Champions Cup: Mike Ford praises Bath after their superb 35-18 win over Toulouse
Sunday 18 January 2015 22:05, UK
Bath head coach Mike Ford was full of praise for his side after their superb 35-18 win over Toulouse at Stade Ernest Wallon.
The win means that Pool 4 is still wide open with one more pool game to go with Bath, Toulouse and Glasgow Warriors all in the running to take top spot.
Bath will have home advantage against the Warriors and go into the contest at The Rec on the back of one of their finest hours in European battle in which Francois Louw scored their fourth try to complete a bonus-point win.
"That was special and it was a great result to get five points and stop them getting anything," Ford said.
"We were fantastic in the first half and, had Anthony Watson scored, then we would have led 29-7 with four tries inside half an hour.
"You have to give Toulouse credit, they fought their way back which they were always likely to do here, and the game was in the balance for a long while at 25-18.
"But George [Ford] got back to make a try-saving tackle which was really important and helped clear the pressure. Then that last break by Jonathan Joseph [to set up Louw's try] was just world class.
"The substitutes did really well. We talk all the time about the subs coming on and winning games after the lads have grafted for 50 minutes and set the foundation," added Ford.
"We were really pleased with the scrum and it was really pleasing to finish by winning a scrum penalty.
"We're in a good place at the moment. We can scrummage, we can drive and we showed again here that we can also play some great rugby."
Complicated
Toulouse still lead the pool but must travel to Montpellier next week for a tough game against their Top 14 rivals.
Toulouse try-scorer Yoann Huget said: "We got two massive scrums at five metres from their line and we have to take some points from there. But we lost both of them.
"We tried to not let go but we never scored and Bath kept things tight in the second half with a strong defence.
"It will be complicated against Montpellier. They will try to win their first game for honour but we were doing really well in the Champions Cup until this game and we are going to play until the end. I think we deserve a quarter-final."
