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Washed out in Bath

Late try
By Leipziger March 10 2008
The Falcons lost a poor game in the rain of Bath on Saturday, barely threatening to score a try until Russell Winter crashed over in the dying seconds. Olly Barkley’s kicking was the difference on the scoreboard, but to be honest the 22-11 result flattered our boys, who in the first half especially were never at the races.

Despite being unable to gain a foothold of possession in the early stages of the match, Tom May put the first points on the board with a penalty into the wind in the third minute, but Barkley equalised after a quarter of an hour as Steve Jones was temporarily replaced with James Grindal with a leg injury.  Our only available senior fly-half was finally taken off fully near the end of the first half.

 

Soon after home captain Alex Crockett cut through from the 22 to score the opening try of the afternoon, Barkley converting.  Bath were straight back on the attack, with some good passing along the backline but they were not able to get over the tryline again, although a penalty from Shaun Berne hit another penalty whilst May’s second effort went wide.

 

Especially once Jones was replaced, the difference between the two sides’ kicking was striking, Bath making large distance and hitting touch as the Falcons struggled to clear, although the wind didn’t help, and at half time Bath thoroughly deserved their 13-3 lead.

 

The Falcons improved in the second half, winning more possession and territory, and away man of the match Tom Dillon looked to have scored but Bath received a drop-out for touching down in the goal area.  May’s second penalty from a series of penalty lineouts reduced the deficit, but I personally wasn’t sure taking just three points from our first sustained attack of the match and when ten points down was such a great idea.

 

Indeed, it wouldn’t have mattered as three further penalties around the hour by Barkley ended the game as a contest, and with the rain falling and cold biting, this Falcon at least just wanted the game to end.

 

The introduction of Joe Shaw, Tim Visser, Rob Vickers, debutant Tim Swinson and Russell Winter, and earlier Joe McDonnell made little difference although they did continue the decent lineout we had.

 

With the seconds creeping past the one minute mark, Russell Winter beat Mark Sorenson for the Falcons’ sole score of the day, though the conversion was missed and to add insult to injury, the clock stopped with three seconds left.  Another try which would have got us a bonus point was never on the cards, and Bath ended the game with the four points which took them back to the Premiership summit.

 Following the visit of Bristol on Sunday, we travel to Leeds and Harlequins looking for the elusive second away league win of the season.  Now down to tenth in the table, a win over Bristol would put us back into ninth and although we’re not going to get any glory for finishing there, momentum needs to be created for the knock-out European games, our last chance to make this a rare season to remember.

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