By Glen Leat
September 8 2002

After the joy of the victory over London Irish at the Madejski Stadium Bath knew they were in for a much tougher time at Vicarage Road to face a team that had scored five tries against hapless Bristol. But this was the day Bath fans had dreamt of for months - the return of Mike Catt!

Unfortunately the dream turned in to a nightmare with Saracens teaching Bath a rugby lesson as they picked up where they left off last week against Bristol by winning 28-3 and scoring three tries. In addition to the return of Catty, Bath welcomed back Gareth Cooper, Mike Tindall and Simon Danielli yet the number of attacking plays could be counted on the fingers of one hand and Bath rarely placed the home side under any sort of pressure. The try scoring famine appears to be in its second season and if Bath don't do something about this soon they will be on the receiving end of many a defeat this season and will do well to better their glorious achievement last year of the second from bottom slot!

To make matters worse Bath skipper, Danny Grewcock, was sent off for an incident with his opposite number and (apparent) friend Kyran Bracken five minutes in to injury time at the end of the first half. This is a total disgrace; whatever the provocation Bath players know they cannot afford to lose anyone else to injury or banning and Grewcock has let everyone down by being shown the red card. With his partner Steve Borthwick some weeks away from full fitness coach Foley will have to juggle things around to try and fill the number five shirt. I just hope that Grewcock's actions do not force the coaching staff to field Borthwick before he is ready.

Discipline within the Bath team is essential and in addition to Grewcock's action Bath continued to concede penalties throughout the game with Mike Tindall giving away an additional ten metres on one occasion for his back-chat to the referee. Fortunately for Tindall, Goode missed his kick at goal but the England centre may not be so lucky in the future. Also Olly Barkley was sent to the bin when the referee decided that the Bath full back was deliberately offside.

Bath got off to a good start when Olly Barkley scored a penalty after four minutes and everyone on the Bath side suddenly believed that their team could carry on where they left off last week. However Saracens scored the first of three tries within ten minutes through Ben Russell and from then on in it was the Londoners game. Bath appeared to be disorganised up front, with their line-outs often in disarray - who said it was only Ronnie Regan who couldn't throw properly?

As in the previous matches this season Bath played better in the second half. They lost 21-3 in the first forty minutes and 7 - 0 in the second, and that was with only 14 players on the pitch. With Grewcock gone Dan Lyle, who had replaced Adam Vander in the first half, took over the captaincy and managed to persuade his charges that there was something worth fighting for - pride. It's just a shame that we cannot do this for the full eighty minutes!

With Buck Shelford coaching the Sarries it was definitely a case of New Zealand "One" Australia "Nil" today and unless things change dramatically this season Shelford should complete the double over his antipodean neighbours later this year.

With Wasps snatching a late win over Bristol this afternoon next week's encounter should be really interesting (I hope) but unless Bath can string a few moves together they will be on the end of another whipping by a team of Londoners. All of this is very reminiscent of the start of last season and Michael Foley will be very aware that Jon Callard didn't have the luxury of Jack Rowell, Richard Graham and Brian Smith as he tried to inject some skill and match-winning strategies in to the Bath play. It's worrying times down at the Rec and a victory next week is essential for all concerned.

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

Question: Will Bath beat Saracens? Yes 42% No 50% Draw 4% Don't Know 4%

Let's have a look at the latest league table.

So what did you think of the Bath players in this game? Vote by clicking on to here

Bath scorers
Tries:
Cons:
Pens: Barkley 1
Drop Goal:

Bath:

15. Olly Barkley 14. Simon Danielli 13. Mike Tindall 12. Mike Catt 11. Tom Voyce 10. Chris Malone 9. Gareth Cooper 1. Dave Barnes 2. Jonathan Humphreys
3. Alessio Galasso 4. Andy Beattie 5. Danny Grewcock 6. Gavin Thomas 7. Adam Vander 8. Nathan Thomas

Photo - courtesy of Stuart Anderton