Harrison Osborne hat-trick and captain’s double help Bath hold off Durham fightback to win on the road in BUCS Super Rugby
Hooker Harrison Osborne scored a hat-trick of tries as the University of Bath held off a strong fightback from Durham to record a well-earned 52-42 away win in their latest Men’s BUCS Super Rugby fixture.
The visitors, sponsored by Bath Building Society and Rengen, were captained for the first time by Evan Jones and the Number 8 marked the occasion by scoring the opening and closing tries.
His first, after five minutes, was converted by James Linegar who also added the extras to a Sam Winters try but both were quickly cancelled out by Durham, who then went 21-14 up with their third converted score midway through the first half.
Bath dominated the closing stages, though, and scored three converted tries through Winters, Bailey Cutts and Osborne to lead 35-21 at the break.
Durham closed the gap to seven points just after the restart but Bath looked like they had put the game to bed when Osborne went over twice more in five minutes, his first converted by Linegar.
The hosts kept battling and set up an exciting finish with two quick-fire converted tries just after the hour but Bath dug deep and sealed victory with Jones’ second try of the evening five minutes from time.
Bath are back at the Team Bath Sports Training Village on Wednesday 18th November for a home match against Leeds Beckett (6.30pm kick-off).
Match stats
Durham starting XV: 1 Leon Tahana, 2 Alex Barkshire, 3 Sam Graham, 4 Yannick Reiss, 5 Emmanuel Olowe, 6 Dom Wade, 7 Oliver Hinds, 8 Oli Gordon; 9 Fergus Callington, 10 Louie Platt (c), 11 Will Matthews, 12 Harry Dawson, 13 Fin Stables, 14 Lucas Rowell, 15 Rory Telfer. Impact players: 16 Finn Janaway, 17 Tom Taylor, 18 Owen Beswick, 19 Julius Timmermans, 20 Jordy Bland, 21 Will Windows, 22 Will Loveday. 23 Rhys Pearson.
Tries: Penalty try, Dawson, Stables 2, Matthews, Pearson.
Conversions: Platt 5.
University of Bath starting XV: 1 Henry Veale, 2 Harrison Osborne, 3 Henry Mountford, 4 Isaac Sprenger, 5 Rory McKnight, 6 Alex Yeabsley, 7 Fred Kempton, 8 Evan Jones (c); 9 Isaac Mears, 10 James Linegar, 11 Joseff Jones, 12 Jamie Howick, 13 Bailey Cutts, 14 Harry Walker, 15 Sam Winters. Impact players: 16 Oscar Thomas, 17 Sid Moore, 18 Jai Sahi, 19 Tom Hilton, 20 George Guy, 21 Ollie Lewis, 22 Max Hooper, 23 Cameron Ward.
Tries: Jones 2, Winters 2, Cutts, Osborne 3.
Conversions: Linegar 6.
Pictured top: (From left) Try scorers Harrison Osborne, Evan Jones, Bailey Cutts and Sam Winters.
