An injury-hit Bath crashed out of Europe in spectacular fashion at Stade
Marcel Michelin.
The English club had no answer to a rampant Montferrand side in the first
half, who turned over a 14-point deficit from the first leg to sneak into the
final of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup with a 16-point victory.
Bath went into the match without key backs Mike Tindall and Iain Balshaw and
prop David Flatman, and their chances were not helped when tighthead prop Duncan
Bell limped off after five minutes.
Montferrand took immediate advantage to take a 28-3 lead into the halftime
break and never looked back as the Bath pack disintegrated and their backline
began to panic.
Two tries in the last eight minutes narrowed Montferrand's overall lead to two
points, but it was too little, too late for Bath.
Montferrand fullback Anthony Floch opened the scoring with an early penalty
goal, and when home skipper Tony Marsh bulldozed his way over the try-line in
the 15th minute, Bath's 14-point first-leg advantage was looking very shaky.
It was virtually gone when Floch slotted a superb sideline conversion.
It took Bath 20 minutes to launch their first attack on the Montferrand
tryline, and it ended in disaster. A loose ball in the English club's midfield
was toed ahead by scrum-half Pierre Mignoni, gathered by winger David Bory and
passed back to Mignoni who had a trouble-free 65-metre sprint to the Bath posts.
Floch converted and the French club suddenly had a three-point advantage in the
two-leg tie.
Bath fly-half Olly Barkley and Floch (two) traded penalty goals as the home
side took a 23-3 lead past the half-hour mark, and Marsh put the result beyond
doubt with a try in the opposite corner to his first effort.
The New Zealand-born French international went round Bath fullback Matt Perry
and the television referee gave him the benefit of the doubt as he crashed over
in the tackle of a desperate Barkley.
Floch's fourth penalty goal after 50 minutes resulted in Bath coach John
Connolly ringing the changes, dragging off Barkley and Perry and sending on Mike
Catt in the hope the veteran fly-half would produce the game-changing
performance he managed against Wales in the World Cup.
It backfired immediately. One minute after Catt's arrival, star French flanker
Olivier Magne found room out wide to repeat his try-scoring efforts of the first
leg and Montferrand were never going to be caught.
Home lock Thibaut Privat found himself in the sin-bin after tangling with
karate black-belt Danny Grewcock, and Montferrand went down to 13 men when
backrower Elvis Vermeulen was binned for a professional foul, and Bath No 8
Isaac Feaunati crashed for a dubious try to narrow the margin to 38-10.
Burly Bath winger Simon Danielli went over in the corner, and that was
followed by a similar effort from fellow winger Wylie Human, but the visitors
ran out of time.
Montferrand play the winners of tomorrow's Connacht-Harlequins match in the
Cup final for a berth in the Heineken Cup next season.
Montferrand:
Tries: Marsh 2, Magne, Mignoni.
Cons: Flosch 3.
Pens: Flosch 4.
Bath:
Tries: Fea'unati, Danielli, Human.
Cons: Malone 2.
Pens: Barkley.
Agg (53-51)
Att: 4,0
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