Spencer sparkles for Bath to overwhelm Lyon and win European Challenge Cup
Bath have been waiting a long time for nights like this,A first major trophy for 17 years – and only their second since they lifted the Heineken Cup in 1998 – was also secured with a swagger reminiscent of the club’s golden era,With the Premiership title still up for grabs next month, a potential treble-winning season is now within their grasp,While the Premiership Cup and the Challenge Cup might not, in isolation, be the most prestigious competitions in the professional club game, there is no doubting Bath’s increasing durability under screeching knockout pressure,That said, they were lucky with a couple of contentious officiating calls which, had they gone the other way, might have made life appreciably harder.
The awarding of only a yellow card to Sam Underhill rather than a red for a dangerous high challenge in the first half was just one of several contentious decisions for Hollie Davidson, the first female referee to officiate in a high-profile men’s club final.In the end, though, Bath’s familiar strength in depth off the bench paid its usual dividends and helped deliver four tries as they became the first English winners of this tournament for five years.French rugby does not have a total monopoly on power and tactical nous and when the outstanding Ben Spencer dived over to put his side clear early in the final quarter it was no less than Johann van Graan’s team deserved.“I’m so proud to give the fans what they deserve after so many years of hurt,” said Spencer.“To not concede in that first-half yellow card period was outstanding.
”With the roof closed, the pitchside flame throwers at full blast and plenty of English supporters having made the short trip across the Severn Bridge, it certainly felt like a proper cup final, despite the minor caveat that Bath had trailed in fifth in their Champions Cup pool before entering this season’s Challenge Cup equation.Lyon, appropriately clad in red, may be lying in 11th place in the Top 14 but they can play eye-catching rugby when the muse is with them.Barely two minutes into the game a slick passing sequence put the winger Ethan Dumortier over in the right corner and, after lengthy video scrutiny, the score was belatedly confirmed.Bath, though, are a tough side to subdue indefinitely.Will Butt steamed clear through the middle to set up a prolonged spell of territorial pressure which, eventually, yielded a try for a burrowing Tom Dunn.
Finn Russell’s conversion made it 10-5 and, suddenly, the contest had a different feel.Spencer’s left boot is also a tried and trusted tactical weapon and a raking 50-22 set up another promising position from which his side also profited.Again Spencer was a central figure, his long pass finding Max Ojomoh wide on the left and the centre’s clever pirouette took him past the flat-footed cover.Any side containing a player of the pace and class of Davit Niniashvili, though, is never to be underestimated and the Georgian full-back duly set off on a daring surge only to be floored by a desperate upright tackle by Underhill.The England flanker was sent off by Davidson against Pau in the last 16 and was fortunate to see only yellow this time.
Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionThe same was true of Will Muir when he clattered Dumortier in the air to reduce Bath temporarily to 13 players,Lyon were also left frustrated when a slight nudge on Dunn in the buildup led to a potential try for Dumortier from a long lineout play being scrubbed out and the subsequent return of Underhill supplied some further Bath relief,Had Van Graan been offered a 12-point half-time lead in a pressure-laden final before kick-off, he would have snapped your hand off,Arno Botha’s try four minutes after the restart, though, was an abrupt reminder that nothing was yet guaranteed,Hence the roars when Beno Obano crashed over in the 50th minute to re-establish some daylight between the sides, with Russell’s conversion leaving Lyon 15 points adrift.
The gap grew wider when Tom de Glanville cut past a tiring defence and put Spencer away to seal a result that will further raise Bath hopes that a seriously special season is brewing.It was also not an occasion Davidson will forget in a hurry, with the Scottish official firmly convinced there should be many more female referees at the top level of the men’s game in future years.“If you are physically fit enough, mentally resilient, you know your stuff around the sport and have enough experience, then there is nothing stopping women getting there.”It is not her fault that rugby’s high tackle regulations remain so wide open to interpretation.
Is Angela Rayner positioning herself for a Starmer succession race?
What is Angela Rayner up to? To every Labour MP reading the leaked memo in the Daily Telegraph setting out the deputy prime minister’s alternative tax-raising measures, it felt like firing the starting gun on a race to succeed Keir Starmer as leader.It has infuriated Starmer loyalists because of long memories of the breakdown in relations after Labour lost the Hartlepool byelection just a year into Starmer’s leadership, when he considered quitting and allies of Rayner encouraged her to stand against him. Starmer then attempted to demote her, leading to a fierce standoff and Rayner emerging with a clutch of new job titles.Relations have somewhat healed since then, but there is a feeling now that the deputy prime minister is once again seeming to try to capitalise on the party’s misfortunes – an allegation considered deeply unfair by those close to her.There is no doubt this memo setting out new ways of raising taxes on wealthy people as well as a proposal to clamp down on benefits for migrants is a way of trying to show her broader appeal
Wildlife charities urge Labour to scrap ‘licence to kill nature’ in planning bill
Leading wildlife charities are calling on Labour to scrap a significant section of the planning bill that they say is a “licence to kill nature”, as new data reveals bats and newts are not the main reason planning is delayed in England.The RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts, whose membership is more than 2 million, said Labour had broken its promises on nature. They called for part three of the bill, which allows developers to avoid environmental laws at a site by paying into a national nature recovery fund to pay for environmental improvements elsewhere, to be ditched.Beccy Speight, CEO of the RSPB, said: “It’s now clear that the bill in its current form will rip the heart out of environmental protections and risks sending nature further into freefall.“The fate of our most important places for nature and the laws that protect them are all in the firing line
UK politics: Starmer accused of being ‘beneath contempt’ for attack on Chagos deal critics – as it happened
James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, is responding to Healey.He starts by saying that what Keir Starmer said at his press conference about opponents of the deal being on the side of Russia and China was “beneath contempt”.He says by opposing the Chagos Islands deal, the Tories would not be traitors, they would be patriots.The UK has signed a £3.4bn agreement to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after an 11th-hour legal challenge failed
Yeah but no but yeah but no but surrender. Life’s just one big betrayal for Kemi and co | John Crace
I fear for Kemi Badenoch’s sanity. She may need a little respite care. From herself. Little more than 24 hours after one of her by now customary car-crash outings at prime minister’s questions in which she didn’t appear to have noticed that Keir Starmer had U-turned on the winter fuel allowance, KemiKaze was emailing Tory party members to tell them the exciting news. She had had the prime minister on the rack and it was only down to her that Labour had done their reverse ferret
Tories must ‘get moving’ on new policies or face crisis, says Robert Jenrick
The Conservative party needs to “get moving” with new policies or risk being cut adrift in a social media-informed world where people make up their minds quickly, Robert Jenrick has said.While the shadow justice secretary did not directly criticise Kemi Badenoch for the time she is taking to formulate policies, and said he accepted there was a need for reflection after a bad election defeat, he warned that without rapid action the Tories faced an “existential crisis”.Badenoch, who defeated Jenrick in the party leadership race last year, has attracted some criticism within the party for her insistence that the Conservatives should not rush into policies but instead spend the next couple of years working to rebuild voters’ trust.Asked about generating new polices at an event in London on Wednesday evening, Jenrick said: “I do think you’ve got to get moving. That’s not a criticism
Talks to start on recognition of state of Palestine by western states
Talks will start on Friday at an official level about the possibility of recognising the state of Palestine.A senior Arab diplomat in London said:“If you asked me a fortnight ago if there will be wider recognition [of Palestine] by western states I would have said no, but now I am not so sure.”The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, suspended trade talks with Israel on Tuesday and described its refusal to lift a blockade of aid into Gaza as “abominable”.Lammy spoke to the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, on Wednesday about the barriers blocking aid. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said this week: “We cannot leave the children of Gaza a legacy of violence and hatred
OpenAI buys iPhone architect’s startup for $6.4bn
Scattered Spider is focus of NCA inquiry into cyber-attacks against UK retailers
Most AI chatbots easily tricked into giving dangerous responses, study finds
‘Every person that clashed with him has left’: the rise, fall and spectacular comeback of Sam Altman
Elon Musk claims he will step back from political donations in near future
Almost half of young people would prefer a world without internet, UK study finds