By Henry Harman
October 21 2003

Bath 25 Saracens 3 Played 6, won 2, drawn 1, lost 3 and no bonus points. Add to this the 2 points deducted for fielding an illegible player and you can see that Saracens are in a bit of trouble. 8 points and 11th in the Zurich Premiership. This match was another for Sarries fans to forget. Once again the front-row was left wanting as Man of The Match David Flatman, Duncan Bell and Jonathon Humpreys were just too strong for their counter-parts. This is an area that needs urgent attention (Will Green and Craig Dowd are the opposition next week!). As does the line out where Saracens were way below where they want to be. Joe Ross had another bad day throwing in, gifting Michael Lipman a try at the end of the first half by throwing to the back on his own line. Problem being that there was no Saracens player there to receive the ball, only the grinning Lipman who just had to fall over to give Bath a decent half-time lead 14-3.

Olly Berkley out-kicked Andy Goode on the day, slotting 5 from 7 attempts. Goode could only muster 1 from 5. Goodey just couldn’t master the swirling conditions, it was a shame as the half time score could have been a more competitive one had he slotted over a couple more.

Seven minutes into injury time in the second half and after Barkley had extended Bath’s lead to 20-3, replacement Alex Crockett broke through what seemed like the entire Saracens pack to score from the 22. Game-over, 25-3.

This wasn’t a particularly good Bath side. Yes the pack were very strong but the backs lacked dynamism, something not helped by the injury to their strongest back on the day, Lee Best after his leg looked to bend the wrong way, very nasty. He’ll miss most of the season now with cruciate damage.

Saracens just didn't look like they deserved to take anything from the game. Their problems deepened as full-back Thomas Castaignede (hand) and winger Nathan McAvoy (ankle) were both taken off the pitch nursing injuries. The injury list at Sarries is now beginning to swell with Aston Croall, James Parkes, Alex Codling, Craig Yandell and Kevin Sorrell already laid up.

The key word at Saracens this year has been ‘development’ and as it stands it’s difficult to see where they are developing. Certain aspects of their game have improved but the over-riding feeling as a Sarries fan is that it’s a case of same old- same old.