Bath 31-23 NEC Harlequins

By AlanQuin
January 29 2007

A first half in which Bath starved Quins of possession of the ball and scored three converted tries by dominating forward play and good running was allied to a second half in which, despite a courageous and incisive performance by Quins, the referee appeared to have lost the power of sight,

failing to award at least two of four clear touchdowns.  The result was that Quins lost this match by 31 – 23.

Quins started well, benefiting from Malone’s error when his starting kick failed to travel the required ten metres.  From the resulting scrum the ball was carried powerfully by Vos and Easter and a good box kick from Gomarsall took play into the Bath twenty-two where at another scrum Quins had a free kick and then a penalty for offside.  Jarvis made no mistake with his kick and after three minutes Quins led 0- 3.

Bath began to assert themselves and the penalty count began to go against Quins.  An optimistic penalty attempt from inside his own half saw Barkley’s kick fall short but Brown’s clearance missed touch and Bath counter-attacked vigorously, gaining a penalty inside the Quins twenty-two.  From the resulting line-out, five metres from the Quins’ line, the catch and drive proved irresistible and Borthwick was driven over for the try which Barkley converted to give Bath a lead which they never lost after only eleven minutes at 7 – 3.

The penalty count against Quins now increased.  Another Barkley kick for the posts missed its target.  Further attempts to repeat their earlier try were frustrated but strongly contested and Nick Easter earned the first of what was eventually two yellow cards for slowing the ball down.  Another penalty saw Barkley, with another successful kick, increase the lead to 10 – 3 .

Bath were having most of the possession and moving the ball wide at every opportunity with fluid running and good handling and passing and as the first half-hour ended an excellent reverse pass from Scaysbrook allowed the winger, Joe Maddock, to slice through a gap on a fine diagonal for a good try under the posts.  With the conversion added the score was now 17 – 3 as Easter returned from the bin.

Then an offence at a lineout brought Quins a penalty and another penalty shortly after saw Jarvis’ 40-metre kick reduce the gap to 17 – 6.   But worse was yet to come. Barkley broke through a gap in Quins’ defensive line to run almost to the line only to be brought down by Strettle’s fine chase and try-saving tackle.  Unfortunately for Quins it was Malone who followed up and crossed to score unopposed.  Barkley converted and half-time arrived with Bath leading 24 – 6.

It was a much more determined Harlequin team that came out for the second half.  They were immediately on the attack and within a minute or two had a penalty which Jarvis kicked successfully from 30 metres to reduce the arrears.  Then a poor Bath clearance was fielded by Mike Brown who started the counter-attack and looped round onto the left wing to take the final pass from Luscombe to score in the corner.  Jarvis converted from wide out and Quins were back in the game at 24 – 16.

A further Quins attack should have gained another penalty when Grewcock was blatantly offside at a ruck and made no attempt to roll away but Mr Debney, the referee, decided to reverse the penalty for alleged excessive use of the boot by Paul Volley as he sought to ruck Grewcock away.  Bath now increased pressure on their visitors retaining the ball through many phases as they sought to break down Quins’ defence.  In the end they did so, creating an overlap on the left which allowed their centre, Fuimaono-Sapolu, to score.  Barkley added the points to increase the  Bath  lead to 31 – 16.

Quins were immediately back on the attack and from a line-out following a penalty So’oialo appeared to touch down for a try only to see the score denied by the referee.  With Quins camped on the Bath line another apparent score by Easter was not given.  Clearly some sort of vision deficiency was affecting the officials as the touchdowns were clearly visible from the Press Box.  Quin s continue to attack with So’oialo causing Bath problems as took quick penalties and went for the line.  Eventually another touchdown by Easter was given as a try and Jarvis added the points.  The Bath winger Abendanon was shown a yellow card for an offence in the ruck on the line.

Another mistake at the restart gave Quins a scrum on the centre line and almost immediately a fine break by Vos and Skinner broke through the Bath line and saw the Skinner hauled down as he reached the line, stretch out and touch down and then have the score denied for an alleged double movement.  Nick Easter, apparently protesting the decision to the referee, was shown a second yellow card and a red one!

But the force was no longer with Quins.  Bath was able to run the clock down to win by 31 – 23.  Quins can certainly feel that this was a match lost for them by the poor refereeing as well as their own poor first half.  This was only the sixth Premiership match for Mr. Debney.  It should be his last for some time.

After the match, Dean Richards was clearly disappointed that his side did not earn even a losing bonus point, saying: "There's a huge amount of potential in the side and perhaps we could have come away with something. Bath deserved to win but it was disappointing to get nothing. I was pleased that the guys kept at it. We did allow the ref. to get to us but, once we put that to one side, we began to play some rugby.”

He too was mystified by the disallowance of apparently good tries by So’oialo and Skinner and clearly felt that the officials got it wrong.

Bath: N Abendanon; J Maddock, E Fuimaono-Sapolu. O Barkley, M Stephenson; C Malone (S Bearne 46min), N Walshe; D Barnes, L Mears, M Stevens, S Borthwick (capt), D Grewcock, A Beattie (P Short 73min), Z Feaunati (G Delve 58min), J Scaysbrook (M Lipman 51min).

Harlequins: M Brown; D Strettle, H Luscombe, S Abbott, S Keogh; A Jarvis, A Gomarsall (S So’oialo 60min); A Croall, T Fuga, M Ross (R Nebbett 70min), O Kohn (J Evans 70min), N Spanghero, A Vos, N Easter, P Volley (capt) (W Skinner 70min).

Scorers:

BATH: Tries: Borthwick, Maddock, Malone, Fuimaono-Sapolu  Cons: Barkley (4) Pens: Barkley

HARLEQUINS: Tries: Brown, Easter. Cons: Jarvis (2) Pens: Jarvis (3)

Referee: R Debney (RFU)

Attendance:10,600