AFP, LONDON
Australian coach Steve Meehan questioned his Bath side’s resolve after they blew a 17-0 half-time lead in a 20-20 draw at home to English Guinness Premiership play-off rivals London Irish on Saturday.
Tries from lock Stuart Hooper, wing Matt Banahan and full-back Joe Maddock put Bath in a commanding position at the Recreation Ground.
But the Exiles responded with tries from wing Adam Thompstone, Samoan center Seilala Mapusua and England international wing Topsy Ojo, plus a penalty and conversion from fly Shane Geraghty.
“It is not the happiest afternoon,” said Meehan, who spent four successful year’s at Stade Francais before joining Bath.
“I said to the players how do you have a 17-0 lead and turn it into a 20-20 draw?” he said.
“At times, we just strolled through the game thinking someone would take care of it,” he said.
“Irish’s first try was a good one, but their second and third tries should never have come about. It was about mental application and the willingness to work. To allow them the holes we did was criminal,” Meehan said.
Irish have now gone four league games without a win but head coach Toby Booth said: “After being 17-0 down, that is definitely two points gained.”
“We were fairly average in the first half. We were too passive, and you get punished by good sides,” he said. “We are striving to be a consistent side, and I believe we are now a competitive force in the Premiership.”
Harlequins stayed in touch with the play-off contenders after a 14-9 win over Gloucester, whose losing bonus point was good enough to take them back to the top of the table.
Quins’ New Zealand playmaker Nick Evans converted his own try before three penalties from England’s Olly Barkley put Bath 9-7 in front.
It was a lead the visitors retained until four minutes from time when Quins saw Tom Williams score their second try, which was converted by Chris Malone.
Leicester closed in on the play-off places with a 38-5 thrashing of Worcester at Welford Road.
Argentine Marcos Ayerza, Samoan Alex Tuilagi, Ben Youngs, Sam Vesty and Matt Smith scored Leicester’s five tries with Worcester’s only points coming when Will Bowley crossed the Tigers’ line in the second-half.
On Friday Sale beat Bristol 32-13 while Newcastle downed Saracens 13-9.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier