“We ditched two (try scoring opportunities) in the first half. Didn’t play very well in the first half, didn’t play well all game to be honest. We butchered one up the right hand side when Tani threw it to the floor. We had a two on one with Luger on the left side and Chris Bell went for a half break which was the wrong option. In a game when you’re not playing very well, when chances come along you need to take them and we didn’t. Then to be honest we didn’t look as though we going to score in the second half until the last five minutes and then the game was lost and we were chasing a bonus point.

"We were beaten in the tackle area really in the sense that they slowed, turned over or scragged a lot of ball and so we never really got our game going. Our line out was a bit shaky in the first half hour, we underthrew three of four which is difficult to keep momentum. At 16 – 9 we were still in it which was probably a little bit more than we deserved. Bath discipline was getting a bit frayed and I thought we might nick this but it was not to be.”

pic: Simon Jones

Bath kicked off the match and Fuga managed to spill the ball. Bath gained possession and there followed about eight or nine phases of play where Bath attacked Quins over three to four minutes. Eventually Bath knocked the ball on after some good defence by Quins. Quins won the scrum and Nathan Williams cleared the ball. Bath won the subsequent line out with a throw to Nathan Thomas at the back. Thomas managed to secure good clean possession throughout the match. Bath attacked Quins and won a penalty as Quins killed the ball. Barkley slotted home the penalty from the Quins twenty two almost in front of the posts. Bath were three nil up after seven minutes. Quins had hardly had any possession.

Quins won the restart and moved the ball from side to side across the park without gaining much ground. Williams kicked to the corner and Bath won the resulting line out where they cleared to Williams who evaded two tackles and passed inside to Tani Fuga who had one man in front of him. Will Greenwood was on Tani’s outside on his own on the Bath twenty two screaming for the ball. Tani threw a wild pass straight into touch leaving Greenwood and the Quins team very frustrated. Bath were awarded a scrum as Tani’s pass was deemed to have gone forward. Barkley cleared his line with not much yardage gained. Codling won the resulting line out and the ball was fed to Rob Jewell who ran into Bath defence. The ball was recycled to Vos who was also tackled. Bath were penalised for hands in the ruck and Quins were awarded a penalty on the Bath twenty two which Burke converted. 3 – 3 after twelve minutes.

Tony Diprose won the restart which was cleared by Nathan Williams to the Bath half way line. Bath won the resulting line out and Barkley kicked the ball out to his left wing where it was caught by Balshaw. He offloaded to Danielli who couldn’t stay on his feet, Bath won the resulting ruck on the Quins twenty two. The ball found its way to Maggs in the centre who went through a Paul Burke tackle to score almost under the posts. Barkley converted the score. Bath led by 10 – 3 after fourteen minutes.

Pic: Binky

From the restart Bath won possession and again put through about seven or eight phases of possession before Tindall knocked on after pressure from Luger. Quins cleared their line but Bath won the resulting line out. Luger was penalised for killing the ball just outside the Quins twenty two. Barkley converted the penalty to give Bath a lead of 13 –3 after twenty two minutes. Bath had been much more incisive in their attack. Barkley was throwing long cut out passes and Bath were able to get over the gain line with ease. A better side than Bath may have made more of the opportunities and the possession that they had obtained in the first quarter of the match. Quins were looking hesitant in the scraps of possession that they had.

Bath were penalised after the re start and Nathan Williams who was taking virtually all of the kicks from hand found touch inside the Bath twenty two. Quins put through a couple of phases before Burke lost the ball in the tackle. Bath were managing to slow Quins possession down and were rucking better in the tackle area. Most of the time Duncombe was passing the ball on the back foot which produced poor ball for the Quins backs. Quins were beginning to win more possession but Bath were able to turnover ball both in the tackle and the line out. Fuga had a poor first half throwing the ball.

On thirty two minutes Quins won ball on the half way line and the ball found its way out to Bell who had a two on one with Luger on his outside. Unfortunately he took the tackle and the chance went begging. It was noticeable that the Bath scrum which had struggled in recent weeks was able to at least hold its own with the Quins scrum.

In the 43rd minute Williams was penalised for not releasing and Bath were awarded a penalty. Barkley converted the penalty half way between the centre line and the Quins ten metre line. Bath led 16 – 3. Bath kicked the ball into touch after securing possession at the re-start. Quins won the line out and the ball found its way to Burke who missed a drop goal attempt. Bath led 16 – 2 at half time.

Quins secured possession from the re-start at the start of the second half but Williams gave away a line out just outside the Quins twenty two after he kicked for touch without realising he was outside his twenty two. Quins won a penalty after the line out and Williams cleared the ball to the Bath twenty two. Diprose won the line out and Quins rolled a maul. Bath were penalised for coming in at the side and Paul Burke kicked the penalty. Bath’s lead was cut to 16 – 6 after 45 minutes. Pat Sanderson was replaced by Ace Tiatia after 46 minutes for what we learned later was an injury.

Another penalty was awarded to Quins which Williams kicked to the Bath twenty two. Quins were awarded a penalty from the line out as Bath pulled down the jumper. Burke scored and Bath led by 16 – 9 after 51 minutes.

Quins turned over the ball from the restart. Bath attacked Quins just outside the Quins twenty two and were awarded a penalty. They kicked for touch. Galasso replaced Mallett after fifty five minutes. Bath won the line out but an excellent tackle from Greenwood on Tindall turned over the ball and Burke was able to clear the Quins line.

On 56 minutes Danielli was replaced by Matt Perry. Barkley was running the game for Bath with long cut passes and kicks behind the Quins defence. Quins pressure was neutralised by Bath spoiling and slowing down their possession. Vander was having an excellent match in this regard. Quins rucking was poor as Bath were allowed to dominate the tackle area. After 58 minutes Bill Davison was replaced by Jim Evans and after sixty minutes Jonathan Humphries was replaced by Andy Long. Humphries had thrown into the line out well but Long began to struggle and Quins gained the upper hand in this area. After 61 minutes Chris Bell who had had a quiet game in attack was replaced by Bill Satala. Quins continued to attack and enjoy possession following Bath conceding a number of penalties but Quins were unable to get over the advantage line. On 67 minutes Gomez was replaced by Jon Dawson. Quins were still only a converted score behind.

Bath turned over Quins ball and from the resulting scrum a short pass by Cooper saw Maggs split the Quins defence in two. Williams tackled Maggs but the ball found its way to Balshaw who was well tackled by Jewell (who marshalled Balshaw well throughout the match). Quins were beginning to throw the ball to Evans at the front of the line out. I have to say this is something I haven’t seen them do this season and they managed to secure possession and gain ground through the driving maul. Unfortunately poor handling cost them turnovers. After seventy five minutes Scayesbrook replaced Man of the Match Adam Vander.

After 77 minutes Bath advanced into the Quins half after a good running line from Maggs pierced the Quins defence. The ball was recycled to Barkley who chipped the ball over the Quins defence for Tindall to collect and score under the posts. Barkley converted and Bath lead 23 – 9. Beattie and Malone came on for Gavin Thomas and Olly Barkley. Codling was replaced by Simon Miall. Codling had spent some time having treatment and was helped from the pitch with a suspected broken nose. Duncombe was also replaced by Bemand.

In injury time Quins attacked the Bath line and were awarded a number of penalties but wasted possession as they chased a bonus point. The Quins management would have been very upset by the way they seemed to lose all structure and threw the ball all over the place. This was summed up when the ball was passed directly backwards to Jon Dawson who was not expecting the ball. The referee, Chris White, who had had an eccentric second half played 9 minutes of injury time. The referee finally brought the game to an end and Bath won 23 – 9.

This was a poor game of rugby. Neither side covered themselves with glory. Bath should have put Quins away in the opening twenty minutes and Quins were fortunate to still be in the game with fifteen minutes remaining. Quins were outplayed in the tackle area which meant that the backs were continually receiving slow static ball. The Quins back row which had such an excellent start to the season were outplayed by Adam Vander and Nathan Thomas. Vos appeared subdued for the second match in a row. I wonder if his shoulder is causing him a problem or if he is showing the effects of a tough Currie Cup campaign. Alternatively Vander could have stolen his Kryptonite. Codling and Diprose had their work cut out in the line out as Tani had an off day with his throwing. I was pleased to see Quins vary the line out towards the end of the game by throwing to the front to Jim Evans. Quins rarely opposed Grewcock in the middle or Nathan Thomas at the back of the Bath line out. Bath were therefore able to secure excellent possession.

Luger did his best to get involved but rarely saw the ball out wide. I was glad to see him last eighty nine minutes. Jewell had a good game in defence and made a couple of good breaks. Greenwood did well in defence but was limited in attack by the quality of possession that he received. It’s easy to mark Will out of the game if you know that there is no threat from Quins’ static half backs. Quins rarely showed any intensity. I wonder if they miss Tiatia’s driving play from the start. Up front I was expecting the Quins scrum to dominate Bath but was disappointed that they managed to get the push on us. Burke was outplayed by the more creative Barkley. Bath’s defence were continually up on Quins but we never thought to chip the ball behind them. Williams had a good day running with the ball but his kicking was poor.

After the match Mark Evans was asked about Quins inability to win away from home. They haven’t won since March 2001 in the League which is a run of eighteen matches. “It was pretty flat, we’re not playing very well away from home at the moment and I don’t know why that is.”

I asked Mark why there seemed to be little invention as Quins were awarded a lot of penalties. “The first half penalty count was 7 – 6. They played well in the first half hour and I thought we defended well. We let one in, binned a couple of chances. We never generated anything quick at the tackle area and if you don’t generate anything quick in the tackle area it’s very hard to get any kind of rhythm into your game and we weren’t able to because they were able to put us under more pressure in that area. The quality of their line out better was better than the quality we got. The quality of their possession was better than ours and they were able to present the ball better than us and their game had a bit more flow than ours. I don’t think they had more creativity than us I think they had a better base. Our base wasn’t good enough today.”

“It was good to see Danny back. He would have scored if someone had given the ball to him. There weren’t many pluses to take out of that. It wasn’t awful. It was ordinary. We never got any momentum. That’s what rugby is about in the modern game, momentum, and we weren’t able to generate any. In a way we were reduced to pegging it back and I felt we didn’t do enough or get hold of it. It would have been a bit harsh if we’d nicked it. It wasn’t a good performance.”

Mark was asked if he was worried that the team would get in the same situation as last year. “If I thought we were going to get into that situation than I would be (worried) but I’m not.”

View looked better in Bath. Pic Binky

Bath coaches Mick Foley and Brian Smith were happier men. Foley said “That was a step forward. I thought we showed some great attacking stuff in the first half. We could have ended up with a couple more tries but certainly we had a great attack and sometimes that’s more to do with what happens off the ball. Our support was excellent with quick offloads which gave us more opportunity to get forward at the breakdown. That win is based a lot of defence. Richard Graham and the boys talked a lot in mid week about making ground in defence and each time we defended today I thought we drove Harlequins back. It not only has tangible effect on the game at the time but a big psychological boost. Guys were hard in the tackle area and there was support to receive offloads.”

Smith said “I thought our half backs were excellent today. Coops covered a lot of territory. I thought Barkley played quite well and our kicking game helped with our two tries. Our kicking game was sound. The first twenty minutes were outstanding. A few of us might have thought we were the Harlem Globetrotters we turned over too much possession which is an area we will have to improve on. We battled away in the second half. Our defence in the last five minutes is as good as we’ve had all year.”

Foley explained. “I thought we tried to overplay things or take the wrong option. We got knocked around a bit with the decisions in the second half. We’ll be submitting our report this week about the referee. We used Tony Spreadbury this week for training and were pretty happy with his decisions. We’ll have a look at the video to check on our discipline.”

“Balshaw tries things, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t but his overall attitude is infectious and he is a devastating attacker. We’ve got another one in our armoury in Matt Perry and another one in Mike Catt. I think Olly Barkley is first choice number ten now. He lost his way a little bit last season but he has come back.”

Bath: 15. Balshaw, 14. Danielli, (Perry 56 mins) 13.Maggs, 12. Tindall, 11.Voyce, 10 .Barkley (Malone 78 mins), 9. Cooper (Williams 84 mins) 1. Barnes, 2. Humphreys (Long 60 mins), 3. Mallett (Galasso 55 mins), 4. Borthwick, 5. Grewcock, 6. G.Thomas (Beattie 77 mins), 7. Vander (Scaysebrook 77 mins) 8. N.Thomas

NEC Harlequins: 15. Nathan Williams; 14 Rob Jewell.; 13. Will Greenwood; 12. Chris Bell (Satala 61 mins) ; 11. Dan Luger; 10. Paul Burke; 9. Nick Duncombe (Bemand 74 mins) ;1. Jason Leonard; 2.Tani Fuga; 3. Laurent Gomez (Dawson 67 mins) ; 4. Bill Davison (Evans 58 mins) ; 5. Alex Codling (Miall 78 mins) ; 6. Andre Vos (Capt.); 7. Pat Sanderson (Tiatia 46 mins) ; 8. Tony Diprose

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