Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Bath win the European Challenge Cup '08

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Bath win the European Challenge Cup '08

Bath ended a ten year trophy drought as they lifted the European Challenge Cup at the third attempt at a soggy Kingsholm on Sunday. It was a fitting farewell for the departing Steve Borthwick and Olly Barkley.

England captain Borthwick ended a decade of service to the club by guiding them to their first bit of silverware since 1998 and eradicating the misery of two losing tournament finals.

“Any season is judged by what happens at the end of it and to lift this trophy is just fantastic,” said Borthwick.

“It’s vey emotional as I have a great 10 years with Bath and it is just brilliant for these players to get this reward.”

Barkley, who joins Gloucester next season, kept Bath ahead by landing a drop-goal, two penalties and a conversion.

"Today wasn't about rugby; it was about leaving a group of people I'll miss dearly – people I love," said the England centre, who will spend rather more time at Kingsholm next season on account of his decision to join Gloucester. Quite why he is leaving is anyone's guess, but one thing at Bath is for certain, he will be missed.

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OHHH i took this walls virginity yeah but on a more serious matter, good on bath. And frankly i am happy Barkley is leaving Bath. He isnt the great player that everyone makes him out to be. Bath should be intrested in getting some more power centers like Mafi who plays for Munster.

By Anonymous, at May 29, 2008 6:04 pm
How can anyone comment on that first try and not mention Banahan's contribution? Great break and offload, look forward to him pushing for an England shirt.

Bath are going to sorely miss Barkley and Borthwick next season, two massive signings and not what they wanted with Heineken Cup rugby looming. Chazza mate you're talking nonsense, Barkley has been great this season, by far his best yet. And offers far more than either Munster centre (as good as they are).

Be nice to see a few more highlights of this game on here - there were some fantastic hits from both sides, the game had much more than two nicely worked tries.

By Anonymous, at May 29, 2008 6:21 pm
Hackney Griffin, i respect your opinion, but still i am alowed to have my own, Barkley can kick great but i think that he has to much pace that he dose not use. And my fault for not talking about Banahan i watched the clip again and did any one notice that one of the first attemted tackles on him was high? i love Banahan even more after he silenced Peter Stringer(the good player he is). Oh and Hackney try searching for Mafi Chase and watch how he tracks down Peel.

By Anonymous, at May 29, 2008 6:28 pm
Does anyone know a link to some video concerning the general fight between Biarritz and Montpellier, last weekend? It seems that Thion and Picamoles started it, and then all players were involved.

Typical french Bagarre!

By Anonymous, at May 29, 2008 6:30 pm
Chazza I was talking about the commentators failure to mention Banahan's contribution on the clip itself, sorry you felt you were being got at.

Like I said, the Munster pair are great centres, but Barkley offers so much more. He's been instrumental in Bath's great season, and it'll be interesting to see who Bath replace him with and who wins the tussle for the starting 12 shirt at Gloucester.

By Anonymous, at May 29, 2008 6:48 pm
Did anyone see the poor refereeing? I was roting for Bath, but all in all the ref was very weak, and the touch judged no better, one great example is the touch judge that "missed" Lee Mears high tackle, which was right after a Bath player tripped the opposition, yet was very capable of seeing a player in bound by centimeters from 10 feet away, it seemed that players would try something to see if they could get away with it, and when they did, they tried something worse and the ref just warned repeat offenders such at Grewcock, good on Bath, but poor reffing in all honesty

By Anonymous, at May 29, 2008 10:46 pm
Oh and P.S. Good on Abendanon for recovering from the high forearm to the face early on in the game, it really knocked him silly for a few.

By Anonymous, at May 29, 2008 10:47 pm
hi, a question on european rugby, what are the names of all the tournaments...

is Heineken cup number 1?
than challenge cup number 2?
than what are the other national comps called? how's it all work???

how do the qualifying rounds work etc??

thanks!

By George, at May 30, 2008 1:48 am
g-unit, there are only the two completions Europe wide. Basically the top performers from the french, english, italian and celtic leagues go into the Heineken cup, exactly hwhich teams go in is best explained by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heineken_Cup. The Challenge cup evolves teams from england, france, wales. ireland, italy and romania and sometimes teams from protugal and spain. Again the exact method of qualification is best explained by wikipedia.

By Birmingham Beer Drinker, at May 30, 2008 2:04 am
would have been a shame if bath would have ended this fine season without a trophy in their hands

By sebastian, at May 30, 2008 9:08 am
G-unit, basically if you watch football, the heineken cup is equivalent to the champions league, and the challenge cup is the UEFA cup, which all the teams not good enough to get into the heineken cup go into. If you don't watch football, then sorry for confusing you further.
the other national comps are the Guinness premiership for england, the magners league for wales, ireland and scotland, and the top 14 for france.

By Anonymous, at May 31, 2008 12:09 am