly pick-and-go unfolded to the dramatic climax of Exeter holding Bath up, and going through to next week’s final against Northampton Saints.
