By Glen Leat
January 22 2004

Bath players and supporters are on their travels again this week-end as the first leg of the quarter final of the Parker Pen Cup is played this Saturday evening against Beziers in the Stade de la Mediterranee. Both sides met strong opposition in the last round and this tie should be a real test.

World Cup winner, Iain Balshaw is due to make his comeback in this match after being sidelined through a calf strain and both player and coaches see this as an ideal game to prepare for the more important fixture against Wasps in a couple of weeks. Balshaw told the official Bath Rugby website “At this stage I am not looking beyond this weekend. I am still not match fit and just need to get some game time under my belt-that is the sole target.”

Bath are rising high in the unofficial European Table in second place with Beziers 21 places lower, see extract from rankings table below, "but this is Cup football" as they say and Bath will do well to come away from France with a half-time lead. Beziers enjoy good old fashioned forward dominated rugby and Jonathan Humphries and his front row friends will know they are in a match - right up the former Welsh captains' street then!

Let's have a look at the recent results of Beziers:

Probable Bath Team

15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Andrew Higgins, 13 Kevin Maggs, 12 Alex Crockett, 11 Simon Danielli, 10 Olly Barkley, 9 Martyn Wood, 1 David Flatman, 2 Jonathan Humphreys, 3 Duncan Bell, 4 Rob Fidler, 5 Danny Grewcock, 6 Andy Beattie, 7 Micheal Lipman, 8 Zak Feaunati.

Reps: 16 Hentie Martens, 17 Lee Mears, 18 David Barnes, 19 Chris Malone, 20 Scott Gray, 21 James Scaysbrook, 22 Matt Stevens.

If you can read French why not click here to see the Beziers web site.