HEAD coach Mike Ford insists there is no cause for concern despite Bath failing to score a try in a nervy Aviva Premiership win over West Country rivals Gloucester – rather the opposite.
Despite being at fault for the only try of the game scored by Freddie Burns, Bath fly-half George Ford’s five penalties were enough to hand them a 15-13 win at the Rec.
Burns kicked two penalties himself with his second pulling Gloucester within two points with 14 minutes remaining and Bath full-back Anthony Watson in the sin bin.
Gloucester, who themselves saw Rupert Harden shown yellow earlier in the second half, couldn’t capitalise though as Bath claimed their fourth Premiership win of the season.
Bath have however scored just one try in their last two Premiership games and, insisting the wet conditions didn’t play into their hands, Ford isn’t worried by his side’s firepower or lack thereof.
“We were disappointed we didn’t get over the tryline but it’s positive. We are pleased with where we are. There are some pleasing things,” said Ford.
“I’m not disappointed about winning a derby game. We believe we have only just scratched the surface of what we can achieve in attack but we didn’t see anything because of the conditions.
“We put ourselves under pressure, missed a few goal kicks and got a kick charged down but apart from that I thought we dominated the game.
“If we kick our goals it puts us further away. We didn’t which kept them in the game. Freddie took his chance which made us a bit jittery near the end but in the last ten minutes we closed it out.
Ford hailed his side's own discipline as Gloucester suffered at the hands of referee Wayne Barnes' whistle.
“We talk about taking the referee out of the equation and I think we did that,” added Ford. “If you watch our offside line you can see clear daylight between that and the ruck.
“We want to give referees no reason to penalise us. We got it wrong once or twice, unluckily I thought, but that’s possibly one of the reasons we won the game tonight because of our discipline.”
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