After watching an inept England lose to Wales in Cardiff, hearing about Northampton's further demise, what could be better than following up the news about Glawster being stuffed by the Quins with a good soaking at The Rec? This was one of those nights where, when the water seeped through your water-proofs during the first half, the idea of watching the game on TV in front of a roaring fire and sipping a decent claret had a certain appeal. I'm not saying it was wet but rumours has it that Austin Healy had to use the waterproof glue on his wig. But this as a Bath -v- Leicester match, with all its history and genuine desire for victory so you can't miss it: clearly some 10,500 others thought the same.

Even with extra flood-lighting to help the TV pictures this was one of those nights when it was difficult to see the opposite corners and, combined with the muddy kit, it was something of a parlour game to try and spot the players on "your" team. At one point I considered writing to the RFU to suggest some form of flashing light contraption for the players, blue for Bath and green for the Tigers, so we could see who was who. The two packs were steaming so much it appeared that a boiling kettle had been left in the middle of the scrums.

After a touching minute's silence for the Lyneham crewmen who perished in Iraq it was down to the sport to warm the crowd and the players all reacted in the spirit one would expect from this fixture. Good handling was order of the day (night) and few lost their touch despite the ball's "bar of soap" status. Only 12 points were scored in the first half and none in the second yet the game flew by. Normally when one is cold and wet the game drags on for hours but this one zipped by at a fair old pace. Alright there was more than a share of aimless kicking, missed penalties and failed drop goal attempts but the passion and commitment was as evident as earlier in the season when, in contrasting weather conditions, the teams clashed at Welford Road in the 16-16 draw. 

Bath got off to the worst start possible when Michael Lipman appeared to fall awkwardly after just five minutes, breaking his leg and jeopardising the rest of his season. Replacement Scaysebrook has struggled lately but he got stuck in with the rest of the Bath pack, magnifcently led by Andy Beattie, with the replacement locks Fidler and Hudson enjoying their confrontation with the old general Martin Johnson and his batman, Louis Deacon. Fidler's fine display was only marked by his error towards the end of the game when he was defending the touchline on half-way. A Tigers' clearance kicked bobbled in front of him but instead of tapping the ball in to touch for safety, the honourary Bathonian thought he'd display his defensive skills. Unfortunately for Fidler he forgot the first rule of defence - don't get isolated and he was penalised for not realising the ball as he tried to stop the chasing Tigers from snatching possession.

This game was made for Matt Perry. He took all but one of the steepling kicks Andy Goode could hurl towards the Bath line, tackled like a man possessed and made several counter-attacks. A largely tennis-match style of play was inevitable and Leicester adopted the Roger Federer approach as opposed to Bath's Henmanesque responses. Almost every Leicester kick up-field had greater distance and accuracy and gave Bath few options for counter-attacking whereas the Bath hoofs were hurried and short and allowed the Tigers' sweepers time to regain the initiative.

Chris Malone opened the scoring in the 24th-minute with a penalty, but Austin Healey's drop goal soon levelled the scores. Andy Goode then kicked Leicester into the lead, and a second kick from Malone brought Bath back to 6-6 to complete the scoring for the rest of the game. However it was Leicester who looked like grabbing all the points as they peppered the Bath line in both halves and would have scored had it not been for some mammoth home side defensive work.

Towards the end it would have been cruel for either side to steal a win but Leicester should have taken the spoils after being camped in the Bath twenty-two for the final five minutes trying to set up Andy Goode for a drop goal. Bath harrying prevented the visitors from giving Goode more than one opportunity, which was charged down and so both teams had to be content with a draw.

I think both sides will walk away from this game content with the result. 

Bath: Perry, Williams, Higgins, Crockett, Maddock, Malone, Walshe, Stevens, Mears, Bell, Hudson, Fidler, Beattie, Lipman, Fea'unati.
Replacements: Scaysbrook for Lipman (5), Lewis for Higgins (58), Wood for Walshe (72), Loader for Bell (79), Cheeseman for Lipman (6), Lewitt for Scaysbrook (79).
Not Used: Humphreys.

Leicester: Pens: Goode. Drop Goals: Healey. Leicester: Vesty, Holtby, Smith, Gibson, Healey, Goode, Bemand, Holford, Chuter, Morris, M. Johnson, L. Deacon, H. Tuilagi, Back, W. Johnson.
Replacements: Rawson for Holford (75).
Not Used: Taukafa, B. Deacon, Montagu, Abraham, Lloyd, A. Tuilagi.

Ref: David Rose

Zurich Premiership February 06, 2005 P W D L BP PTS 1  Leicester 15 11 3 1 7 57 2  Wasps 14 9 1 4 6 44 3  Sale 14 9 0 5 6 42 4  Bath 15 8 2 5 3 39 5  Saracens 15 7 2 6 4 36 6  Gloucester 15 8 0 7 3 35 7  Newcastle 14 7 1 6 4 34 8  London Irish 14 6 0 8 3 27 9  Leeds 15 5 0 10 6 26 10  Worcester 15 5 0 10 5 25 11  Harlequins 15 4 1 10 7 25 12  Northampton 15 4 0 11 7 23

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