By Jon_r43
November 29 2014

Arrived at the ground a couple of hours before KO and on the journey we discussed prospects for the day. With 6 possible members of the scrum away and Mr Lancaster allowing Bath to have back Eastmond, Rokoduguni and inexplicably for us (as former sponsors) not taking JJ for the Samoa game, later in the day, it seemed incredible that we were made weaker than Bath by the internationals. We were talking about losses of around 30 points and one of our number was talking about Bath reaching 50….. Remember LKR has predicted losses for all games including Rovigo at Home!!

As we usually do we wandered down to the area around the player entrance to meet up with friends and watch the teams arrive…. Last for Irish to arrive looking very relaxed was George Skivington but the Bath coach was very late to arrive so we didn’t think anything of it.

Wandered into the ground and noticed Theo Vukasinovic warming up ”oh well” we say “maybe he’s the spare forward” as we know the pack is a bit short on players… Somehow we managed to see George warming up when with hindsight he wasn’t there! Caimh announces the teams….. “12 and Captain (and still we missed it) Shane Geraghty “ “4 Dave Lyons”, hang on he should be on the bench… Oh no the 30 points and shipping 50 might be coming true…

Mr Small blew the whistle and then again and again and again during the first 20 mins (Point of debate is that because there were more penalties or is that the way he refs it?) as penalties and misses were traded First Irish 3-0 then Bath 3-3 (Dan accuses them of lacking confidence for not going to the corner!) Then a miss from Shane followed by another - both easier than the one he got. Scrum penalty to Bath leads to the next to a nice easy pen from the centre for Henson 3-6..

Bath began to build some pressure holding us in the corner there were a series of penalties inside our 22 that lead to a “team warning,” but eventually we clear our lines. Cox is down and I ask LKR about a replacement for him given both back row replacement are 18 “They’ll say he has to stay on” she says, and he does…

Bath bring the ball back towards us and Halani brings down a maul and is carded, Dan’s not happy but for me it came straight after the team warning and another penalty given away. Henson kicks it and we’re 3-9 down with 14 men for the next ten minutes.

Bath then kick a ball in behind the Irish defence and we carry over conceding a 5 meter scrum could Andy have left it, Dan and I thought so but LKR disagrees. A scrum fails and then a scrum collapses and there is a delay as Nathan Catt I taken off with and injured arm, eventually the ball goes into the scrum and it starts moving towards the line….. Topsy is in the scrum as Halani is off still and it moves backwards and is heading to our line. As the ball seems to come out and it collapses but Mr Small is off under the posts. Maybe he had got impatient with the delays and I suppose at least we didn’t lose a player and give a penalty try (Unlike last week) but at 3-16 the gap is growing…. A try would probably have been scored? Are you sure Mr Small? Another point of debate…. From the restart we get a penalty which is kicked 6-16

With a minute or so to go there is what for some in our group was a communication error between players when Fenby plays a ball that could have (maybe) been left to roll over the try line. We get away with it at the scrum however when Bath concede a free kick allowing us to end the half… (On the Craic during the week following there is a suggestion that the scrum issues were caused by rebinding by Bath but I don’t really understand scrums (Like many Sirs??)) so can’t really join in that debate. We might have got away with that one but it appears from reading the papers after the event and the coaches comments to have cost Fenby the chance to play the second half..

Within 2 minutes of the second half the game seemed to be gone. Henry Thomas picks up a ball at a ruck and nips through a gap between Cox and Stevens and heads off down field, he’s missed by Guest and then Geraghty and is in almost under the post, conversion made and that’s 6-23. Debate on this one Scott Steele is chasing back and a harsh critic suggests that he could have got there. But on reflection maybe the mistakes had been made.

Finally a bit of Irish pressure Short who replaced Fenby makes a break and some pressure from Irish. My next note says we win a penalty and take them into the corner, the line out is won and we are driving towards the line, Mr Small awards a penalty but the pack keep going forward and David Paice falls over the line - try Irish the conversion is made 13-23. When Irish win a scrum penalty (Bath going early) and its converted we are 16-23 behind and just one score from levelling it. We are back in their 22 and then win a scrum following a Bath knock on at a line out.

Henson keeps pushing us back with his kicking one of his clearance kicks into our 22 leads to some kick tennis… Shane knock on and concedes a scrum that leads to an easy penalty 16-26 again and with 20 minutes to go.

Bath have a couple of line outs right in our defensive corner and there pack tries to drive over, the ball won’t come out and we win the scrum we clear and have possession, there is an Irish knock on with advantage playing but Bath collect there is a ruck and Chris Cook picks up and goes through the space where the Irish guard should be Mr Small asks the question “try yes or no” (Thanks Prem Rugby TV) there are a few reviews and it’s given……. Debate again as looking at all the angles I still can’t see grounding. (16-33)

Bath lose Day for 10 minutes for slowing a ball down and we go for the corner line out and we have 13 men in the maul, bat pull it down, Irish pen to the corner. We’ve got possession but loose it JJ tries a break and is pinged for holding, quick pen from Allinson leads to a break into poo corner with James Short scoring 23-33

Alex breaks down the right could we get something out of the game…. Knock on brings an end to that move, Bath scrum wins them a pen which is cleared to touch .. The clock is running down, Darren tries a chip through that could have worked for Fergus but runs into touch….. Bath win the line out and rather unsportingly don’t go for the bonus point that would have given us a chance to get ours and clear the ball to touch.

There’s been quite a lot of debate in the week on the boards (I got distracted and am only finishing the report on Thursday) Do we have the right coaching team, where is the strength in depth we were promised, have some players been underperforming…… Lots and lots of different opinions between supporters.

For me there are 4 key games coming up for us between now and the new year and we will have all the players available who’ve been away….. We need to win on Sunday to stay in touch with the pack in front… We must take more points from the 2 Cardiff games than they do so we can be fairly sure of getting the home Challenge cup quarter which for me is an absolute minimum if we hope to attract more players and increase the Strength in depth which on the basis of the last few games is still lacking given that the top 6 looks like a long shot and finally whatever happens….. PLEASE BEAT WELSH ON BOXING DAY!

In summary for me we certainly need missing players back hopefully this will help us perform…. For the Gloucester game next week we are bringing back some friends who came to the Leicester LV= Game… They are coming to see the first team having seen the youngsters that time, lets hope the first team turn up and put on a show.