Bath Shade Tight Clash

The Old Days
By Glen Leat
February 20 2003

On Friday February 4th 1994 a second string Bath team took on Newbridge. I covered this match for the Bath Chronicle because reporter Alan Pearey was at Twickenham watching England. I have reproduced my match report to bring back a few memories as England get ready to face Wales on Saturday.

Newbridge must be cursing their luck as they came within a whisker of beating Bath at the Rec for the first time in almost 12 years, with fly half Jeremy Lloyd's penalty kick just dipping under the bar four minutes in to injury time. This was a fitting end to a match in which both sides pressed for victory and either could have won.

Captain for the night Andy Robinson was pleased with his young charges, saying "At times we played some good fast rugby and if we had won more good quality second phase ball we would have scored a couple more tries. But for a side containing players who were only playing their third or fourth game in the Bath first team I though we did very well."

Nevertheless Robinson needed the help of two of Bath's old warriors in the back row, Egerton and Maslen, together with the strength of Dave Hilton at prop to control a very strong Newbridge pack.

Bath started well, leading through two penalties by 21 year-old Brisbane boy Haydn Long, one from 40 yards. But the Welsh side began making regular forays into Bath territory and, after having one try disallowed for a forward pass, Richard Brown broke through a Jon Bamsey tackle to score in the 21st minute. Bath soon regained the lead with another Long penalty to make the score 9-7 at half time.

In the second half the game continued where it had left off, with both sides taking the lead through penalties but, in the 63rd minute, Robinson tidied up a line-out, flipped the ball to Tim Beddow who passed inside for Mike Lloyd to crash over the line. The conversion to take Bath nine points clear seemed a formality but Long was soon engulfed by a charging pack of Welshmen as he steadied himself for the kick, and there was stunned disbelief around the ground when the referee ran towards the halfway line happy that the charge was legal. Just for a moment the kicker looked the loneliest man on the Rec.

Another trade of penalties was followed in the 75th minute by a further piece of trickery from the impressive Richard Brown, who cut across the Bath defence to set up fellow centre Jonathan Hawker in the corner for the final try of the match.

Bath
H Long, M Woodman, J Bamsey, R Stuart, M Lloyd, E Rayner, M Olsen, D Hilton, T Beddow, K Yates, P McCoy, M Matthews, A Robinson (capt), N Maslen, D Egerton

Newbridge
W Taylor, S Reed, R Brown, J Hawker, G Harding, J Lloyd, M Hale, R Buckley, M Wysocki, B Fisher, A Collins (capt), P Kawulok, D Roberts, J Pugh, P Crane

Referee: Paul Murgatroyd (East Midlands Society)

Estimated Attendance 700

Can you believe this was just nine years ago? Seems like half a lifetime to me. I remember Haydn Long as a very small Aussie who was in England for a short time and loved the whole Bath FC thing, he loved chatting to us in the Flowerpots. I always thought Pat McCoy could have had a good career but I think his studies got in the way. Can anyone remember M Matthews?

I find it funny to read the estimated attendance figure of 700. I remember Clive and I sitting alone in the press box (with "The Boy" as well of course) and I said "I have to quote the attendance, how many do you reckon?" "Between 600-800." says Clive. "Ok, we'll split the difference and say 700." I reply. Hey I hope that figure is not counted in any record books!

If you have any memories of this game or the players why not share them on the messageboard.