By Glen Leat
December 21 2002

Bath travelled to the new home of London Wasps, Adams Park in High Wycombe, and stung their hosts with a first Powergen Cup win in five seasons. Despite desperately trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Bath clung on to a three point advantage and won 17-20.

Bath beat their hosts with two blitzkrieg-style attacks in the opening moments of each half. In the first half returning Bath hero, Iain Balshaw, slipped a tackle by Wasps scrum-half, Martin Wood, to run some twenty yards for a try after just four minutes and after forty seconds of the second half Chris Malone beat Alex King to run a similar distance to score Bath's second try of the game.

On a very wet and misty day, which saw both packs steaming like a Turkish Bath within the hour, the game was error strewn and not really an advert for the sort of running and handling rugby both side like to play but fortunately for the visitors, more mistakes were made by the home side and this contributed greatly to this surprise win. With the exception of the marvellously one-eyed supporters of Bath, the West Country team were not expected to travel to Wasps and win and so the players and travelling fans can drive home tonight enjoying watching and playing in a genuine Cup upset.

Bath dominated the early part of the match and it was only after referee Ashley Rowden awarded a penalty-try to Wasps that the game was squared after 12 minutes. The Bath pack was some eight stones lighter and this was very apparent as they were pushed and shoved in the scrums and this lack of parity contributed greatly to this home score. Away from the scrums Bath dominated the line-outs as Wasps hooker Trevor Leota had another nightmare throwing game and Bath skipper Grewcock dominated both in line-out and in the loose; Grewcock demonstrated to a national television audience that his England days are far from over as he leapt about like a salmon and snatched numerous loose balls to gain bonus possession for his team.

It took until the second half, when Wasps brought on Robert Howley, for the home side to take control of the game and Bath had to tackle like demons to keep the insect lovers away from the try line. Leota grabbed a try with ten minutes to go and an Alex King penalty four minutes later ensured the Bath supporters were kept gnawing at their nails right until the end. Fortunately for Bath, Wasps winger Kenny Logan had an appalling match and his inept decisions and actions helped reduce the pressure on the away team right until the end.

Gareth Cooper had another average game and was replaced by Andy Williams at half time and Simon Danielli again proved he would struggle to break out of a paper bag let alone through a Premiership defence. Iain Balshaw made more progress, though his defence is clearly not as dependable as his attacking is exciting and the young lad was also replaced at half-time to protect a damaged shoulder. Like Grewcock, Adam Vander continued to impress up front but it is worrying to see our front row totally out-played in the set pieces but let's not focus on the negatives; we travelled away to Wasps and won a Cup match - enough said. Well done Bath!!!!

Bath now move forward in to the quarter finals and a further test of the improvements being made at the Rec.

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

Question: Will Bath beat Wasps? Yes 43% No 49% Draw 0% Don't Know 8%

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

Bath scorers
Tries: Balshaw, Malone
Cons: Barkley (2)
Pens: Barkley (2)
Drop Goal:

Bath:

15. Iain Balshaw 14. Simon Danielli 13. Mike Tindall 12. Kevin Maggs 11. Tom Voyce 10. Olly Barkley 9. Gareth Cooper 1. David Barnes 2. Jonathan Humphreys
3. John Mallett 4. Steve Borthwick 5. Danny Grewcock 6. Gavin Thomas 7. Adam Vander 8. Nathan Thomas