A massive sigh of relief exhaled across the Recreation Ground as Chris Malone slotted home an excellent winning conversion just a few minutes before the final whistle sounded for the end of the match. Only eight minutes earlier Bath had been trailing 9-19 and looked to be on the wrong end of a game they should have won quite easily and were only saved total embarrassment by two late tries from Tom Cheeseman and David Bory. On the basis of this performance Connacht appear to be a very average team with limited talent and and a lack of vision yet, for the vast majority of this match, they made Bath look like a team(sic) of amateurs with hardly a clue. 

During the first 70 minutes if there was a ball to be caught Bath would drop it, a ball to be passed Bath would fluff it, a line-out to win Bath would fall flat on their faces. Too often the backs took the ball standing still and then had that "hot potato" moment. "Oh my God I've got the ball, what do I do now? I know, I'll hoof it up-field. Where's the coaching of our backs? Where's the "heads up" rugby? At one point I had to check my watch to make sure it was Saturday and not Monday because this seemed more like a United performance than the first team. Have the wise words of Brian Ashton been forgotten so soon? Forget the Champagne rugby we were promised at the end of last season it wouldn't surprise me to see a Blue Nun trot out behind the team at the next game.

As for the scrummaging? The Bath front row went down more often than Paris Hilton and it was no surprise to see David Flatman spend 10 minutes on the naughty chair. Talking of the sin bin, Connacht lost two players to the dreaded yellow card yet Bath could only manage three points in twenty minutes of playing against 14 men.

Connacht were first to score after 4 minutes when Warwick slotted home a penalty after Matt Perry fluffed a simple pass from Bory and Walshe was caught offside from the ensuing scrum as he enveloped his opposite number prematurely. Warwick had an opportunity a few moments later to extend the lead with a penalty on the half-way line after Bath had again dropped the ball: fortunately for the home side the ball drifted to the right of the posts.

Riordan ran around Matt Perry all too easily to dash in for the game's opening try after 35 minutes and the Irish lads will be kicking themselves that they didn't build on this score to take the game away from Bath.

Bath had a great opportunity to open their account before the end of the first quarter but after a series of penalty induced line-outs and scrums and a handful of goal line attacks, they failed to dominate their opponents and then gave up possession. If an anti-climax could have a climax it was right at that moment! I slumped in my chair and asked my companion how long was it until half-time. 

Why in God's name can't we convert a high percentage of possession and territory in to points when we are in that "red" zone? If we were given bonus points for time on the attack I'm sure we would actually win some silverware. If you watch Wasps and Leicester and the other top clubs you'll see them walk away from their goal-line attacks (more often than not) with some points, even if it's just a drop goal. All we seem to do is walk back with a big fat zero added to the scoreboard.

Why did we score tries right at the death when we'd struggled all game? In the final ten minutes we played at greater pace, we whipped the ball wide, Bory ran a shockingly great slashing angle to disrupt the Connacht defence: in short we stopped the plodding, slow service between forwards and backs and created a fizz. I wouldn't mind so much but for the fact that I've written in similar vein in previous seasons. If progress was walking backwards then we'd be currently challenging for titles on all fronts.

We're missing Steve Borthwick's leadership!

Bath: M Perry; T Cheeseman, S Berne, E Fuimaono-Sapolu, D Bory; C Malone, N Walshe; D Barnes, R Hawkins (L Mears 55min), D Flatman (L Owens 67min), P Short (D Grewcock 40min), R Fidler, A Beattie (capt), Z Feaunati, J Scaysbrook

Connacht: D Riordan; K Mathews, J Hearty, G Williams, D Yapp (C McPhillips 40min); P Warwick, T Tierney (C Keane 26min); R Hogan (B Wilkinson 72min), J Fogarty (A Flavin 58min capt), B Sturgess, D Gannon, A Farley, J Muldoon, C Rigney (A Flavin 14-24min), R Ofisa Scorers:

Yellow cards: Bath: Flatman (67min) Connacht: Fogarty (12min), Keane (40min)

Referee: D Rosich (France)

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