Aviva Premiership round-up: Semesa Rokoduguni deflates battling London Welsh
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Few would have expected anything else. London Welsh, weighed down by their five-point deduction, showed that they will fight to the end against relegation from the Premiership, but yesterday raw effort was not enough.
They fought a defiant rearguard action at the Recreation Ground in a vain attempt to hang on to Bath but they went down 40-25. The Exiles were in with a chance of rescuing something from the match until the closing stages, but in the end Bath won it with five tries to one.
Alex Davies kicked six penalties and converted the Welsh try, by Seb Jewell, but the scrum-half's efforts never looked like being enough against a Bath side who had too much invention as they kept alive their hopes of a top-six finish.
Semesa Rokoduguni, the Fijian tank soldier in the British Army, stood out with his searing pace, which brought him a try shortly before the break and created the try for Horacio Agulla that secured Bath's bonus point before Michael Claassens, on as a replacement at scrum-half, wrapped up the scoring. Matt Banahan had scored Bath's first try and Carl Fearns the second.
Exeter kept a place in the Heineken Cup in their sights when Dean Mumm crashed over in the 76th minute to secure victory in a tense battle at Worcester. Gareth Steenson's conversion wrapped up Exeter's 24-18 win.
The Chiefs had looked on course for victory when they led 14-6 at the interval after converted tries from Luke Arscott and Steenson, but Worcester fought back after the break, with tries by Matt Kvesic and Josh Drauniniu edging them into an 18-17 lead. However their revival was scuppered by a yellow card for Josh Matavesi for deliberate offside.
Exeter regained control and dominated for the remainder of the match, their pressure finally telling with Mumm's try.
For the second week running, England's Sevens side failed to reach the quarter-finals in the latest round of the HSBC World Series in Tokyo. They were demoted to the Bowl again after winning only one of their three Pool D matches. They finished with a flourish by beating Argentina, but after losing to Samoa the damage was done when they surrendered a winning position against Australia.
Scotland reached the last eight by winning Pool B, after beating Kenya 12-0 and Wales 12‑10 before drawing 12-12 with the United States. Wales finished bottom.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments