Judging by this performance I am surprised to see Saracens sitting in fourth spot in the Premiership but perhaps that says something about the dearth of decent rugby currently being played. No doubt our friends with the Fez will see the above comment as a pop at them, but it's not. Judging by the performances of Bath this season I'm equally not surprised to see us lying in ninth place. 

Watching Bath and then watching England made me somewhat depressed. Both sides contain some fantastic players yet appear to be rudderless. They talk a lot about "heads-up" rugby, well I think we're currently being lumbered with "heads-up yer arse" rugby both locally and nationally.

Picture courtesy Jules

According to the BBC Sport website Steve Meehan said, "We should have won that game but we were the victim of two poor decisions by our players and one by the ref for one of their tries. We've had very good preparation this week but the lack of skill execution by us today caused us problems. We have had the same players making the same errors all year."

I'm not sure we should have won the game, as Sarries could equally have said that, but we are making too many simple errors which prevent us from making anything from our attacking moves. I agree, however about the referee. 

Mr A Small (small what?) was hopeless, although we shouldn't blame him for Bath not making the most of their opportunities. On one occasion in the second half Bath broke free from their twenty-two, after defending the line manfully, only for a Sarries defender to slap the ball out of the hands of Joe Maddock. A clear knock-on, but by-stander Small (and his evil accomplice Igor White) missed this infringement. Within seconds a Bath player (inevitably) dropped the ball and so Small awarded a scrum to Sarries. A Bath infringement (what a surprise) at the scrum gave Glen Jackson a great chance to slot over another penalty. All because.... agghh. I'm normally supportive of referees because I think they have a pig of a job but not this one!

Picture courtesy Jules

Bath got off to a great start with two early Olly Barkley penalties and were 13-0 up after 30 minutes with Saracens looking as though they were going to take a bit of a stuffing. Chris Malone scored Bath's opening try after his pack had ground out a series of drives reminiscent of John Connolly's reign before Andy Williams opted for a pass out wide.

However Bath then decided to make a game of it by conceding two tries in the 10 minutes leading up to half time. Sarries hit back firstly through  when Karemi Ratavou chased down the left wing. Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu hauled down the flying winger just short of the line, but Bath were penalised at the resulting ruck. Saracens took the penalty quickly, catching the defenders unawares and Tomas de Vedia scored under the posts. If this score was sufficiently irritating, I was beside myself when I watched Richard Hill trot over the goal line (almost unopposed) four minutes later. From 13-0 to 13-14 in ten minutes. No doubt if I was Prince Charles I'd say I was "incandescent with rage"!

Picture courtesy Jules

The second half was hardly inspirational, with Jackson slotting home two penalties for Saracens to take them 13-20 in front. With the minutes ticking away, the rain starting and stopping and some bloody woman behind me giving a running commentary on the game (beware season ticket holders who lend out their tickets) I was resigned to defeat when up popped Daveed to score the try that gave Barkley a chance to even things up right at the end.

One final thought. I wonder if Sarries have been trained by the same people who train Wasps because they are offside as often as those pesky insects!

I've just treated myself to a 80gb iPod so I'm off to load up a few cds: much more fun than contemplating the rugby!

Picture courtesy Jules

Referee: A Small

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