{"id":936327,"date":"2026-05-04T04:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T04:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/936327\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T04:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T04:08:13","slug":"ex-england-captain-claims-bath-can-feel-hard-done-by-as-french-tv-labelled-a-joke-following-semi-final-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/936327\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-England captain claims Bath can feel ‘hard done by’ as French TV labelled a ‘joke’ following semi-final controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

English rugby\u2019s interest in Europe came to an end with Bath valiant in defeat to holders Bordeaux, but there was anger from onlookers that the PREM champions did not get the rub of the green.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holders UBB outscored the West Country outfit by five tries to four in a semi-final in which they never trailed. There is no question that they were the better of the two sides.<\/p>\n

They played with greater fizz, better cohesion, more power, ruthlessness and sharper execution in the key moments before a partisan home crowd and deserve to advance to Bilbao for the May 23 final against Leinster.<\/p>\n

In captain Maxine Lucu<\/a>, they had the player of the match, the shaven-headed scrum-half dictating tempo and scoring 18 points. In Ben Tameifuna, a one-man bomb squad who snuffed out Bath\u2019s hopes in the final quarter. In Matthieu Jalibert, a player you\u2019d gladly pay to watch every week.<\/p>\n

A side lacking patience<\/p>\n

Johann van Graan\u2019s<\/a> side will be frustrated at themselves for lacking composure and patience in key moments; in particular, a lineout they overthrew just past the hour mark when in position to take the lead.<\/p>\n

On such small moments, matches at this level turn. Which brings us neatly to the rub of the green the Blue, Black and Whites were denied.<\/p>\n

Bath are entitled to wonder what was going on with some of the officiating. In a game of such tight margins they looked to be treated extremely harshly by a combination of referee, TMO and French TV director.<\/p>\n

On 24 minutes, defending a one-score lead, Alfie Barbeary appeared to be caught head-on-head by Adam Coleman. No action was taken against the home lock.<\/p>\n

A minute into the second half, Barbeary again took one to the nut, this time Lucu, the offender. Again, no TV replays from the French director, no intervention by TMO Ben Whitehouse.<\/p>\n

Bordeaux had been on a final warning from referee Nike Amashukeli since the 24th minute. Yet when they next offended in their own 22, nine minutes after half-time, no action was taken.<\/p>\n

All Blacks have been through these \u2018patches before\u2019 as legendary coach rues the \u2018chipping away\u2019 of the jersey\u2019s lure<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s becoming a bit of a joke\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to the lack of replays for moments of controversy involving the home side, former England fly-half Andy Goode told Premier Sports: \u201cIt\u2019s becoming a bit of a joke with French [TV] directors.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Johann] didn\u2019t mention it [but] some of the refereeing calls, without the TMO coming in, some of the high shots that were missed because of TV directors, it\u2019s just not good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting messages galore going \u2018Why aren\u2019t you showing these replays?\u2019 French TV directors, it\u2019s not us that are choosing the replays. It\u2019s the French guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only have they [Bath<\/a>] got themselves to look at with the small margin errors, the line-out and the other bits and pieces, but also they didn\u2019t get the rub of the green either with all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One viewer took to social media to say: \u201cIt\u2019s less about the TMO, it\u2019s more the TV companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anything, [tournament organisers] EPCR need to have an independent production company to have these replays separate from broadcasters so they can have all the angles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence Dallaglio, the former England captain, agreed Bath \u201ccan feel hard done by\u201d, but added: \u201cWhen playing away from home in Europe, you\u2019ve got to ride those decisions. You\u2019ve got to have enough in the tank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montpellier player ratings v Dragons: \u2018Fulcrum of the pack\u2019 plays key role in war of attrition settled by \u2018plenty of snipe\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unforced errors prove costly<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Bath did not. In many ways, they were heroic. Will Muir scored two wonderful tries before his afternoon was cruelly cut short by injury; the first fielding a pinpoint cross kick from Ben Spencer, the second finishing in zero space with a spectacular dive after Henry Arundell\u2019s pace created the chance.<\/p>\n

Thomas du Toit put in a terrific 73-minute shift at the coal face to subdue a Bordeaux<\/a> scrum missing the absent Jefferson Poirot. Louie Hennessy, in at centre because of injury to both Max Ojomoh and Cam Redpath, grabbed his opportunity and scored a fine try.<\/p>\n

But these efforts were undone by errors, often unforced. From Barbeary dropping the opening kickoff to lineout overthrows and spilled passes, Bath were never good enough for long enough to put serious doubt into Bordeaux minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of frustration, a lot of disappointment just now,\u201d Finn Russell admitted afterwards. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what we\u2019ve achieved in a short space of time [as a club], but you can never be happy with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can never look back at last season and find you are still the champions now. You\u2019ve got to win it all again this year. It was obviously amazing to get to the semi-final but we\u2019re gutted to get knocked out tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Bath player ratings: Lethal finisher \u2018truly terrific\u2019 while world class playmaker delivers \u2018shocking\u2019 defensive display in semi-final loss<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"English rugby\u2019s interest in Europe came to an end with Bath valiant in defeat to holders Bordeaux, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[5012,225,191668,12,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-936327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-bath","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-investec-champions-cup","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116514344604015438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}