By Glen Leat
October 26 2002

The enigma that is Mike Catt showed itself in both forms today as Bath narrowly lost 20-22 to the Leeds Tykes at The Rec. The late inclusion of Catty cheered all Bath fans on the day that JC returned to his roots and didn't the man with the paws make a difference to the end result!

Mike Catt made this game let no one be in doubt about that fact. From the first minute, when his chip kick was intercepted and developed in to a scrum under the Bath posts from which Leeds took an early lead, through some marvellous marshalling of his backs to the ill-advised attempt at a drop kick after 73 minutes when Bath were pummelling the Leeds line when, with a bit more patience, a try was imminent. From the quick start after the low drop-kick crossed the Leeds line the visitors chased upfield and scored what was to be their match winning try.

Mike Catt looked fit and inspirational - he wanted to make a difference. Having been used to the static play created (sic) by Chris Malone in recent weeks, the Bath backs had a feeding frenzy off Catt's running and passing. If you ever wanted to know the difference a good fly-half makes to a game then compare last week's turgid affair with this exciting game. That Bath didn't win this match is not Mike Catt's fault; yes he made some crucial errors but without his vision we would not have scored two of our three tries. The first came from a cross-field kick that evaded the hands of attackers and defenders alike until Matt Perry leapt on it and the second was a delicious chip forward which Olly Barkley refused to give up as a lost cause. Sheer class! The third try was an eighty-fifth minute dive in to the corner by Simon Danielli and had Olly Barkley converted the difficult touchline kick we would have earned our third home draw of the season; as it was we had to settle for a near thing and a single bonus point.

Despite the loss this was probably Bath's best display of the season so far with forwards and backs working together to break through the very strong "rugby league style" Leeds defence. The Yorkshire coaches have drilled their players well and one could easily have been forgiven for thinking this was a League side playing Union; and just like their League counterparts, The Tykes play a very clever "offside" game that confuses the officials and infuriates the opposition supporters no end. Referee Chris White is not normally the most liked man in the middle when visiting The Rec but he was roundly booed today as he struggled to keep control of two packs of forwards intent on gaining every advantage possible. In fact the fans were so hacked off that many booed Van Straaten as he attempted a penalty kick, this is something I never thought I would hear at The Rec.

Chris White was inconsistent throughout the game and he capped it all by telling Bath coach, Richard Graham, to get off the pitch whilst allowing the Leed's waterboy to relay messages from JC on the bench - ludicrous. Personally I have no problem with touch line coaching but we must have consistency and all this did was to wind up a few players and the majority of the crowd.

As expected the match up between Humphreys and (a strangely bearded Regan) was fiercely competitive and in this personal duel Humphreys came out on top, though Regan will claim the victory as his team won the match. Regan was struggling in the scrums, getting wound up in the loose and his line-out play matched the standards we were used to when he was at Bath. It was interesting to watch the normally passive Danny Grewcock having a "a bit of a session" with Ronnie in the middle of the pitch. I have been thinking for some time that genuinely funny banter is a dead art form at rugby these days but one wag restored my faith as he shouted to Ronnie just as he was throwing in to a line-out, "Come on Ronnie anyone in Blue will do, make it a first at The Rec!" (it loses a bit in the translation from spoken gag to written page but take my word for it, the timing was impeccable). True to form Regan obliged and he set up another Bath attack.

We may have lost this game but great strides were taken forward after last week's shambles and Bath have to go to Quins next week believing they can snatch the points.

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

Question: Will Bath beat Leeds? Yes 60% No 26% Draw 0% Don't Know 14%

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: Perry, Barkley, Danielli
Cons: Barkley (1)
Pens: Barkley (1)
Drop Goal:

Bath:

15. Matt Perry 14. Simon Danielli 13. Mike Tindall 12. Kevin Maggs 11. Olly Barkley 10. Mike Catt 9. Gareth Cooper 1. Simon Emms 2. Jonathan Humphreys
3. Alessio Galasso 4. Steve Borthwick 5. Danny Grewcock 6. Gavin Thomas 7. Dan Lyle 8. Nathan Thomas