By Glen Leat
October 23 2004

Bath eventually ran out easy 22-12 winners in their first European Cup match for two seasons, scoring three tries in the process. The weather was awful, the game dreary for the first half but this was a very important win for the home side.

After a week of speculation about his fitness, Lee Best was not able to take to the field and Chris Malone slotted in at full back. The young Aussie did not look as comfortable as Best throughout the afternoon and we really missed Best's tearing runs upfield, particularly as the French side were keen to hoof the ball up-field throughout the first half in an attempt to pin Bath back in their own twenty-two. And to be fair, this tactic worked and it was almost 25 minutes in to the game before the home side got anywhere near the Bourgoin line.

Bath got a penalty within the first minute of the game but unfortunately they were defending at the time so could not score from this opportunity. However the visitors were awarded a kick a few moments later and this was very kickable. The attempt at goal was awful but so was the Bath handling as they tried to clear the ball and a knock-on resulted in a French scrum right in front of the posts from which Bourgoin took the lead with a tidy drop goal from Boyet.

Boyet tried for another drop goal a few minutes later and just missed. Then Lee Mears managed to throw crookedly in to his first line-out, not what he wanted in his first full game for a long time. In the early stages of this match Bath were finding themselves constantly on the back foot and things took a turn for the worse when Bourgoine secured a 6-0 lead through a Boyet penalty. Both sides had been fiddling about in the scrum and on one occasion it took almost five minutes to get the thing sorted, unfortunately for Bath the referee sorted it by giving the penalty to Bourgoin which saw them score.

Throughout this early period the Bath backs didn't help their cause with continuous aimless kicks up-field. The poor old forwards must have been seething with their colleagues as they had to trudge all over the place trying to get the ball.

Finally Bath got a penalty in front of the sticks to make the score 3-6. The referee gave them plenty of time to take advantage of their attacking position and yet they couldn't break through the French defence. This was disappointing as the Bourgoin back-line didn't look particularly strong and a moment of Bath invention would surely have done the business.

Boyet tried his third drop goal attempt on the half-hour from the half-way line and many of his team mates thought he had scored, it was close but not close enough (as Roy Walker once said). John Connolly then made his way from the stand to the Bath bench to have a few words in a few shell-likes. On his way he stopped at the officials' bench clearly unhappy about something: perhaps his wily old front row union eyes had spotted numerous infringements not being picked up by the referee?

Finally Bath took the lead through a bustling Matt Stevens try. It all started in the middle of the field after Andy Beattie grabbed the ball from the floor after Bourgoin had lost control and set up a forward drive which resulted in the young South African prop making a dash for the line. The 10,050 crowd went wild and suddenly didn't mind the driving rain.

Another Boyet penalty saw the teams go in for their tea with Bath holding a slender 10-9 lead.

The second half was a different kettle of fish. Bath dominated the game completely with tries from Andy Beattie and Brendan Daniel. The forwards took control and gave little scope for the Bourgoin players to add more than a solitary penalty to their score. Beattie had another brilliant game, so good that the hacks in the press box named him man of the match.

I was a little worried at the end of the first half as it appeared the weather and a tough French unit could spoil our return to the Heineken Cup. I should have know better as the boys really stepped up the pace in the second half and gave a great display in difficult conditions. Well done all, a good display and a great result.

 

 

Bath: Malone, Higgins, Fleck, Tindall, Daniel, Barkley, Walshe, Barnes, Mears, Stevens, Borthwick, Grewcock, Beattie, Scaysbrook, Fea'unati.
Replacements: Hawkins, Bell, Delve, Fidler, Wood, Malone, Crockett.

Bourgoin: A. Forest, Soucaze, Davis, Esterhuizen, Coux, Boyet, M. Forest, Milloud, Cabello, Peyron, Mazel, Pape, Bontinck, Bonnaire, Raschi.
Replacements: Pucciarello, Taumoepeau, Castex, Montagnat, Venditti, Albina, Gengenbacher.

Referee: Rob Dickson (SRFU)