By Glen Leat
October 12 2002

Olly Barkley again played a blinder as a scoring machine for Bath as the former European Cup Winners trounced GRAN Parma 40 - 3 on a soaking wet pitch in Italy. Alongside the returning Matt Perry and Andy Long, Barkley only missed one conversion of the six tries scored by Bath.

This may only be the second string European competition but Bath took it seriously and flew home from Italy with a valuable away win under their belts and, perhaps more importantly, a good competitive run out which saw those elusive tries being scored which will help in the preparation for a difficult encounter against Leeds in a couple of weeks.

Andy Beattie started the scoring with a try in the 23rd minute and Andy Lloyd added another before the break. At 14-3 up Bath were well in control and the second half avalanche of four further tries will have given the team extra confidence in their playing skills to improve throughout the season. GRAN Parma are obviously not on a par with the opposition Bath will meet in their domestic competitions but winning is a habit and every win, whoever it is against, is a vital ingredient towards end of season success.

Matt Perry was quoted before the game as being apprehensive about his first contact following a lengthy lay-off with injury but he can only have dreamed that his first contact would actually be with the ball and scoring a try in the 63rd minute.

Parma will be travelling to Bath next week for the return leg and they must be worried about the score Bath could post against them. However Bath must treat this next game as importantly as the first and look at it as preparation for the following week against the Tykes. That means playing as strong a line-up as possible so the players can practice their moves and get used to playing together.

Seeing how Bristol struggled in their opening match, missing out on the tougher Heineken Cup this year may have done us a favour as undoubtedly we would have struggled against the better teams and all this would have done is to lessen our confidence.

Well done Bath this result is exactly what we all needed.

Did you travel to the match? Have you any photos you want to share? Send them to me and I will post them on the site.

Let's look at the result of your prediction for this game:

Question: Will Bath beat Parma away? Yes 84% No 5% Don't Know 0% Don't Care Any More 11%

Scores GRAN Parma Pen 37 mins (Nel) Bath Try 23 mins (Beattie) Conv (Barkley) Try 28 mins (Lloyd) Conv (Barkley) Try 48 mins (Scaysbrook) Try 55 mins (Nathan Thomas) Conv (Barkley) Try 63 mins (Perry) Conv (Barkley) Try 69 mins (Barkley) Conv Barkley

Bath:

15. Barkley, 14, Thirlby, 13, Maggs, 12, Crockett, 11, Voyce, 10, Catt, 9, Cooper, 1, Emms, 2, Long, 3, Mallett, 4, Beattie, 5, Grewcock , 6, Scaysbrook, 7, Lyle, 8, Lloyd