Aviva Premiership round-up: Semesa Rokoduguni deflates battling London Welsh

Mark Burton
Sunday 31 March 2013 02:00 BST
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Few would have expected anything else. London Welsh, weighed down by their five-point deduction, showed that they will fight to the end against relegation from the Premiership, but yesterday raw effort was not enough.

They fought a defiant rearguard action at the Recreation Ground in a vain attempt to hang on to Bath but they went down 40-25. The Exiles were in with a chance of rescuing something from the match until the closing stages, but in the end Bath won it with five tries to one.

Alex Davies kicked six penalties and converted the Welsh try, by Seb Jewell, but the scrum-half's efforts never looked like being enough against a Bath side who had too much invention as they kept alive their hopes of a top-six finish.

Semesa Rokoduguni, the Fijian tank soldier in the British Army, stood out with his searing pace, which brought him a try shortly before the break and created the try for Horacio Agulla that secured Bath's bonus point before Michael Claassens, on as a replacement at scrum-half, wrapped up the scoring. Matt Banahan had scored Bath's first try and Carl Fearns the second.

Exeter kept a place in the Heineken Cup in their sights when Dean Mumm crashed over in the 76th minute to secure victory in a tense battle at Worcester. Gareth Steenson's conversion wrapped up Exeter's 24-18 win.

The Chiefs had looked on course for victory when they led 14-6 at the interval after converted tries from Luke Arscott and Steenson, but Worcester fought back after the break, with tries by Matt Kvesic and Josh Drauniniu edging them into an 18-17 lead. However their revival was scuppered by a yellow card for Josh Matavesi for deliberate offside.

Exeter regained control and dominated for the remainder of the match, their pressure finally telling with Mumm's try.

For the second week running, England's Sevens side failed to reach the quarter-finals in the latest round of the HSBC World Series in Tokyo. They were demoted to the Bowl again after winning only one of their three Pool D matches. They finished with a flourish by beating Argentina, but after losing to Samoa the damage was done when they surrendered a winning position against Australia.

Scotland reached the last eight by winning Pool B, after beating Kenya 12-0 and Wales 12‑10 before drawing 12-12 with the United States. Wales finished bottom.

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