The pressure continued and it was almost 15 minutes before Leeds got a foothold in the Bath half, but when they did, Leigh Hinton brought the crowd to its feet with a storming run down the touchline. He kicked over the defence and appeared to be winning the race for the ball only to be beaten by a cruel bounce, and Bath cleared the danger.

Three minutes later and Bath increased their lead when they moved the ball quickly across the Leeds 22 and Joe Maddock went over in the corner. Barkley added a superb conversion, and when Leeds were penalised at a line out he increased the lead to 13 points with a simple penalty goal. On 28 minutes Satala made good ground and again Hinton raced for the line, only to be called back for stepping in touch. However when Bath were penalised 30 metres out, Hinton slotted over the penalty. For the rest of the half Leeds soaked up tremendous presure from Bath, but they scrambled and defended well and the half closed with Leeds having played into the wind trailing by 13 points to 3 , when it could have been much worse.

Leeds started the second half pressing, and 2 good runs by Ma'asi came to nothing when Leeds knocked on. However Leeds were having much more of the play and on 50 minutes Leeds scored the try of the match. The ball went right, to Hepworth who spotted a gap and raced clear from half way. He intelligently angled his run, and when the cover descended he threw out a magnificent long pass to Satala, who gleefully crossed in the corner. Hinton's kick was wide, but Leeds, and the disappointingly small crowd, sensed things were looking up.

Bath realised the danger and then camped in the Leeds 22, and only heroic defending kept them at bay, but the pressure had to tell and in the 55th and 62nd minute, the Bath forwards took first Grewcock, and then the very impressive Faamantuainu over for tries from close range. Needless to say Barkley converted both. The usual host of substitutions followed, and Leeds had an opportunity when a quick break on halfway gave Satala an opening, but he was bundled into touch and the chance was gone. We didn't have long to wait for the next score, as Leeds won a scrum in the Bath 22, and a superb long pass by Tuilagi, which missed out 3 players was taken by Satala, and although he appeared to take the corner flag, the referee awarded the try. Di Bernado, who had replaced Brookes put his touchline kick right between the posts, and at 27 - 15, to Bath, there was hope of another Leeds score to snatch at least a losing bonus point.

Giant Bath winger Matt Banahan had already been foiled on four occasions by some very good Leeds tackling, but he had the last say in the 77th minute when he broke through some weak tackling to score the try that gave the visitors a bonus point. Barkley again added the extras to give a final score of Leeds 15, Bath 34.

So, an entertaining game, with both sides willing to play open rugby. Leeds did not play badly, but Bath, even with 4 players away on International duty had too much firepower for Leeds. Their pack, with Grewcock at the heart of everything they did, worked well as a unit, and in Faamatuainu they had probably the best player on the field. Behind them Barkley was superb, controlling play with some good passing and astute kicking.

As for Leeds, the forwards were never over run, but spent most of the game on the back foot. I thought Joe Bedford had his best game in a Leeds shirt and carried the game to the opposition when he could, and behind him the threequarters ran with a bit more purpose as they saw more of the ball. However, my Leeds Man of the Match would go to Leigh Hinton, who after a shaky start, defended well, linked up intelligently, and was always a threat going forward. Also a mention for Alberto, who has taken a bit of stick this week. When he came on today his kicking from hand was of the highest order. However, he has to play to this level every week to make an impact in the Premiership and this applies to everybody else in the side.

A bad result which has taken away one of our games in hand on Worcester, BUT a similar sort of performance when we play Bristol, Worcester and Newcastle may bring some reward. Today though, we were not good enough, and I hope whatever recruitment takes place, at least aspires to reaching the level reached by our opponents today.

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