Sam Burgess has made his European Rugby Champions Cup debut coming off the bench for English side Bath in a 30-5 win over Montpellier in France.
The former South Sydney NRL star was brought into the game early in the second half with the match safely wrapped up and put in a handful of big hits to announce his presence in stormy conditions.
Bath, the 1998 champions, started the evening with just a point from two opening defeats to Glasgow and Toulouse.
The English side now have five points, three behind Toulouse and four off pace-setting Glasgow although their chances of making the knockout rounds in the new year remain slim.
Bath cruised to a 23-0 lead at the interval as Montpellier paid a heavy price for their indiscipline with the French side seeing two players sin-binned.
England fly-half George Ford ended the opening 40 minutes with 12 points while Bath grabbed two tries -- one from prop Henry Thomas with the second score a penalty try on the stroke of halftime.
It was impossible to keep Thomas out of the action at the Stade Altrad as he was involved in both incidents which saw Montpellier twice reduced to 14 men.
First, flanker Antoine Battut was yellow-carded for taking out Thomas at a ruck.
Bath scored 10 points while Battut was kicking his heels.
Three minutes from the break, lock forward Thibault Privat was also sin-binned after clashing with Thomas at a line-out.
Bath added a third try just after the restart courtesy of No.8 Leroy Houston which Ford converted for 30-0.
Share
