By Glen Leat
January 31 2004

Despite losing Mike Catt and Matt Perry to injury before the game, Bath moved in to the semi-finals of the Parker Pen Cup for the second time in two years after beating Beziers 26-7 (45-31) on a wet and windy Rec. Co-incidently Bath could again find themselves facing Saracens in the semi final.

Bath's smallest crowd of the season (just 5778) braved the elements to see their team do the exact opposite of last week: dominate the first half and allow the visitors to take control of the second half. Fortunately the 18-0 half time lead provided a sufficient cushion to ensure the French team were never likely to fly home with the spoils.

Despite the loss of Catt, Bath did not suffer as Olly Barkley continued his excellent form at fly-half and England Assistant Coach, Andy Robinson, will be forwarding some very positive comments to "Sir". Martyn Wood also stepped up to the plate in this game and demonstrated how well he and young Olly can work together in the trickiest of situations.

This was always going to be a tough game and at times fists flew like brawling was going out of fashion: what with the awful weather, slippery conditions and flying handbags and a Bath team ready for all three it was almost like old times - Chilcott would have been in his element! Inevitably one of the visitors to the "bin" was Bath skipper, Danny Grewcock: let's face it, if four players are given a yellow card in a game the law of averages dictate that DG will be one of them. However Grewcock can claim he was harshly treated as all he was doing was protecting Zac Feaunati who was receiving a bit of a slap form an opponent.

Bath got off to a real flyer after just a few minutes and reduced the deficit to zero when Martyn Wood tapped a quick penalty, instead of giving the ball to Barkley to kick at goal, and this set up Alex Crockett to score the opening try. Great start! Barkley's conversion then held up in the wind, as though a kite on a piece of string, and Bath were off and running at 5-0.

After ten minutes Barkley scored a try when Zak Feaunati took the ball from the base of a scrum in the Beziers twenty-two, Feaunati was tackled but Wood was on hand to grab the ball and pass to Barkley who dummied his way around the Beziers defence - too easy, 10-0! With Steve Borthwick holding the ball Barkley kicked his conversion to extend Bath's lead to 12-0. 

Duncan Bell was replaced by Matt Stevens after 20 minutes, after the big prop injured his leg but the good news from the club is he will be fit for next week, as will Andrew Higgins who also left the field injured right at the end. Two more Barkley penalties took the score to 18 - 0 at half time. 

Throughout the second half Beziers played a more attacking game but it was Bath who scored first, another Barkley penalty to take the score to 21-0, however 15 minutes in to the half Grewcock was binned and five minutes later the visitors scored their try through Camisuli after their forwards had given the Bath line a good old pounding. Rob Fidler replaced the Bath captain at the end of his punishment period and Chris Malone took over from Olly Barkley. With just four minutes left Simon Danielli wrapped things up with a try in the corner: a great win in difficult conditions against hardened opponents determined to let the Bath players know they had been in a game.

Bath will now face either Saracens or Montferrand, who play on Sunday. In the other side of the draw, Connacht qualified for their first European semi-final after  Narbonne 16-10.

Finally, it is worth making a point that had Bath Rugby been able to offer season ticket holders cheaper entry to the game then perhaps we would have seen a larger crowd. It is ludicrous to charge full whack for games of this nature.

Bath Rugby: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Alex Crockett, 13 Kevin Maggs, 12, Andrew Higgins, 11 Simon Danielli, 10 Olly Barkley, 9 Martyn Wood, 1 David Flatman, 2 Jonathan Humphreys, 3 Duncan Bell, 4 Steve Borthwick, 5 Danny Grewcock ©, 6 Andy Beattie, 7 James Scaysbrook, 8 Zak Feaunati.

Reps: 16 Ross Blake, 17 Lee Mears, 18 Matt Stevens, 19 Chris Malone, 20 Hentie Martens, 21 Michael Lipman, 22 Rob Fidler.


1 Tariel RATIANIDZE, 2 Sébastien BRUNO, 3 Pablo CARDINALI, 4 Mamadou KOITA, 5 Steven HALL, 6 Arnaud COSTES, 7 Olivier LLARI, 8 Lionel CAMISULI, 9 Pierre Henry BRONCAN, 10 Fédérico TODESCHINI, 11 Christopher CATLING, 12 Guillaume DELMOTTE, 13 Olivier GARGALLO, 14 Philippe ESCALLE (cap.), 15 Régis BIANCO

Replacements

16 Davit KHINCHAGISHILI, 17 Jean-François PEDESSEAU, 18 Guy JEANNARD, 19 Adrian Alin PETRACHE, 20 Murat UANBAYEV, 21 Nicolas DURAND, 22 Yoan AUDRIN