Bath struggled in the first half of the home tie of this contest and so it was in the return match. Fortunately in both games Bath managed to score tries in the second forty minutes as their opponents ran out of steam.

Bath made a good start with an early penalty from Olly Barkley after five minutes when Paulo Sciarretta was adjudged to be offside by joining a ruck from the side. Parma immediately hit back and forced Bath to defend their line with some vigour and it took a Butch James clearance from his own line to get Bath off the hook. From the ensuing lineout Parma set up a ruck but Matt Banahan was penalised for handling on the floor and Parma equalised from their penalty.

Bath struggled for the first twenty minutes, failing to show the dominance they had enjoyed last week against Glawster and Parma could have taken the lead after nineteen minutes but for a missed penalty attempt by fly half, Barry Irvine. 

However Matt Banahan gave his team a bit of breathing space when he scored after twenty-five minutes. Barkley set up a lineout close to the Parma line from a penalty, Borthwick took the ball cleanly and three phases later Butch James fed the Bath winger to score under the posts. Barkley's conversion took the score to 3-10. However Bath couldn't build on this score before half-time.

Parma had the first chance of the second half to notch another score but Barry Irvine once again missed his penalty attempt. Bath then got their act together and started to unleash their backs as points were added to the away column on the scoreboard.

Firstly, after 46 minutes Olly Barkley and Butch James linked up in midfield with a looping play which resulted in the South African scoring under the posts. Four minutes later Matt Banahan ran in for his second try and Barkley's conversion gave Bath a 21 point lead.

As the game entered its last quarter Parma slotted home another Irvine penalty and Steve Meehan made a series of substitutions (Mears, Grewcock, Barnes and Shaun Berne) to try and get the important bonus point. However instead of the changes enabling Bath to secure their bonus point, Parma took advantage of the new players being cold and grabbed a try through replacement Marco Neethling, following a series of penalties in the Bath twenty-two, to make the score 13-24.

Finally the 500 travelling Bath fans were able to breathe a collective sigh of relief as their team got the bonus point through a Michael Lipman try. Butch James converted with Barkley having been replaced by Berne.

A tough match. Final score 13-31.

(Thanks to Mike Tremlett for updates via Radio Bristol)

Bath

15. Joe Maddock 14. Michael Stephenson 13. Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu 12. Olly Barkley 11. Matt Banahan 10. Butch James 9. Michael Claassens 1. Matt Stevens 2. Pieter Dixon 3. Paulica Ion 4. Steve Borthwick 5. Peter Short 6. Andy Beattie 7. Michael Lipman  8. Chris Goodman Replacements: 16. Lee Mears, 17. David Barnes, 18. Danny Grewcock, 19. Daniel Browne, 20. Nick Walshe, 21. Shaun Berne, 22. Nick Abendanon

Referee: David Rosich

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