By Tigers Nik
September 18 2005

Just before the match I was sitting in the car thinking of witty remarks I could put in this report but I couldn’t concentrate, my mind kept straying as if warning me that Bath may have had a bad start to this season, but they were more than capable of pulling something out of the hat. Most visitors up their game when visiting The Fortress of Welford Road and Bath were no exception.

Would today be a repeat of our last meeting? With the referee being the same, would the same discussion of the scrums being pulled down be ringing in my ears in 2 hours time? I’d have to wait and see.

John Connolly stood and watched Andy Goode practicing his kicking for quite a while, probably noting that Goodey ‘changed his boots’ at least once! Every kick, from whatever angle, found it’s target and last season’s Premiership top point scorer was looking relaxed, giving him an air of confidence, the match v Saints being a long distant memory and of course we are very forgiving of our own.

The whistle blew and Bath kicked off, at this moment the hospitality seats in front of me started to be filled, it’s always the same with the hospitality visitors, they don’t take their seats before the start of the match as the free beer seems to be more inviting than watching a game of rugby. With the cheers getting louder and louder, my frustration was beginning to show as I started shouted at non-receptive ears, ‘sit down’. The home crowds cheer rose to fever pitch at the same time everyone rose to their feet, at that moment I realised I’d missed what was probably a brilliant TRY and I didn’t even know who’d scored it. So fellow rugby supporters all I can say is that Tom Varndell put the first points on the board in what I’m told was a sublime intercepted TRY after only 28 seconds with Andy Goode converting.

A Bath penalty was awarded after the restart due to Harry Ellis giving a visitor a ‘gentle’ push out of the way! Handed to Ollie Barkley right in front of the posts, there was no way he was going to miss, the score board read Tigers 7 Bath 3 with the time only just registering 3 minutes of play. Another penalty was awarded with Ben Kay being off-side and Barkley notched the visitors score within 1 of the home side.

With a line out on the Bath’s 22 the ball was passed out and flowed along the Tigers line, Gibson’s pass to Chuter then out to Healey, whose little back pass didn’t quite find it’s mark. Bath’s throw in saw Corry being dragged out by two Bath players which resulted in a scrappy few minutes with both sides showing their intent. Tigers were penalised for retaliating however the decision was reversed and Goode extended the home sides lead.

The points were notched up even further minutes later by Geordan Murphy, after the ball was passed over by Varndell, at the same time Bath’s Mr Perry took a liking to Varndell’s shirt but no amount of pull could stop the Tigers winger from missing his mark. Murphy’s TRY was converted by Goode to take the Home side up 17 to 6.

Bath fought back with Andy Higgins intercepting a Goode throw which saw him sprint over the line for a well deserved TRY, Barkley converted notching the scores back up for the visitors. Moments later Andy Dunne scored a drop-goal bringing the visitors tally to 16. After a promising start the Tigers were now playing catch up.

Going into the second half with Bath continually testing the Tigers, another ball was intercepted from Goode by Bath’s David Bory who scored a well deserved first TRY for his Club, easily converted by Barkley giving the visitors their first lead of the day.

Tigers started to regroup and minutes later Tom Varndell returned the compliment by scoring his second TRY of the day converted by Andy Goode giving Tigers a 4 point lead. The replacements by this stage were coming thick and fast for both teams, however most of this was missed by myself as it seems that the hospitality visitors in front of me must have been served with a plateful of ‘ants in their pants’ as they were up and down more often than ‘Lilo Lill’ on a good night!!

Bath were under tremendous pressure and started giving away penalties, two within minutes of each other which saw Andy Goode adding to the visitors misery by slotting the ball over the posts. Bath were then handed a penalty in the 76th minute which was desperately needed for the visitors to be awarded a bonus point, Barkley missed the penalty.

Late into injury time saw the last scrum of the match, the ball bounced out of the back right into the hands of Shane Jennings who bounded over the TRY line thus handing the Tigers a well deserved bonus point. Goodey converted bringing the score to 40 v 26.

TACKLE OF THE MATCH: HARRY ELLIS
BRADSTONE MAN OF THE MATCH: DARYL GIBSON