Rugby World Cup hero Donald inspires Bath

World Cup winning fly-half Stephen Donald inspired Bath to a 16-13 victory over Montpellier in their European Cup clash on Sunday to rebound from a last minute opening defeat by Glasgow last weekend.

Donald, who kicked the winning penalty in the All Blacks’ 8-7 World Cup final win over France last month, set up both their tries and kicked two penalties while all Montpellier’s points came from Argentinian Martin Bustos Moyano.

Victory means Bath now trail champions Leinster – who grabbed a last second draw with Montpellier last Saturday – by two points after they defeated Glasgow 38-13 earlier on Sunday.

Donald, facing up to Montpellier’s French fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc for the first time since the World Cup final, slotted over a penalty in the fifth minute.

He was then instrumental in the first try with a long pass out to the right wing where Ollie Woodburn had no trouble in touching down in the corner.

The Kiwi was hammering Montpellier almost singlehandedly as his break from deep inside his own half in the 18th minute deserved at the very least a try for himself but he was tackled short of the line.

However, the hosts had no trouble in rounding off his efforts by working the ball back and scoring a second try as David Flatman was the benficiary of a massive overlap and the prop walked over the line for his first try in 34 European Cup appearances.

“My fitness is clearly not good! If I had been 5kgs lighter I might have got there!” joked Donald.

He failed to convert, but the French side were further hit as Trinh-Duc was yellowcarded for coming in on the side.

Nevertheless Moyano stroked over a penalty in the 27th minute to get the French side on the board but the Argentinian missed two further efforts to leave them trailing 13-3 at the break.

Donald added another penalty in the 44th minute after picking himself up and having his wrist bandaged when it was trod on.

Montpellier got back into the match with a controversial try in the 49th minute as Boyano went over in the corner after a forward pass set him up and he duly landed the conversion as well.

Moyano turned the screw further with another penalty shortly afterwards as Bath wilted and the visitors gained in confidence.

The biggest cheer of the day came when Olly Barkley came on with less than 10 minutes remaining for his first appearance since suffering a double fracture of the leg in early March.

However, the former England fly-half missed a golden chance to secure the win for Bath four minutes from time with a penalty miss.

He was able to breathe an enormous sigh of relief as Montpellier knocked the ball on just as they had worked themselves into position to set up Trinh-Duc for a drop goal.