Ben Spencer said Bath Rugby had no fears about their ability to overcome the sizeable deficits they faced in their Gallagher PREM victory at Saracens on Sunday 30th November.
Bath Rugby will go into their European clash with Munster at The Rec on Saturday 6th December sitting at the top of the Gallagher PREM after a tremendous win over Saracens | Photo © Richard Briggs
The reigning champions hit back from 14-0 adrift early on to score 10 unanswered points and then recovered from 22-10 behind to win a pulsating match 36-29 in London and top of the table after six rounds.
The triumph provided the perfect platform for the Blue, Black & White as they build towards their Investec Champions Cup opener – against Munster at The Rec on Saturday 6th December.
And Bath skipper and scrum-half Spencer – who won four Premiership titles with Sarries – said after the clash in the capital: “It’s probably one of them as a player where it probably looks better to watch than it does to play in, but we knew that Sarries were going to come out all guns blazing at the start.
“We knew it’s tougher playing on [an artificial pitch] when you’ve not played on it for a while, but there wasn’t a moment in the game where we panicked. We knew we could come back and eventually we did.
“It’s loads quicker [on an artificial surface]. We saw in the first half, if you don’t get your collisions right, you’re on the back foot.
“And I thought, probably five, 10 minutes before half-time, we really started putting some shots in, and that’s probably when our game turned a little bit, we won the physicality battle.
“I’m just so pleased for the lads, forwards again put in a massive shift.
“Henry [Arundell] against Noah [Caluori] in the air, that was some battle as well, so to leave here with five points, we’re delighted.”
Back row Miles Reid added: “We knew they were going to come at us. They did put kicks in as well, and that’s how they moved to the edge, putting kicks up for Noah on the edge, I think it worked well for them. And then they just got the better of us with those scraps, and then they could play out wide.
“I wouldn’t say it caught us out, but this [plastic pitch] is quick. It was a battle.
“The breakdown was hotly contested, both sides of the ball. But it was great to play in, a great match.
“[Reid’s fellow back row Josh Bayliss] was sharp. We see that from Bay week in, week out. He’s quick. He’s good on those edges. He was awesome today.”
Bayliss, who was named the official man of the match, said: “This sort of one-off Premiership match before we go into Europe, everyone kind of wanted to finish this block on a real high, and that was a really, really tough game.
“They put us under a lot of pressure and [we’re] just really happy to come out with a win at the end of the day.
“What this team’s so brilliant at is under Ben’s leadership we never sort of panic. We always stick to our structure.
“We know how we want to play, and whether we go 14 points down, like we did today, or we go 14 points up, we try to stick to our basics, stick to our plan, and we trust that that’s going pull us through at the end of the game, and it did today, luckily.
“For us, it was about trying to find ways of getting our big ball carriers on the ball.
“I think Sarries did really well, especially in that first half, to try to stifle some of our sort of bigger, better ball carriers.
“But that second half, when we got quick ball, when we stayed on top, I think some of the guys that came off the bench added a real bit of impetus as well.
“The guys we’ve got in our pack, all they need is front football, and they’ll get us going forward.”
