ON-THE-WHISTLE MATCH REPORT: Bath Rugby 34-20 Brive

Bath Rugby progressed to the semi-finals of the European Rugby Challenge Cup with a 34-20 win over French outfit Brive at the Recreation Ground.

Rhys Priestland opened the scoring early on when he kicked through a ninth-minute penalty, but Brive hit back with two Gaetan Germain penalties in minutes 13 and 20 to make it 6-3.

Just a minute later though Bath, and specifically Toby Faletau, scored the first try of the match following really impressive build-up work from Priestland and Kahn Foutali'i. Priestland was on point to convert and Bath were back in the lead at 10-6.

In the 27th minute Todd Blackadder's side extended their lead with an even better try than the first one.

Tom Homer finished off a beautiful move that was started by Semesa Rokoduguni and ended with birthday boy Homer planting down after Anthony Watson provided a volleyball-esque technique to pass it along the line.

The kick was at a horrible angle for Priestland though and the Welshman was unable to convert. 15-6.

Try number three arrived on the half-hour mark, and it was a landmark one too as Rokoduguni touched in his 50th try in Bath colours.

Zach Mercer started a passage of play that concluded with Joseph darting away from a number of Brive defenders before offloading to Rokoduguni who scored the Rugby equivalent of an open goal in the corner.

Again, that meant that Priestland had an uphill battle to convert and, again, he was off target and Bath had to settle for five points instead of the maximum seven.

Faletau scored his second try of the afternoon three minutes into the second half when he broke through the middle of the Brive defence and, this time, Priestland did not make any mistake with his conversion.

However, just as Bath were booking their semi-final tickets, Brive mounted a late charge to make those supporting the home side at the Rec nervous.

Fabien Sanconnie scored their first try, that was converted, for 27-13 and, quick as a flash, it was a seven-point game out of nowhere when Sanconnie scored the second of his brace.

Despite the closeness for much of the second half, Bath always seemed relatively comfortable and reflected that with another try in the closing stages.

Rokoduguni did what Rokoduguni does as he glided through the Brive defence, evading seven tackles in all, and jogged over the line before touching down. Priestland knocked over the final two points to secure the semi-final berth for Bath.