After Northampton's 15-11 win over Worcester, Bath started the game knowing they had to win to avoid dropping too close to the relegation spot for comfort. However with just 94 seconds on the clock Leeds scored the opening try of the match against the run of play. Bath were attacking on the edge of the Leeds twenty-two but dropped the ball only to see Rob Vickerman grab it and chase up-field. Vickerman was able to off-load in the tackle to Chris Bell who ran in for the try to give Bath the worst possible start against their recent mega-bogey side.

Bath continued their early attacking domination securing a penalty in front of the posts with Olly Barkley making the score 7-3 after eight minutes. But, as if suddenly waking up to the threat of the continuing Bath attacks, Leeds upped their game and started to pressurise their opponents. This resulted in a Leeds penalty just inside the Bath half following an offside decision and the flags were raised in unison to celebrate another excellent chip kick from Gordon Ross as he continued his recent role as the main thorn in Bath's side.

Bath were in trouble after 25 minutes when Justine Marshall fed Leeds' prop Kees Lensing who fell over the line for his score, however Steve Borthwick and his men were relieved to discover that the pass from Marshall was adjudged to be forward and instead of trudging behind the posts for a Ross conversion the Bath pack were awarded a 5 metre scrum. Nevertheless Ross was able to use his kicking boots to grab more points just five minutes later after Bath were caught offside in front of their points to take the score to 13-3 after 30 minutes.

Olly Barkley gave Bath a  first half lifeline with a 36th penalty, taking the score to 13-6 but Gordon Ross slashed through that lifeline with a penalty of his own to make the score 16-6 at the break despite the Bath forwards trying to build on an excellent very late Andy Williams snipe from a Leeds' lost lineout.

Throughout the first half Bath missed touch on too many occasions, twice from penalties, and all their attacks seem to be halted by mistakes from which Leeds developed strong attacking positions.

Leeds started the second half as they spent the majority of the first, running at the Bath line and keeping the visiting defenders on their heels. Bath made little impact in the opening 12 minutes and so the coaches decided to try something new with an early substitution of Lee Mears. Within a few moments of the change the Bath forwards made progress up-field but a forward pass from Delve to Lipman denied the flanker an opportunity to score a certain try. However this error was soon forgotten when Gareth Delve crossed the line for Bath's only try moments later. Barkley missed the conversion to make the score 16-11 but redeemed himself by adding another penalty to get within two points of Leeds.

Throughout the second half Bath realised they had to play rugby in the Leeds' half if they were to snatch victory and therefore both Malone and Barkley hoofed the ball up-field at every opportunity to gain field advantage. However it wasn't the tactic to win this game and Leeds easily soaked up this pressure and then built up their own momentum towards a vital victory.

With a quarter of the game to go Gordon Ross had a chance to extend his team's lead with a kickable penalty but (for once) he missed and this must have provided a real fillip to the Bath players as they did their best to get back in to the game. Unfortunately the referee gave Ross another chance just a few minutes later as he adjudged Bath to be offside and this time the Tykes' No 10 didn't disappoint his supporters and this success appeared to break the spirit of the visiting team. 

With just over ten minutes to go Leeds had a five point lead and this was extended as Gordon Ross dropped a goal to put Bath in a position of not even getting a losing bonus point and he followed this up with another penalty with just a few minutes left on the clock.

A final losing score of 25-14 means Bath go in to the European Cup matches against Bourgoin and Leinster with heavy hearts: the last thing you need after two straight Premiership losses is games in another competition. What you really want is a chance to redeem these losses.

This was without doubt a "must win" game and the loss drags Bath right down in to the relegation pit which is reminiscent of the horrific campaign three years ago when Bath just managed to pip Bristol to the final Premiership spot.

One of the messages on the Messageboard refers to being relegated and getting rid of dead wood in the squad. Looking at the team which travelled to Leeds I can't see a lot of dead wood, in my opinion it's a strong team and they should be performing far better than they are at present. I hope for all our sakes that Mr Ashton has some powerful remedies in his kit bag because things are looking pretty bad at present.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes