Giants

An Irish side depleted by injuries and international call-ups (yes, it wasn’t just Bath, despite what the papers will say) (and anyway, autumn internationals aren't a surprise, are they? What's wrong with planning for them?) (No, thought not) walloped their opponents on a cold, grey, overcast day in Reading. Rain made for a slippery pitch, with players from both sides losing their footing increasingly as the match went on.

Another characteristic of the game was the new countdown clock, finally giving fans some clarity with regard to injury time, and perhaps ending the irritating and needless controversies at the end of matches.

Unfortunately, referee Rob Debney decided to compensate for this power having been taken out of his hands by imposing some obscurity of his own choosing, and with an array of baffling, non-standard and more often completely absent signals, safely ensured that the honest spectator was still deprived of the whole picture.

Irish showed attacking intent from the off. A Bath knock-on from Riki Flutey's kick-off gave Irish a scrum, from which Flutey launched a chip into the 22 for Delon to chase. The kick was marked, though, and cleared, giving Irish the first of their rock-solid line-outs. Unfortunately, from the maul following this one, Bath got a penalty - Dunne's attempt to move it infield not getting past the ref - though it fell short.

After this initial flurry of excitement, both sides swapped line-outs for a while, with Bath managing to hold on to the ball for most of the first ten minutes. Mike Catt's touch-kicking was looking mighty, with several assured and perfectly-judged long kicks finding their mark.

Delon cleared a Dunne kick in the corner, and from the second short throw in two minutes to Irish old boy Zac Feau'nati (Bath's only line-out tactic that worked well) and a prolonged ruck, Bath eventually got a penalty for… well, only referee Debney could tell you what. Irish dissent moved it into the 22, but luckily for us Dunne pulled the kick.

Flutey kicked an Irish penalty (no idea) to touch just outside Bath's 22, Bob Casey just got to the throw, and after a spot of recycling (despite a ferocious Bath hit in the centres), Irish were given a penalty advantage when the ball was kicked out of Hodgson's hands at the base of a ruck. Hodgson got the ball away anyway, and Flutey kicked a huge drop goal, under pressure. His coolness was astonishing - it honestly looked like he hadn't seen the onrushing defenders, so relaxed was the kick. 3-0 to Irish, 12 minutes gone.

Bath's equalising score didn't take long. They attacked from the restart, a superb burst from centre Andy Higgins resulting in a Bath penalty (no signal - Catt furious, fans mystified). A messy line-out gained Bath another penalty closer to the posts, which Dunne struck to level the scores after 17 minutes. The penalty count was 5-1 to Bath by now.

Errors from both sides after the restart eventually produced a grubber kick from Bath winger Maddock, gathered by Delon and booted back downfield. With what was to prove an expensive mistake, Bath centre Davis knocked-on under no pressure in his own 22. From the base of the scrum, Hodgson chipped for Staniforth to chase. The bounce wrong-footed the defending winger, requiring Stan to execute the classic winger's "catch-and-flop" manoeuvre to score. Flutey made an appalling contact with the difficult conversion, the flat slap audible across the ground, and so the score remained at 8-3 after 20 minutes.

The next two minutes contained all of the game's elements in microcosm. Bath's restart was deep, Catt launched another huge touch-finder, and Nick Kennedy snaffled the Bath throw. A ruck or two later, Catt's drop goal shot was charged down, but the Bath defence was in disarray, they knocked on, the ball went loose, and Catt (have I mentioned him in this move?) pounced to make it 13-3 almost straight away. Flutey missed another kick (off the post).

The match calmed down for a while after this, with both sides trading mistakes in scrum and line-out - Irish seeming to recover better from theirs. The Irish scrum was solid, but the ball control was a little suspect, resulting in some hasty rethinks, and balls squirting out all over the place in what didn't exactly look like white-boarded moves.

Mike Catt was giving the ref plenty of chat, in an area of the game where Irish have been second-best for years.

Another graceful Flutey kick under pressure gave Bath an attacking line-out, which they proceeded to waste with a ridiculous amount of unnecessary pre-throw musical chairs, designed to confuse, which it did in one sense, I suppose. Bob nicked it (though it would have been hard for him not to catch this one), but Dunne managed to get himself all over the ball in the ensuing ruck, and, not taking to the footwork he received, swung a punch on getting to his feet after the Irish had been given the penalty. Off he went for the rest of the half, and Flutey kicked the penalty for a 16-3 lead.

In the last ten minutes of the half, Irish rose more and more into the ascendancy, but, worryingly, with no further reward. Tackling was aggressive, Bob Casey throwing himself around with abandon, and Irish bossed their own line-out (and stole some more of Bath's). Another Flutey miss brought the half to a close.

At half-time, it looked like so many other Irish games - clear dominance exerted, but with too many mistakes to come anywhere near killing the game. Flutey's kicking from hand was immaculate, but place-kicking was very poor (a problem with wet weather was one theory).

The traditional Irish game plan, that has served us well for many years, would now be to take the collective foot off the accelerator, relax and assume that the half-time lead would see us home. Doubtless there'd be some unpleasantness with the last minute drop goal or penalty, but, well, that happens sometimes. Due to some mix-up in pre-game planning, however, this wasn't exactly how it turned out.

Bath got their last score before the end at the very start of the second half. Nick Kennedy was penalised for a late hit on full back Best, in what the replay in my head clearly shows was a case of Best looking for the penalty. Best's pre-alleged-late-challenge kick landed 35m out from the Irish posts, so that's where the penalty was, which the now rehabilitated Dunne knocked over to make it 16-6.

The swarming Irish defence started where it had left off before half-time, though the Irish scrum started to look a little bit creaky to me. Maddock broke through and thought he had scored, but was called back for a forward pass.

The game-breaking try came after around ten minutes of the second half, when Declan Danaher kicked through to the corner from loose play, the chasing Flavin blocked by some subtle defensive work from ref Debney. From an Irish scrum (how Scaysbrook's presence all over our ball wasn't a penalty offence is beyond me) there came a long, long period of Irish possession in the Bath 22. Some great driving play started things off, but Bath's defence was tough, and the Irish seemed to run out of ideas and momentum all at once. The ball was dropped backwards, Irish players started running into one another, but somehow we kept the ball in play, suddenly found our shape from somewhere, and Flutey threaded his way through the defenders for a score under the posts. He converted his own try to make it 23-6.

A tremendous move from Bath followed the try, starting from their line-out (another huge Catt touch-kick) and played under a long Bath advantage for a bad tackle by Horak. However, as seemed inevitable (in hindsight anyway - if things can look inevitable in hindsight… anyway, it did. Does.), they were dragged down, came back for the penalty, kicked it to touch and lost the line-out.

A period of sloppy possession from both sides and the start of the substitution merry-go-round left everyone looking tired and a bit listless (and that was just in the stands). Bath created a nasty moment with just under twenty minutes to go, but after some great recycling (and despite committed tackling from the Irish, Bob standing out again) a grubber kick went dead. Bath seemed much more comfortable in broken play by this stage, and their recycling, when fast, was good, but the Irish were gaining the upper hand in another area of the game previously closed to us, viz. slowing down opposition ball. Bath possession got bogged down and slow time and time again, in the way that other teams have always tended to do to us.

A collapsed scrum in the Irish half saw a penalty awarded, Flutey finding another long touch inside the Bath 22. Some excellent picking-and-going from the line-out saw us gradually approach the Bath line, until Phil Murphy grabbed it and dived over from short range to win the bonus point (no, not the one for losing by a try, apparently there's another sort). Flutey's conversion (tricky, but on his good side, as a left-footer) made the score a vertigo-inducing 30-6 with less than a quarter of an hour to go.

More substitutions ensued, including Barry on for Flutey. Almost immediately he bagged his first points, a penalty for holding on, on the Bath 10m line.

Straight away, the Irish launched a lovely move from deep, Penney with a tremendous angled run feeding Delon. He chipped ahead and was taken out, but the touch judge saw it all, and Barry slotted the penalty to take Irish to 36-6, our final points.

The last few minutes of the match saw almost uninterrupted Bath pressure. Gustard had one of his "red mist" moments (funny how they're endearing rather than irritating at thirty points up) and handled in a ruck right in front of the referee. Bath's kick to the corner and line-out gave them sustained possession, but (after all these years of watching it done to us) it was too slow to produce much.

They found some ideas as the minutes ticked away, and won a free-kick, followed by another, from a scrum deep in the Irish 22. When this didn't get them a score, referee Debney switched to penalties, and as a maul went down, with the clock on zero, yellow-carded Gustard. Bath tapped and went quickly, moved the ball fast, and Debney's persistence was rewarded with a try and conversion at the death, to make the final score 36-13.

All-in-all a very satisfying overall performance, then - Flutey and Catt both had magnificent kicking games (from hand, anyway), decisions were generally sensible, the whole side looked streetwise, and all areas of the game were just… well, solid.

Mike Catt MBE was the correct choice for Man of the Match, but close contenders were Bob Casey, who tackled like a demon, and Flutey, for his lovely tactical game - though too many missed place kicks marred things. Without wishing to overstate the case, with regard to kicking I've really never seen coolness under pressure like it - he makes Stephen Bachop look nervous and jumpy.

Ironically, the most enjoyable part of the game in a sense was the last few minutes, with Bath camped on the Irish line getting decision after decision, and eventually breaking through for the inevitable try. Irish fans have seen this end to a game countless times, but it was a lovely feeling watching Bath battering away at the Irish defence, knowing that it… just… didn't… matter.

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