By Glen Leat
May 6 2005

At the end of the this season there was a lot of disappointment with the results, style and standard of play. But was it as bad as some believe? We reached the Cup Final and just missed the play-offs, suffering a lorry-load of serious injuries along the way so let's look at what the stats tell us.

Appended below you will see the League winning percentage table. Whilst there was a massive drop from almost 89% to just over 54% you only have to look along the line a bit and see the two seasons of just under 32% to get a feel for the distance travelled. Ok so we're nowhere near the heady days of 90% but let's face it, we were the most professional amateur side in those days.

Bath's League Winning Percentage

Season 87/88 88/89 89/90 90/91 91/92 92/93 93/94 Games Played 11 11 11 12 12 12 18 Bath Wins 6 10 8 11 10 11 17 Win % 54.5 90.9 72.7 91.7 83.3 91.7 94.4 Season 94/95 95/96 96/97 97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01 Games Played 18 18 22 22 26 22 22 Bath Wins 12 15 16 13 15 15 14 Win % 66.7 83.3 72.7 59.1 57.7 68.2 63.6 Season 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 Total Games Played 22 22 22 22 * * 325 Bath Wins 7 7 18 12 * * 217 Win % 31.8 31.8 81.8 54.5 * * 66.7

We all know that you can't win games without scoring points and the most worrying aspect of this season has to be our lack of scoring. The following table shows that we managed 262 between our two top points scorers, whereas Andy Goode nearly got this on his own, mainly thanks to the fact he had so many conversions to kick. Wasps managed 293 points from their players in the Top Twenty and lowly Northampton were just a fraction behind us with 254.

Top Twenty Points Scorers

Bath had no one in the Top Twenty try scorers but we managed to come top, through Chris Malone, with the number of drop goals (9). To me this is generally a sign of a team that can't cross the gain line and needs to come away from an attack with points.

The teams that finished above us had an abundance of riches when it came to try-scoring bonus points. Leicester (9), Wasps (6) and Sale (4) certainly overshadowed our one try scoring bonus point for the whole season. Saracens, Gloucester, Newcastle and even relegated Harlequins managed three such bonus points!