Quins Lose at Bath

By AlanQuin
November 23 2003

After the emotional torture of watching the World Cup Final, one arrived at the Recreation Ground wondering if the afternoon could live up to the tensions of the morning.

. I wondered how we could concentrate upon a mere clash between 1st and 2nd in the Zurich Premiership table after the nerve wrenching start to the day.

There were parallels to Sydney. The heavy rain that had been falling all morning finally stopped to leave a very wet pitch and conditions that would not favour running rugby. There would be a tactical kicking game and forwards would dominate the proceedings.

Harlequins have only won once in the leagues at The Rec. That was long ago in March 1999. It is never an easy place to win. There was a full house of 9880 in good voice and the feel good factor of England’s victory was well evidenced by the singing of “Sweet Chariot” that broke out on several occasions. Quins’ support was also audible.

Almost from the start Bath were penalised for an offence at a maul, but from wide out on the left Burke missed the posts. The game ebbed and flowed in midfield.
Harlequin attacks led to some penetration of Bath territory until an error allowed the danger to be cleared. Bath attacks foundered for similar reasons, until after 4 minutes Bath were awarded a penalty on the 22-metre line and Barkley had no difficulty inn scoring to give Bath a three point lead.

Both sides began to try to rely on kicking for position and the game continued in midfield ebb and flow until after 15 minutes Harlequins had a penalty on the half-way line which Paul Burke kicked deep to the 5-metre line. A classic training ground move form the resulting line-out put Pat Sanderson in at the corner. Burke converted from the touchline. 6 – 7

Harlequins should have extended their lead a few minutes later when another penalty for a deliberate knock-on by Barkley was missed.

In the 33rd minute, following the intervention of the touch judge, Bath were reduced to fourteen men when their flanker, Lipman, was sent off for illegal and ungentlemanly use of the boot on Pat Sanderson. It was an advantage upon which Harlequins were unable to capitalise. The resulting penalty was missed.

Burke was having an unusually poor day with the boot. Nine points which would have been scored most days had been missed. Salt was rubbed into that wound when on the brink of half time Barkley landed another penalty from 48 metres to give Bath the lead at 9 – 7.

The second half was no better for Harlequins. Another penalty almost from the restart for offside made the score 12-7. Bath forwards began to show the reason for the team’s position at the top of the table with rolling mauls driving the Quins pack backwards. Burke took a blow to the ribs which caused him to be replaced by Dunne after some eight minutes of the second half.

Yet another penalty was conceded to increase the Bath lead to 15 – 7 and finally after 29 minutes of the half, Dunne converted a penalty from well out in mid-field to bring the score to 15 – 10.

As the defences tired on the heavy ground a good run by Danielli was ended by a despairing ankle tap saving a certain try and shortly after Ugo Monye was almost away from his own 22 – meter line but was bundled into touch.

Forty minutes came and went and Roy Maybank, the referee, seemed to be intending to allow the game to go on and on. Eventually the possible bonus point was also snatched away by yet another penalty which Barkley converted to bring the final score to 18 -10.

This was a poor performance by Harlequins who were careless in giving away penalties and in handling. The Bath pack carried the ball well and gave nothing away in the set pieces so that Harlequins needed to make better use of the ball when they got it. This they failed to do.

At the press conference after the game Mark Evans was clearly disappointed but thought that Bath were going to win the regular season and thought nobody could catch them.

“The man advantage did not have that much of an effect. Bath played the way they always do however, with a lot of composure and belief and their kicking game was superior to ours," Evans added. In dry weather, when running rugby is possible then the advantage might be made to count. .

He was asked about the return of Will Greenwood and Jason Leonard, But whether Jason goes straight back into the team depends, said Mark Evans, on whether they can get Jason out of the pub long enough!

Bath: M Perry; W Human, A Higgins, R Kydd (K Maggs, 66), S Danielli; O Barkley, M Wood; D Flatman (M Stevens, 70), J Humphreys (capt), L Mears, 72), D Bell, S Borthwick, R Fidler, A Beattie, I Feaunati, M Lipman.

Harlequins: G Duffy; S Keogh, C Bell, M Deane, U Monye; P Burke (A Dunne, 47), B Willis; C Jones (M Worsley, 58), T Fuga, J Dawson (L Gomez, 64), B Davison (K Rudzki, 58), J Evans, P Sanderson, T Diprose (R Winters, 64), A Vos.

Referee: R Maybank (Orpington).