ComeAllWithin.co.uk - Bath 25

It took nearly thirty minutes before anyone troubled the scorers until Berne secured Bath three points from a penalty. Before that Malone, on his return to his former club, had missed two straightforward penalties amid the jeers of the Bath faithful. Bath had started the more strongly of the two teams and Quins were under considerable pressure for the first few minutes. Unforced errors did not help.

Quins’ failure to retreat from the offside position under a high ball put them under pressure again, until a superb clearance by Malone took play deep into the Bath twenty-two. Then another infringement at a ruck pushed Quins back. Both sides indulged in a kicking duel and then Bath again went on the attack and a fine try saving tackle by Monye on Davey saved Quins.

Bath broke up a scrum causing Robshaw to come offside and giving Berne the opportunity to open the scoring with a penalty from 45 metres. Only a couple of minutes later Bath again went on the attack again consistently crossing the gain line a causing problems to the defence. An attempt by Fuga to intercept a pass saw the ball drop into space for the Bath lock, Short, to gather and beating Ross and the tackle of So’oialo score the try in the right corner. A fine touchline conversion from Berne took Bath to 10 – 0 after thirty-two minutes.

Then from a lineout on the Quins twenty-two, Grewcock took the ball unopposed and it was passed rapidly left to Stephenson running an excellent diagonal line straight through the Quins defence to score another try. Berne missed the conversion and Bath increased their lead to 15 – 0.

Malone was not having the best of days and totally fluffed the restart to give Bath a scrum on the centre spot. But a fine clearance by Keogh and a sliced kick from Abendanon gave Quins a lineout on the Bath twenty-two produced a freekick to Quins. At great speed Steve So’oialo gathered the ball, tapped and went through the Bath players, most of whom were still within ten metres, did not attempt to stop him as he darted through to touch down for the try. Malone’s conversion added the two points and at half-time the score of 15 – 7 meant that Quins were still well in the match.

Bath were rapidly on the attack from the start of the second half with Abendanon and Davis making deep inroads into Quins territory and the latter just cut down by a fine tackle from Malone. Strong defence prevented the Bath pack from pushing across the try-line and the result was a scrum for Quins to put in. Bath continued to try to attack, but a knock-on and good chasing put Quins back in the Bath half. A penalty from thirty metres was successfully kicked by Malone to reduce the arrears to 15 – 10.

Delay at a lineout gave Bath a free kick and in the course of the attack which followed, Fuga went offside and Berne increased the Bath lead from the penalty. Quins sent on replacements with Skinner, Williams and Hala’ufia coming on for Volley, So’oialo and Guest respectively with Keogh moving to scrum-half.
A good Quins attack with the forwards picking and driving only a couple of metres short of the Bath try-line. When the ball came out, with Malone in good position, the fly-half took his eye off the ball, juggled and was hit hard by the Bath loose forwards. The ball fell clear to Monye whose attempt at a drop goal was charged down and Quins attack was pushed back.

Bath resumed attack moving the ball back and forth through the hands of the backs and forwards and then Berne, taking the ball at speed and coming from deep, cut straight through to score under the posts and convert his own try increasing the lead to 25 – 10 after twenty-five minutes of the second half.

But now the game was out of reach and however hard Quins tried to manufacture a score, they had no quality ball and were also beset by unforced errors as were Bath. The scrums were hard fought with Bath having the edge, particularly after David Flatman came on as a substitute. A flare-up sparked by Grewcock led to a near punch-up and from the ensuing penalty Bath found Quins almost across their line. Only an illegal hand in the ruck saved them when it was ruled a knock-on by Quins, ending their attack.

After the match, Dean Richards was clearly disappointed with the performance. Bath, he said, had been much more streetwise in the forwards. “Bath had been a lot more streetwise. He went on: "In the first 20 minutes we didn't defend particularly well but we did show a lot of endeavour. Although we were only 15-7 down at half-time we just didn't compete. It's fair to say, across the board, that the boys didn't play as well as they could do. It's difficult to pick up points away from home and their pack was very experienced.”

I'll be very disappointed if we don't learn from today. The guys are very honest with themselves, realising that certain responsibilities are theirs and they can't be passed on to others but the average age is only 24 while Bath had a lot of experienced players in their line-up and I think that showed."

Bath: N Abendanon; M Stephenson, T Cheeseman (A Crockett, 16-25, 67) S Berne, I Bavey; R Davis, M Claassens (M Walshe, 67); D Barnes (D Flatman, 64), P Dixon (R Hawkins, 73), P Ion, P Short, D Grewcock, J Faamatuainu (A Beattie, 64), M Littman, Z Feaunati (capt, D Browne, 64).

Harlequins: M Brown; U Monye, H Luscombe, J Turner-Hall, S Keogh; C Malone, S So'oialo (T Williams, 61); C Jones, T Fuga (C Brooker, 75), M Ross (J Brooks, 64), O Kohn (N Spanghero, 64), J Evans, C Robshaw, P Volley (capt, W Skinner, 53). T Guest (C Hala'Ufia, 53).

Referee: A Small (London).

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