By Glen Leat
April 18 2004

As Bath lost a tight encounter 16-6 against Northampton Saints at Franklin's Gardens, Wasps were grabbing a late win over Leeds at Headingly leaving them just one point behind the West Countrymen. With just two games left Bath will do well to cling on to top spot.

Bath still have to play Quins away and Glawster at home and in normal circumstances the coach would just tell his players to win both matches to be sure of top spot. However this is a game with bonus points and Bath struggle in this department whereas Wasps are experts, consequently Bath will now do well to win the automatic entry to the Championship Final at Twickenham at the end of May. Ironically Bath's play-off opponents could be Northampton, though at least the game would be at the Rec and the form book says we ought to win that encounter.

However we will only make our way to Twickenham if our backs buckle down and start performing somewhere near to the standard shown by our excellent forwards, if they don't then we are in for a disappointing end of season. A lot has been said already on the ERE Messageboard about the quality of our back-line play, little of it complimentary, and I hope those in the 9-15 jerseys apologise to their forwards for their inability to capitalise on a massive amount of skill, commitment and possession. 

If players could be prosecuted for impersonating professional rugby stars, the Bath backs would be in cuffs by now as they head home. This may be a harsh assessment and we keep reminding ourselves that this time last year we were fighting relegation not for a Championship, but hang on why shouldn't we be harsh? These are top drawer professionals who will remind our club of their pedigree when re-negotiating their contracts so I for one expect more than I'm seeing at present.

In contrast Paul Grayson had a very assured game, scoring 11 of the 16 home points. This was his first game since 6th March, when England lost to Ireland, but he needed no acclimatisation period and despite the Bath forwards controlling much of the game, Grayson pushed them back up-field as soon as they looked likely to break through to the Saints' line.

The Bath forwards are a totally different proposition to the backs with Steve Borthwick and Rob Fidler proving today that they are the best second row pairing in the country. Their line-out display was awesome and no doubt may be used by coaches around the country for training purposes: they dominated more than a dominatrix on overtime with Steve Thompson and his jumpers wondering how to keep the ball on their own throw-in. These two blokes knew exactly where their partner would be in the set play and offered the sort of line jumping previously only enjoyed by Martin Johnson and Ben Kay (when he was on form). Brilliant, well done boys.

The lead up to the game was Fergusonesque (Sir Alex that is) with the Saints' management complaining of tummy troubles within the squad and then announcing a centre pairing of Matt Dawson and Ben Cohen. Bath supporters were licking their lips at the thought of Robbie Fleck and Kevin Maggs running through Dawson and turning Cohen as he searched for the safety of the touchline but Wayne Smith had the last laugh as his two pseudo-centres outplayed their opposite numbers. Maggs made one exciting break early in the first half but was generally anonymous and Fleck looked like a player who has not played top flight rugby for almost a year and gave away a series of penalties in the first half. Maggs' run set up a penalty for Bath after 3 minutes but Malone's kick did not have the legs to carry it between the sticks.

 Bath took the lead after 13 minutes with a penalty in front of the posts after Borthwick had stolen a Saints' line-out, tipping it to Lipman who got the ball to Martyn Wood. The Bath scrum-half then threw the wildest of passes which ballooned in to the air but fortunately Borthwick was on hand to tidy up. Northampton were penalised from the ensuing ruck. Unfortunately Northampton were on level terms within a minute after Bath were penalised almost from the restart.

After 29 minutes Bath were awarded another penalty in front of the Saints' posts and Malone took the score to 6-3 in favour of the visitors and kept this narrow lead up to half time.

Chris Malone started well, making some lovely long tactical kicks but as Bath struggled so the young Aussie seemed to struggle and it wasn't surprising when Olly Barkley was brought on to replace him late in the game. What was surprising was the lateness of this substitution and the fact that Barkley played like a complete novice, dropping almost every pass given to him by Wood. 

The second half started with another of those "almost beautiful" Bath forward drives. After taking the ball outside the Saints' twenty-two they drove for the line and set the backs up just 10 yards short of the goal-line but this became another lost opportunity with Northampton clearing with some ease. Alex Crockett then made a basic mistake which was to cost a scoring penalty, when he instinctively stuck out his hands for a touch kick and gave possession back to the home side well inside Bath territory. Andy Beattie pulled Mark Connors down at the line-out: penalty, three points!

Bath were unlucky a few moments later when Northampton should have been penalised on the edge of their twenty-two for not releasing the ball at a ruck, but Chris White missed this, and when he penalised the Saint's a few moments later for a similar infringement the kick was from a much tougher position and Malone missed. Such are moments that can turn a game and this game was on the cusp of a momentous turn.

In true fashion Bath made a series of forward changes after 50 minutes, with Grewcock, Mears and Stevens replacing Fidler, Humphreys and Bell and whilst these players were getting used to the pace of the game Saints' winger, John Clarke scored the only try of the game. A loose ruck ball was grabbed by Blowers who fed Cohen who in turn set up Clarke for a long run in to score. It was a good score but the tenacity of Blowers and speed of Clarke were helped along by inept tackling by the Bath backs. 

Bath tried hard to rectify things for the next 20 minutes but could make no impression and a late Grayson penalty tied up the game and denied Bath a valuable bonus point. Aghh, what a nightmare. Any suggestions for improving our back play should be e-mailed to Bath Rugby post-haste as this appears to be an area with which our coaches are struggling!

Let's have a look at the latest league table.

Northampton Saints – Reihana, Clarke, Cohen, Dawson (Vilk 76mins), Beal; Grayson, Robinson (Howard 72mins); Budgen, Thompson, Taumoepeau (Morris 50mins), Lord, Connors, Blowers, Fox, Seely (Phillips 67-74mins).

Bath Rugby – Perry; Crockett, Maggs, Fleck, Human; Malone (Barkely 66mins), Wood; Flatman, Humphreys (capt) (Mears 49mins), Bell (Stevens 49mins), Borthwick, Fidler (Grewcock 49mins), Beattie, Lipman (Scaysbrook 77mins), Feaunati.

Scorers
Northampton Saints – Try: Clarke: Con: Grayson; Pens: Grayson (3).

Bath Rugby – Pens: Malone (2).

Referee: Chris White