Week 1 - Bath at Gloucester

I watched Bath at Gloucester on Sunday morning of 9/4/09. Here are my observations.

*I was subconsciously watching the game through the lens of a Bath fan without admitting it to myself.

*The final score was 24-5, Gloucester. Bath missed 3 penalty kicks and a conversion. Penalty kicks look like easier versions of field goals, so it would seem to me that an 0-for-4 kicking day would be bad. Gloucester missed one penalty kick.

*Gloucester was clearly the better team. Bath could have outscored Gloucester and perhaps stolen a game had they:

a) Made their kicks, and

b) Not handed Gloucester a try or two, and/or

c) Scored a try when they had a chance.

*I have a mancrush on Bath wing Matt Banahan. He started on the bench. I also could get behind Bath Captain Michael Claassens, a South African scrum half.

*Bath’s outside wing, Joe Maddock, led the league in tries last year, but looked to me like he had a bad game and made a couple of dumb errors including hand Gloucester a try and force his teammates offside (which handed Gloucester a penalty). Reading the box score, he led the game in turnovers with five. I’ll have trouble getting behind him right away, despite his apparently great 2008-09.

*Scrum.com has a neat breakdown of post-game stats. Bath had 288 meters run with the ball, Gloucester had 412. I’m guessing the bulk of Gloucester’s came on its two longer tries, but that statistic is revealing nonetheless.

*Bath’s fullback, Nick Abendanon, wasn’t able to get me on board with him Sunday either. In hindsight, he had an ok game.

*Gloucester’s forwards didn’t exactly dominate Bath, but were clearly better or wanted it more.

*The man of the match was Gloucester fly half Nicky Robinson. James Simpson-Daniel scored two tries, one was given to him by a Bath turnover and one was given to him by a heads up play by Robinson. I could get behind both guys.

* Gloucester has a center, Eliota Fuimanono-Sapolu, who is the kind of guy you love him if he’s on your team and you hate him if he isn’t. He showed me that Sunday, he’s shown me that on Youtube. He had three penalties on the day. See also: Dennis Rodman, Bill Laimbeer, Bob Probert.

*Gloucester fans are definitely into it, but definitely not psycho. I admit, I was hoping for psycho.

*Their stadium, Kingsholm, is in the middle of a residential neighborhood. As in, you can see houses and apartment buildings from TV. If the neighborhood were Lakeview, I wonder if Kingsholm would be Wrigley. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Also, in researching the city of Gloucester, it appears to be a dump. If I’m supposed to potentially vacation to my team’s city, this is a knock, albeit a minimal one.

*London Wasps broadcast, at least through radio, all of their games on their website. This is a big plus. Next week, Bath hosts London Wasps, which is another game I’d like very much to watch but it is not televised in the US. This only really occurred to me as an issue for the forthcoming week 2, as Gloucester’s telecast is apparently unavailable in the US and the Bath v. London Wasps game is only available on their website.

*London Wasps chairman is a fellow named Mark Rigby. He is a partner in a British Commercial Property group, which whatever, but he is a former player and co-authored a blog! Freegin sweet.

*The grammar of the British media breaking down rugby matches is not exactly up to American par.