By Glen Leat
November 2 2002

The Bath forwards must wonder why they put their bodies on the line as the backs again proved themselves to be the poorest in the Premiership whilst gifting Harlequins a 18-9 win at The Stoop. Despite a mass of possession and attacking positions Bath never looked like crossing the whitewash.

According to the match stats Harlequins spent almost the whole of the first thirty minutes of the match camped deep in their half defending a Bath onslaught yet only conceded three points despite being down to 14 men for ten minutes when Bill Davison was sin binned. Rarely can a team have had so much possession this season for such a prolonged period and not even had a stab at scoring a try; it was painful and pitiful to watch. The successful Bath teams of old were built around solid and steady packs of forwards, world class half-backs and and a group of exciting three-quarters sprinkled with players who could demonstrate greatness when the pressure was on. The current set up sees us with a pack which is improving as rapidly as our backs are deteriorating. There are of course exceptions.

In the forwards Dan Lyle proved today that his days as a first choice player are now over and James Scaysbrook should be ahead of him in the pecking order.Lyle was wholly anonymous in the pack and when he drifted out in to the back line he twice dropped the ball in crucial plays as Bath were attacking the Quins line. Scaysbrook kept a close hand on the very impressive Quins scrum half, Nick Duncombe, and it was no surprise that Duncan took advantage of the absence of the Bath flanker as he set up a second try whilst Scaysbrook was off the field because of the sin-binning of Simon Emms.

In the backs Olly Barkley stood out as a player in form as he saved two certain tries, the first as he rolled under the ball just as Nathan Williams was about to touch down and the second when he tackled Matt Moore who had intercepted an attempted catch by a very out of sorts Simon Danielli. Additionally Barkley lives with the pressure of kicking Bath to some sort of semi-respectability with his attempts at goal but even this wunderkid cannot carry the burden of the deficiencies elsewhere in the threequarter-line. Today confirmed that we cannot afford to play both Tindall and Maggs in the centre and if I had been coach at half-time I would have moved Barkley to the centre, Maggs to the wing and brought on Voyce to replace Danielli. When Voyce did eventually make an appearance he looked sharper and created far more chances than Danielli and it is about time the new -Scot was consigned to the United set-up as he is clearly not good enough to start for Bath.

Things got off to a bad start for Bath with the news that Mike Catt's hamstring was too sore to allow him to play and the out of sorts Chris Malone would be asked to deputise for the England man, once again the young Australian was out of his depth as he struggled to make any play for his colleagues in the backs and an attempted drop-goal late in the game was thoroughly embarrassing though he did put in a couple of good deep kicks to set up attacking line outs.

Bath had a chance to score in the first minute as Mike Tindall secured a penalty but Barkley missed the kick. A few minutes later Bath gained another penalty near the Quins line but instead of taking the three points Danny Grewcock opted for a scrum. Now this would have been a good decision had Grewcock then asked his pack to push at the line but instead he opted for a quick ball to the very static backs and up popped Dan Lyle to drop the ball - the wrong decision and a poor execution saw Bath give up an excellent pressure play.

Bath continued to attack but it took 18 minutes for Olly Barkley to slot home the visitor's first points from a penalty. After 30 minutes of soaking up pressure, Harlequins suddenly woke up and scored two tries in ten minutes. The binning of Simon Emms for pulling down a ruck was the turning point for the home side. They opted for a lineout instead of a kick at goal and seven Bath forwards against eight was always going to be difficult. After a bit of Quins' rolling and mauling the ball found its way to stand in stand-off Will Greenwood and the lanky back was able to lean over the line defenders and score.

Seven minutes later Nick Duncombe sprinted from the base of a Quin's scrum, fed Martin Moore who scored easily as the Bath backs looked on forlornly knowing they had let their opponents off the hook and missed a great opportunity to grab an away victory.

Bath started the second half as they did the first with plenty of driving play and they managed to claw the score back to 12 - 9 but never did they look like scoring a try and it was no surprise that their discipline broke down towards the end of the match and gifted Nathan Williams two easy kicks at goal to secure Harlequins a deserved 18 - 9 win.

A late substitution saw Andy Long replace Jonathan Humphreys who then threw away two line-out balls as Bath pressurised the Quins line - appalling! All afternoon our line-out play had been superb when up pops Long just as we needed accuracy and totally blew any chance we had of grabbing a late score to gain a losing bonus point.

Mike Tindall also limped off with his recurring leg injury and with Mike Catt's hamstring causing concern, England coach Clive Woodward must be worried about his lack of cover in the centre to face the All Blacks.

Next week we lose our internationals as we face high-flying Sale Sharks at The Rec and on today's form you have to fancy the visitors giving Bath Rugby a right good hammering! The vultures will be circling and getting ready to pick on the bones of the Bath coaches and on the strength of this display who can blame them.

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

Question: Will Bath Beat Quins? Yes 22% No 77% Draw 0% Don't Know 1%

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 (3)
Drop Goal:

Bath:

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