Bath’s vs Leinster: Fresh face Auterac puts down a marker for England
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Your support makes all the difference.To witness the uncapped loosehead prop Nick Auterac’s compelling combination of hard scrummaging and ballistic contributions in the loose in Bath’s 19-16 European Cup win over Leinster on Saturday was to see a man timing his run right for inclusion in the next national squad when it is named in January.
Auterac started out with Saracens and played for England’s Under-20s in 2012, and while he has not yet featured for the second-tier Saxons never mind the seniors, the new-broom feeling of Eddie Jones’s arrival raises thoughts that this fresh face may fit, or at least be a worthy rival to Harlequins’ Joe Marler, who had a dispiriting World Cup.
All the Bath front-rowers benefited against Leinster from a heavyweight back five that may have been the point of difference as they eked a slew of penalties out of the three-time European champions’ scrum.
But Bath also got bogged down with running through multiple phases in their own half without making enough headway, despite the elusive efforts of two already-capped England players, Kyle Eastmond and Anthony Watson.
“We didn’t get as square as we’d have liked but we did find a couple of edges,” said Mike Ford. The head coach’s 50th-birthday celebrations were bolstered by his son George landing a 42-metre penalty kick with four minutes remaining that left Leinster with two losses out of two and in dire need of taking a lot of points from their next two pool matches, away and home to the title-holders Toulon in December. Bath have two massive Premiership games next, against Leicester and Northampton, then Wasps back-to-back in Europe.
Eastmond was omitted from the World Cup, and there has been speculation the former St Helens back would return to rugby league. “He’s in talks to sign a new three-year deal with us so he is not going anywhere,” said Ford.
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