Bath Rugby
Ford not in the mood for sympathy after Leinster loss
ESPN Staff
April 5, 2015
George Ford scores a try
George Ford scores a try© Stu Forster/Getty Images

Bath boss Mike Ford said he did not want "a sympathy vote" after his team fell to a 18-15 loss to Leinster in the quarter-finals of the European Champions Cup.

Bath outscored Leinster two tries to nil but their ill-discipline proved costly as Ian Madigan slotted six penalties to secure their place in the final four.

"Make no mistake, we don't want any sympathy vote here. We should have won that game today," head coach Ford said. "There is a lot of disappointment. The first-half performance, especially, we are a lot better than that. It is probably where we lost the game.

"We couldn't really control the ball and we gave away some penalties. We made quite a few line-breaks, but there is more than one way to win a game. It is not just about scoring tries. They kicked their penalties and fair play to them.

"But we are so disappointed because we are a lot better than what we showed today. That last 10-15 minutes, I was pretty convinced we were going to win the game, but it's small margins."

Bath were 15-5 behind at half-time but they enjoyed more territory in the second 40 but failed to pin back Leinster. Ford was delighted with Anthony Watson's showing while George Ford also played an influential role.

"At half-time, we talked about composure," Mike Ford added. "We hadn't been able to build any pressure with ball in hand and there was also the discipline side of things. Madigan was pretty dead-eye today, which cost us.

"We put it together second half and I think this will make us stronger. We will look back at the end of the season at this game particularly and say this is where Bath became very strong. I thought Anthony Watson was on fire at full-back and George made two good breaks for our tries. It was in our control, we thought. Even at 15-5 down, we were confident we could win the game."

For Leinster, their head coach Matt O'Connor was left relieved at full-time but hailed their first-half showing.

"I was pretty comfortable before that last 10-15 minutes, but they came back at us very strongly and we were fortunate to hold on," O'Connor said. "You are always relieved when you win a knockout game. It was always going to be tough and hard fought.

"We played in the right areas, we took our points when they were on offer and our scrum was outstanding. We were a little bit inaccurate in the second half. We fell off a couple of tackles, but up until that point I thought we did all the things we spoke about beforehand.

"You would like to be 20 points up with 15 minutes to go, but that's not the reality of the game at this level. They had nothing to lose, and they were going to make us work for every point."

© ESPN Staff

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