After three Cup (of different hues) wins on the trot it was back to the Premiership where Bath were struggling, having lost three and drawn one of their last four matches. In contrast, Worcester had won three and lost one of their last four games and were sitting pretty in fourth spot having secured twice as many Premiership points as their visitors.

Bath travelled to Sixways hoping to do what not many teams have done this year, win. Worcester had only lost twice in the 2005 calendar year and they took a very early lead with a Drahm penalty shot at goal following Gareth Delve being offside. The home side soon put the Bath forwards under pressure by spoiling their line-outs, pushing the scrums with real grunt and turning over too many Bath attacking plays. At this stage it seemed as though Bath would do well just to stay in the match.

However, against the run of play, Chris Malone scored the game's first try after 14 minutes when he charged down a Shane Drahm clearance kick and chased the ball 40 metres to run in under the posts. Barkley's conversion took the score to an unexpected 3-7.

Bath failed to capitalise on their next opportunity to score after 27 minutes when Olly Barkley missed a very kickable penalty. However it was some committed defensive skills of Bath around the half-hour mark that kept Worcester from scoring but even players with big hearts can do nothing when the referee decides the defenders have pulled down a rolling maul and awards a penalty try. The easy conversion from Drahm took the score to 10-7.

Just on half time the referee penalised Chris Fortey for obstruction and this time Barkley forced the touch judges to raise their flags behind the posts to even the score 10-10. Unfortunately this was almost immediately followed by a similar infringement from Duncan Bell which saw him sent to the bin for 10 minutes and a half time lead for the home side, 13-10.

Bath got off to a good start in the second half as they grabbed the initiative and this resulted in two Barkley penalties in the first six minutes to snatch the lead, and all of this with 14 men. Worcester immediately hit back with Kai Horstmann taking ball from the base of a five metre scrum and diving over for a Warriors' try. Fortunately for Bath, Drahm missed the conversion to ensure Bath stayed within two points and perhaps could be seen as the turning point. Worcester were immediately penalised at the kick-off, for crossing, and Barkley once again grabbed the lead for Bath, 18-19.

On the hour Bath turned Worcester on to their back foot through strong attacking and eventually Simon Whatling conceded a penalty and 10 minutes in the sin bin. Barkley converted the penalty to take Bath four points clear at 18-22. However as with the ding-dong nature of this game the home side immediately attacked the Bath twenty-two and it took a knock-on to thwart their attacking aspirations and give Bath a bit of a breather.

Shane Drahm had an opportunity, on 70 minutes, to reduce the deficit to one point with a 40 metre penalty but it fell short. Four minutes later Chris Malone scored his second try of the game, following a disorganised Worcester lineout near their own line, with the ball flying over all the forwards and Bath cleaning up to set up Malone. Barkley's conversion took the score to 18-29.

Worcester had no option but to throw everything in to attack but this left them vulnerable and a late Bath interception try from Gareth Delve, which saw him run 70 metres to the try line, together with the Barkley conversion wrapped up a superb (and perhaps unexpected) win. The final score was 18-36 and this has to be seen as a massive step forward in the final game before Brian Ashton takes the helm.

Well done to Michael Foley and Richard Graham for their stewardship these last four games. Great results and in some style!!

Referee: Sean Davey

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