By Glen Leat
October 3 2009

With 86 minutes and 25 seconds left on the clock referee Wayne Barnes raised his arm to acknowledge that Harlequins had scored a try to level the game. Moments later Nick Evans slotted home the conversion to secure a last gasp 13-11 victory and break the hearts of all who favour the Blue, Black and White.

After falling out at the end of last season away from work, both teams were up for a head on battle and for most of the game the players battled within the spirit expected by top rugby players. Then Harlequins full-back, Mike Brown, took exception to Stuart Hooper crashing in to him after Brown had cleared the ball out of defence. Firstly he decided a bit of fisty-cuffs were order of the day and then, after Hooper pulled away, Brown decided to act like a petulant child as he tried to wind up the Bath lock with unsavory name-calling that could clearly be seen on television. Was his aim to get Hopper to react? Clearly, and one can only assume he hoped the recation would end up with Hooper in the bin. Pathetic! Perhaps we can hope Brown will be cited for being a prat.

Having lost three games in a row it was essential that Harlequins won this game and several times in the second half it looked as though they would cross the Bath line. Firstly Ugo Moyne grabbed a loose ball and touched down after several players scrambled for possession on the Bath line. Fortunately the eagle-eyed touch judge saw that Quins had knocked the ball forward in the excitement of fighting for the ball. Secondly Quins ran at the Bath line and it took a last gasp tackle from Abendanon to save the try. Bath lost the ball at the following line-out and, without Bendy on the field, had to tackle their hearts out to keep their lead. Thirdly with just two minutes left Rory Clegg only had to catch a simple inside pass from Tom Guest to win the game for Quins.

With these three failures it seemed as though Bath were destined to win the match but Nick Easter had other ideas.

Bath's first points came after six minutes when Quins were caught offside as they returned a Bath clearance and their next points came after some great handling from Skirving, Bell and Selvi and it took an illegal bit of play from Quins to stop the drive - 0-6. Bath kept up their early pressure and a brilliant mazy run from Bendy which took him from his own to twenty-two to that of his opponents was exciting to watch.

As Harlequins piled on the pressure Duncan Bell stole the ball from a Quins ruck right in front of the Bath posts showing defence strength and quick hands, but in this game we were also able to celebrate the attacking attributes of the big man. He belies his age and seems to be getting more skillful as the years go by. Carry on like this for the rest of the year and I'm confident Belly will be challenging the likes of Salvi and Hape for the mantle of Bath's most exciting player.

Just on half time Bath had the best chance of the first 40 minutes to score a try when Nicky Little opened his legs and showed his class (as a certain Mr Coleman once said about Alberto Juantorena), offloaded to Matt Carraro who was hauled down just shy of the goal line. Unfortunately Bath were muscled off the ball at the ensuing ruck and the home side were able to wind the clock down and close out the opening session.

Bath started the second half with a great run from Joe Maddock which set up an 11 phase attack but, as with several other Bath attacks, it was so pedestrian the players found it hard to generate any momentum to cross the gain line and eventually they were penalised. I think I say it every week Bath, keep it quick! Aggghhhh, it's painful to watch.

With the game standing at 6-3 to Bath from the 16th to 74th minute, Nick Evans levelled the scores with a penalty. Three minutes later Shontayne Hape dropped his shoulder as he ran towards the Quins' defence and suddenly found a massive hole in front of him. The Bath centre grabbed his chance and dived over the Quins' goal-line to score. Nicky Little missed the conversion but in such a low scoring match surely a 11-6 lead was good enough. 

From the scrum following Clegg's missed chance Bath were penalised several times in front of their posts and Ben Skirving was binned for kicking the ball away leaving his team too underpowered to prevent the Quins pack from driving Nick Easter over the line to score and win the match. A total sickener because once again we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

 

Harlequins: 15. Mike Brown   14. David Strettle   13. Gonzalo Tiesi   12. Tosh Masson   11. Ugo Monye   10. Nick Evans   9. Danny Care   1. Ceri Jones   2. Gary Botha   3. John Andress   4. Lewis Stevenson   5. Jim Evans   6. Chris Robshaw   7. Will Skinner   8. Nick Easter   Replacements: 16. Aston Croall   17. Tani Fuga   18. James Johnston   19. Shane O'Connor   20. Tom Guest   21. Gareth Williams   22. Rory Clegg   23. Gonzalo Camacho

Bath Rugby: 15. Nick Abendanon   14. Joe Maddock   13. Matt Carraro   12. Shontayne Hape   11. Matt Banahan   10. Nicky Little   9. Michael Claassens   1. David Flatman   2. Pieter Dixon   3. Duncan Bell   4. Peter Short   5. Stuart Hooper   6. Andy Beattie   7. Julian Salvi   8. Ben Skirving   Replacements: 16. Rob Hawkins   17. David Barnes   18. Aaron Jarvis   19. Danny Grewcock   20. Jonny Fa'amatuainu   21. Scott Bemand   22. Ryan Davis   23. Jack Cuthbert

Referee: Wayne Barnes

Crowd: 11,203