But it all seemed very different at the start of the match when Saracens scored a try before 30 seconds had ticked off the clock. A quick turnover in midfield saw Saracens whip out the ball to Chris Whyles to score and before some people had relaxed in to their seats Bath were 0-5 down. It appeared we were about to witness another one of those end-to-end thrillers we've enjoyed all season however little did we know that the visitors' game-plan had more to do with spoiling than creating.

Bath, playing towards the clubhouse in the first half for a change, spent the next 10 minutes attacking but their momentum was temporarily interrupted by another injury to Michael Lipman, who was replaced by James Scaysbrook after just seven minutes. Fortunately (for Lipman) it was a leg rather than head injury this time and he was later seen limping on the sidelines.

Bath were almost caught out again after 14 minutes when, as they were pushing towards the Sarries twenty-two, Hape's inside pass to Banahan was disrupted and picked up by Glen Jackson who made a dash for Bath territory. Fortunately the Saracen's fly-half didn't have the pace or the belief to go all the way and Ryan Davis tracked him and placed sufficient pressure to ensure Jackson couldn't offload to Andy Saull.

After missing Borthwick's blatant body check on Bendy, as he chipped and chased out of defence a few minutes earlier, Debney had no hesitation in sin binning Tom Mercy for punching David Flatman after the Bath man reacted to being held down on the ground. The crowd roared their approval (for once) at the referee's decisive action: and that wasn't a reaction you heard too often during this game. 

I know we all have a tendency to squint through one eye in games but I don't think I've ever heard so much unhappiness with a referee as I did for Debney's performance. Interestingly I listened to this game through Ref-Link (for the first time this season) and Debney picked up all the things the crowd and players were complaining about, he just chose to ignore them. If I heard him say "Stop blocking reds" to Sarries once, I heard him say it half a dozen times, but he didn't choose to penalise them. Mind you, Steve Borthwick was rabbiting in Debney's ear all afternoon about anything and everything: It wouldn't have surprised me if, half way through the game,  his gruff voice was suddenly the main sound heard over the radio receiver rather than Debney's. 

Bath finally got on the scoreboard through a Ryan Davis penalty. Davis scored 7/7 in this match and it's worth saying that it wasn't just that he slotted home all his kicks, his kicking looked very secure. I liked the way he appeared to carefully sight his kicks and use a very slow and deliberate technique, it was almost like a sniper holding his breath before snapping off a shot.

Eight minutes later Bath secured another penalty, from the same spot, and Sarries lost another player to the bin when Hugh Vyvyan was penalised for lying on the wrong side. Seeing Vyvyan mouth "F*****g B******t" as he ran from the field I took it he was another at the Rec who didn't much care for the decision making of Mr Debney.

At 6-5 Bath finally started to put some moves together and they soon stretched their lead through an Andrew Higgins try. After 13 phases of close attacking play the ball was whipped out by Claassens and Davis to reach the Bath winger, who had no one opposing him as he ran in to score. Another successful conversion and a Jackson penalty made the half-time score 13-8.

The teams swapped penalties in the opening ten minutes of the second half but Bath stretched their lead through a try from Peter Short. However there was more drama to see before Bath's big man touched down. Andy Saull was sent to the sin bin after cynically tap-tackling Nick Abendanon as he raced to try and ground his kick forward as he streaked past the Sarries flanker. The crowd howled for a penalty try but clearly this was never going to be given because the Bath full-back wasn't guaranteed to score.

Bath thought they had scored another try from the ensuing lineout drive when Scaysbrook crossed the line but they were pinged by Debney for crossing. However Jackson missed touch with his clearance kick and Bath set up a super return drive, with half the team involved in beautiful running and passing, and the end result was Short crashing through the defence under the posts from ten metres. The players went wild as they piled on top of the Bath colossus. The final play from this move was started by Justin Harrison, who took his tackle but still off-loaded to Duncan Bell who passed inside to Short to set up his run. Big men playing beautiful rugby - it doesn't get better than that!

Into the final quarter there was a very long stoppage as David Flatman received treatment and had to be helped from the field. This meant Peter Short was moved to prop and the scrums became uncontested. Immediately Saracens scored from the scrum after feeding the ball across their back line to Noah Cato and suddenly the game was close again at 26-18.

After 68 minutes Bath were again denied a try when, after attacking through several phases on the Sarries try line, the ball came back to Ryan Davis who ran through the pack to dive for the line only to knock in to a retreating Andrew Higgins. Frustrating but a fair call by Debney. However a third try was achieved with two minutes left when Banahan intercepted and ran 80 metres to score. Bath were through to their semi-final at Leicester.

On many occasions this season I've commented on how disappointed I've been with Banahan and Abendanon. Today the Bath winger did far more than in recent months, mainly through seeking out the ball and coming inside from his wing. However the biggest improvement must go to Abendanon. He ran like his old self - with pace and purpose - took punishment, got up and ran again. Very impressive. These two young men have to be on top form if we are to beat the Tigers.

All season we talk about the quality of our team, the opposition and the referees but in this, our final game at the Rec this season, I want to offer up my congratulations to the ground staff. Today I thought the pitch looked as good as it does at the start of the season and given all the media discussions about the state of the Wembley pitch I was very impressed. This takes a lot of hard work. Well done guys.

Referee: Rob Debney

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