Dominant second half sees six-try Bath defeat Leeds Beckett to edge closer to securing BUCS Super Rugby top-four finish
A 36-10 home victory over Leeds Beckett has moved the University of Bath men’s 1st XV to within one win of securing a top-four finish in the 2024-25 BUCS Super Rugby league season.
They took a while to get warmed up in their penultimate league fixture at the Team Bath Sports Training Village, falling behind to a converted Tommy Triggs try. They drew level in the 25th minute as Will Keylock touched down and Raff Weston added the extras but a Ben Parkin penalty gave Leeds Beckett a 10-7 advantage at the break.
Bath forged ahead seven minutes into the second half, Iwan Coyle’s try being converted by Weston, and after that it was largely one-way traffic as the hosts pulled away.
Jack Bennett, fresh from making his Bath Rugby debut in the Premiership Rugby Cup, George Doel, Tom Hughes and Ludo Kolade all got on the scoresheet, and Weston added another conversion as Bath scored 29 unanswered points in a dominant second period.
Bath, sponsored by Team Bath partners Bath Building Society and Rengen, are now 11 points clear of fifth-placed Exeter with three games remaining. They now have a two-week break before back-to-back trips to Wales to face Swansea on 26th February and Cardiff on 5th March, then conclude their league season with a home match against Nottingham on Wednesday 12th March. Kick-off is the earlier time of 5pm and admission is free.
Match stats
University of Bath starting XV: 1 Jacob Yates, 2 Max Pearce (cc), 3 Alfie Griffin, 4 Albert Dmitriev, 5 Max Mayor, 6 Jimmi McNally, 7 Will Keylock, 8 Iwan Coyle; 9 Ieuan Davies, 10 Raff Weston, 11 Tom Hughes, 12 Ludo Kolade, 13 Jamie Howick, 14 Oli Sedgwick, 15 Jack Woods. Replacements: 16 Yujian Zou, 17 Oban Baird, 18 Jai Sahi, 19 Jack Bennett, 20 Connor Treacey (cc), 21 George Doel, 22 Archie Friend, 23 Luc Anfield.
Tries: Keylock, Coyle, Bennett, Doel, Hughes, Kolade.
Conversions: Weston 3.
Leeds Beckett starting XV: 1 George Cresser, 2 Ben Bailey, 3 Charlie Keith, 4 Tom Mills, 5 Arron Suggate, 6 Tommy Triggs, 7 Max Allen-Paver, 8 Ollie Mullarkey; 9 Tobias Morley, 10 Louie Heard, 11 Connor Oresanya, 12 Dan Reed, 13 Ben Irvine, 14 Jody Devine, 15 Ben Parkin (c). Replacements: 16 Jack Austin, 17 Matthew Casselden, 18 Tom Hinchcliffe, 19 Khalik Kareem, 20 William Skelton, 21 Alex Davies, 22 Alex Green, 23 Freddie Spensley.
Tries: Triggs.
Conversions: Parkin.
Penalties: Parkin.
