By Glen Leat
November 10 2002

Bath won their first home game of the season as they speared a very disappointing Sale Sharks with a 24 - 18 victory. But don't let the joy of a win at home kid you in to believing Bath are back on form, this was another poor performance but at least we walked away with the points.

Matt Perry failed to beat a late injury and so was replaced by Rob Thirlby at full-back. The Cornish ex-Saracen is apparently Leeds bound and on the strength of this performance Michael Foley should call in to Bath Spa station on his way home tonight to buy Thirlby a one-way ticket to Yorkshire. The lad was awful and given a series of poor performances I cannot ever see him making it at Bath and an early off-load is required. Thirlby cannot beat any tacklers as he runs out of defence, he cannot make up his mind what to do when he has the ball so often ends up slipping and sliding as his brain does mental somersaults and his ball handling skills make him eligible for the England cricket team; on one occasion Thirlby dropped a ball on his own twenty-two metre line when under no pressure and so set Sale up for a scrum in a great attacking position - pathetic.

Simon Danielli was not much better but at least he was able to gain satisfaction from two hoofed balls upfield, one which led to Bath getting a penalty try and the other putting us in a position which eventually led to Chris Malone scoring a drop goal. But other than these two pieces of opportunistic play Danielli still looked out of the game and unable to penetrate the Sale defence when he had the ball in his hands. Why is it that the slight Tom Voyce can break tackles and score tries with defenders hanging on his back whilst the beefy Danielli plays like he is made of eggshell?

Bath got off to a nightmare start as Sale winger Steve Hanley ghosted past the home defence as though he was a wraith instead of a 223 pound heavyweight beast; oh-oh I thought as the Bath defence backed off the ex-England winger, here we go again, get ready for a humiliating cricket score. Fortunately Sale were as poor as Bath and instead of building on this great start the visitors decided to give Bath a chance by conceding penalty after penalty and dropping the ball at crucial times.

As at Quins last week Bath are very good a pummelling the opposition line but they are not so good at breaking it. At one stage Sale conceded three penalties in a row on their line and it was likely that another infringement would see the referee raise his arm and run under the posts to award a try. But what did Humphreys do at this stage, did he toss the ball to Cooper and instruct his pack to get ready for a mighty shove to either get a try themselves or enjoy a penalty score courtesy of Geraint Ashton-Jones? No, he opted for a kick at goal - very disappointing. There are times to go for goal and get points on the board but this was not one of them. The game was just 12 minutes old and Bath were in control; a try at that time would have given the forwards so much confidence on which to build for the rest of the game. For me this sums up the Bath approach to rugby - wrong decision at the wrong time! Fortunately within a few minutes Tom Voyce grabbed the ball, pumped his legs and despite the valiant attempts of two Sale tacklers dived over the line for Bath's opening try. This lad should be in the team every week.

Three minutes later Voyce showed his defensive skills as he intercepted a certain try scoring opportunity for Sale. Mike Catt put in one of his many aimless kicks upfield only to find it easily taken by Vaughan Going who hared off down field like a lover being chased by an angry husband with a shotgun. A floated pass towards Hanley looked destined to trouble the scoreboard until Voyce stepped in to save Catt's blushes. Talking of scoreboards I see the new temporary board has now stopped working - what a professional outfit we have at Bath Rugby both on and off the field!

Sale scored a try just before half-time much to the despair of those in the East Stand as they clearly saw Sale knock-on, the referee indicate he was playing advantage to Bath yet all of this was conveniently forgotten by the officials as the Bath (advantage) clearance was scuffed and Sale easily ran in for their score. Had the end result hinged on this moment of confusion you can bet your boots the video machine would have been working overtime at The Rec this evening.

Olly Barkley secured one of his three penalty kicks shortly after the re-start to make the score 11-15 to the visitors and it looked as though the match could easily drift away from the home side. Gareth Cooper took a knock and was replaced by Andy Williams. Within a few minutes Danielli hacked the ball upfield and Bath were awarded a penalty try after the Bath winger was tackled without the ball as he chased a certain touchdown. Sale then tried to give the game to Bath as Going dropped the ball on his own line but neither Crockett nor Danielli could score the try; had this been a football match the comparison would see both players standing in front of an open goal with the ball at their feet, the goalkeeper stranded yet managing to hook it wide! You don't get too many chances to score these days and need a killer instinct in front of the opposition try-line, we currently don't have the capacity to injure our opponents let alone kill them off!

With the score at 21 - 15 Chris Malone dropped a goal to ensure victory. A late penalty from Sale saw the final score reach 24 - 18 and the Bath fans could go home happy with the result if not the performance.

Next week's clash at Newcastle is a good old fashioned "eight pointer", let' hope we travel a bit better than we did to London last week.

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

Question: Will Bath Beat Sale? Yes 16% No 64% Draw 0% Don't Know 2% Don't Care Anymore 19%

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: Voyce, Penalty Try
Cons: Barkley (1)
Pens: Barkley (3)
Drop Goal: Malone (1)

Bath:

15. Rob Thirlby 14. Simon Danielli 13. Alex Crockett 12. Olly Barkley 11. Tom Voyce 10. Mike Catt 9. Gareth Cooper 1. David Barnes 2. Jonathan Humphreys
3. John Mallet 4. Steve Borthwick 5. Dan Lyle 6. James Scaysbrook 7. Andy Beattie 8. Nathan Thomas