By Glen Leat
May 12 2002

Bath finished their season with yet another loss and, whilst the play was not the sort of jamboree stuff we saw a couple of years ago whilst putting 70+ points on Glaws in the final game of the season, we saw far more commitment and two Bath tries in one game - amazing!

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A 22-24 loss to a Wasps team on the ascendancy has to be seen as a step in the right direction for Bath given the fact that Michael Foley had fewer fit first choice players to pick than Sven Goran Erickson will have by the time he leaves for Japan, and we have almost had a national day of mourning for the injuries suffered by the England footballers.

Bath must have done something right today as they managed to get Dallaglio binned and moaning throughout the game - that has to be a sign of progress for the Bath coaching staff!

This was not a game to get too excited about though much will be made of Barkley failing to tie the scores with the last kick of the game when perhaps more should be made of the appalling cock-up of a quick line out between Voyce and Thirlby which gifted Wasps their second try. But then again let's not be too harsh as these young lads were actually trying to make something happen and it just went wrong. "Better to have tried (sic) and failed than never to have tried at all", once said a wise old sage - Chilcott probably!

I have found it strange that over recent weeks quite a few contributors to our messageboard have given some gip to Tom Voyce. Forgetting the rush of blood at the line out which led to Offiah's try, I thought Voyce looked as penetrating a player today as any Bath player all season. He is deceptively quick and agile and often slips one or two tackles, he looks as though he can do something with the ball whenever it reaches him and I hope that whoever coaches our backs next year hones this (still) raw talent in to something special.

To my untrained eye Thirlby still looks too much like a "kick and chase is all I can do" type player, though I thought he was unlucky to have the kicking duties taken away from him when Barkley returned from the blood bin after scoring two penalties; I actually think Dan Lyle was wrong to do this because Barkley had to make a kick within a few minutes of his return and he consequently missed. This was a very kickable penalty for Thirlby and the lad should have been left to continue with his good fortune. I also thought the removal of Gareth Cooper towards the end of the match was a poor move; the play that followed his departure was made for his scampering quick style and we may have secured our second try a bit earlier had he remained on the field. These decisions highlight, in my mind, how weak we are with our management decisions at Bath and this has contributed greatly to our lack of success this year.

I was doubly annoyed at Cooper leaving the field (assuming he was not injured) because this brought Kevin Dalzell into play. This man cannot play rugby! He is useless. He can't kick, pass, tackle or read the game; he is slower than the slowest tortoise who recently won tortoise of the match for slowing down the play at the Slow Tortoise Rugby World Cup and he has to go!

It is ironic that this last game of the season was probably Dan Lyle's best, he was almost the inspired Captain America of old. Dan caught more than his fair share of high balls, chased all over the Rec for the full eighty minutes and put in some monster tackles. This praise does not however mean I am going soft as the season draws to a close and, as much as I love Dan for all he has done for us, I would like to see some new blood at No 8 next season.

This has been a desperate season for all of us involved with Bath Rugby but at least we did not finish by propping up the table (just). A lot of comments are being made from within the club about what will change next season; we have to trust the people in charge and assume they will not allow a similar fiasco to recur in the future. New players must be introduced and the coaching of our current players must be restructured to make the best out of what we have got already. On paper we have the makings of a good team from the second row to full back, with a new front row and a change in attitudes and tactics we must ensure we have a strong team on the pitch week in week out.

Let's now look forward to the letter telling us how much our season tickets will cost for 2002/03 and that we have a few weeks to stump up our hard earned or risk losing our favourite seats - one of the pleasures of supporting Bath Rugby!

Let's look at the result of your prediction for this game:

Question: Will Bath beat Wasps? Yes 30% No 66% Don't Know 4% Number of votes: 99

The result was clearly a bit closer than many of you thought it would be.

This was also a day for Rugby League greats at the Rec with Martin Offiah on the pitch and two of the greatest English players to ever have played the game in Ellery Hanley and Shaun Edwards sitting in the stand and on the touch line. Many of you may not have much time for the other code of our game, though I have to say I enjoy it and went to a few Wigan matches, and if you never saw Hanley or Edwards play I can confirm that they were awesome; it must hurt them to watch so many average players. Edwards was desperate to get involved in the game and kept running on the pitch with the kicking tee and geeing up his players - legends!

Other results today:

Leeds 17 Glawster 50

Leicester 34 London Irish 16

Northampton 24 Newcastle 19

Sale 40 Harlequins 11

Saracens 26 Bristol 28

So what did you think of the Bath players in this game? Give a rating and this will contribute to a cumulative score throughout the season.

Bath Player Ratings` Click below to have your vote Vote Now

Bath scorers
Tries: Gavin Thomas, Andy Long
Cons:
Pens: Thirlby 2, Barkley 2
Drop Goal:

Bath: Thirlby, Danielli, Cox, Davy, Voyce, Barkley, Cooper, D. Barnes, Regan, Emms, Borthwick, Grewcock, G. Thomas, N. Thomas, Lyle. Replacements: Dalzell, Long, Mallett, Knox, Crockett, Delve, Gabey.

Wasps: Lewsey, Roiser, Abbott, Denney, Sampson, A. King, Wood, Dowd, Leota, W. Green, Shaw, Jones, Lock, Worsley, Dallaglio. Replacements: Friday, Greening, Leek, Offiah, Beardshaw, Jenkins, Mackenzie.

Photo - courtesy of Stuart Anderton