Let's not kid ourselves that teams of old had an easy ride as they created the amazing Played 10, Won 10, Cup Final record. Oh alright so we stuffed Glawster with so much ease we thought they'd sent out their ladies XV on that lovely sunny May day in 1990, however some other games required amazing late come-backs or were taken so far down to the wire that you could see cuts on the hands of the Bath players. Whether it took a last minute drop goal, a late try or the hand of God pushing Steve Lander to the ground Bath teams required grit, determination and nous to win the Cup. I don't question our team's grit and determination but there has to be a big question mark over their nous. However it was only in the last five minutes of this game that I thought we would lose, I assumed the Bath magic would once again be sprinkled over the final 20 minutes and we would snatch an unlikely victory from Leeds.

If percentage possession were points Bath would have beaten Leeds 83-17 in the second half and therein lies the reason for our defeat. If a team with arguably the best pack in the Premiership and a group of talented backs can't score more than 3 points in 40 minutes in a Cup Final they don't deserve to win the Cup, it's as simple as that. 

If after 20 minutes of ineffective attacking and the lion's share of possession the club leaders, on and off the pitch, have to make changes to the game-plan. Had Steve Borthwick or Jonathan Humphreys been on the pitch would they have gathered the players together and said, "Right you backs will not see the ball for the rest of this game other than to kick the penalties we're going to win in the tight. Your job is to sweep up any clearances Leeds make and counter attack in to a position where the pack can once again dominate."? Who knows, but I'm sure there were at least 10,000 supporters who have watched this team grind out victories through the pack over the last two years wondering why Chris Malone was doing a marvellous imitation of Mike Catt in his pomp. I haven't seen so many miss passes and dummy runners since the man with the paws was at the helm and the Leeds defenders just picked off the Bath attacks at will.

If, before the game, you listed all the errors Bath could make in this Final you would have been ticking them off one by one throughout the painful 80 minutes of rugby. The Bath lineout has been dominant all season yet in this match it was poor beyond belief. Clearly the absence of Steve Borthwick was a major factor, and may help to emphasise his importance to our team. However the biggest culprit was Lee Mears, who either missed his jumpers or overthrew the line on countless occasions. Did the lad inadvertently stroll in to the wrong changing room before the game and don Regan's shirt by mistake? This was a performance one would normally have expected of dear old Ronnie in his prime at the Rec, yet the Bristolian Tyke stayed cool under pressure and did everything his coaches would have asked of him - good for him.

Also, why was James Scaysbrook suddenly the number one line jumper? Surely our British Lion, Danny Grewcock, was the man to step up and replace Borthwick as the King of the Lineout. 

You couldn't help but be impressed by the Leeds' defence. For most of the match I thought I was watching Rugby League as their defence drifted all over the park like a pack of wolves seeking dinner. The tackling stats later confirmed that the Tykes put in more that twice as many tackles as Bath and if you counted the number of men committed to each tackle you could double that figure yet again. So why couldn't Bath suss out how to play this defence? In American Football they have a coach high up in the stands highlighting the opposition tactics and how to counteract them: you didn't need that to see what Leeds were doing. 

Everytime Bath got the ball Leeds spread 11 or 12 players across the pitch just in front of the off-side line and had 3-4 players hanging back some 20 yards as sweepers. The front tacklers stopped the Bath attackers in their tracks and the sweepers picked up any long kicks. Simple really, the defence ground down the attack - hey boys, it's supposed to be the other way round! So either we tried to bully our way through the tacklers, which didn't work or we hoofed the ball up-field, which was easy pickings. Surely some chips between the two lines of defence would have helped, it worked for Gordon Ross! When we did try some midfield moves we either crossed, ran in to one another or dropped the ball. When getting the ball wide it didn't go wide enough with Andrew Higgins playing like a winger rather than a centre, as he failed to pass at all to the man outside him. 

Bath have good players but what they lack is a clever footballer directing operations. This is what we need if we are to move forward and start winning things. I'm not talking about someone with a natural footballing ability like Olly Barkley or Jerry Guscott but someone like Stuart Barnes who used his brain rather than his boots to kill-off opposition. The brainiest footballer I've ever seen was Shaun Edwards when at Wigan and it's therefore no surprise that he's become a top notch coach: take my word, he'll coach England one day.

Leeds were unlucky to lose Iain Balshaw so early and when Phil Christophers departed after 25 minutes their attacking force looked spent. But we didn't know then that Bath would contribute so greatly to their own demise. Firstly Gordon Ross strolled through the Bath midfield as though it were an open door and chipped over the remaining cover for Chris Bell to grab the ball and force his way over. Then, during a series of Bath attacks within the Leeds last quarter, Malone's looped pass was intercepted by Andre Snyman on his own 22 to create the second try and give Leeds a 20-9 lead. Nightmare!

It's hard to think of any positives from this game other than how good it was to see Matt Perry back at Twickenham and staying the distance. I was disappointed that Humphreys didn't come on at half-time given the 'mare Mears was having. Also Martyn Wood appeared to sharpen things up but it was too little too late.

The day flew by, mainly because the traffic jam leading to Twickenham meant I didn't get to the ground until an hour before kick-off and I didn't feel like hanging around afterwards. The lucky gloves came out for the whole of the second half but only served to keep me warm and therefore have been retired from any more rugby duties. The Ref Link was pants, as it was barely audible and crackled like leaves in autumn. All in all a day not to remember.

Our recent record at Twickenham does not make pleasant reading having lost to Leicester and Wasps in the Play-offs and now Leeds. It's time to recruit a brainy footballer.

Bath: Perry, Maddock, Higgins, Barkley, Welsh; Malone, Walshe; Stevens, Mears, Bell, Fidler, Grewcock, Lewis, Scaysbrook, Feaunati.
Replacements: Humphreys, Flatman, Delve, Hudson, Daniel, Wood, Davis.

Leeds: Balshaw (capt); Snyman, Christophers, Bell, Biggs; Ross, Dickens; Shelley, Regan, Kerr; Hooper, Palmer; Morgan, Parks, Popham.
Replacements: Holt, Rawlinson, Dunbar, Hyde, McMillan, McMullen, Albanese.

Referee: Dave Pearson

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