Stephen Jones did it again as he put the boot into another major English side to kick Llanelli in their second Heineken Cup semi-final in three seasons at Bath’s Recreation Ground.
The home side, boasting the only 100% success rate in the Pool stages, were finally able to stage the game a day late, on Sunday, 27 January, after torrential rain had forced Irish referee Alan lewis to postpone the match on Saturday at 1.10 pm.
After a morning inspection on Sunday, Mr Lewis gave the go-ahead for the game to be played and Llanelli chairman, Huw Evans, spent £5,000 on paying for the 17 coach-loads of Scarlet supporters to cross the Severn Bridge for a second day running.
His gesture did not go amiss as the 1700 Llanelli fans made a huge contribution towards another famous victory for the Welsh side a fortnight after they beat reigning champions Leicester at Stradey Park.
Jones had been the hero against Leicester with his eight penalties and the Welsh outside half came up trumps again with another eight out of eight and a last minute drop goal to top it all off.
The Llanelli forwards were magnificent in the wet weather and dominated the set-pieces. So much so, in fact, they didn’t lose a line-out on their own throw all game and stole half-a-dozen Bath feeds.
Mike Catt finally got Bath moving in the second half when a long pass picked out Gavin Thomas to score a try which Olly Barkley converted to cut the gap to 11 points with 14 minutes to play.
But Llanelli picked up a penalty three minutes later when Catt was guilty of dissent and Jones notched his eighth penalty.
Bath, the 1998 Heineken Cup winners, made far too many mistakes to mount a major challenge and Jones added a drop goal for good measure to seal another famous victory for his side as they became only the third team in 28 Heineken Cup quarter-finals to win away from home.
SCORERS: Bath: Try:Â G Thomas; Con: O Barkley; Pen: O Barkley. Llanelli: Pens: S Jones 8; DG: S Jones.
Heineken Man of the Match: Stephen Jones (Llanelli).
Bath: M Perry: I Blashaw, M Tindall, O Barkley, K Maggs; M Catt, A Williams (G Cooper 56); D Barnes (A Long (M Regan 45), S Emms, S Borthwick, D Grewcock, G Thomas, M Gabey (D Lyle 41), N Thomas.
Llanelli: G Evans (B Davies 42); W Proctor, L Davies, N Boobyer, S Finau; S Jones, G Easterby; M Madden (P Booth 78), R McBryde, J Davies, V Cooper, C Wyatt, D Hodges, S Easterby (D Jones 78), S Quinnell (captain).
Referee: A Lewis (Ireland)
