There's A Guy Down Our Club Swears He's Elvis

Elvis?
By Glen Leat
April 11 2003

Gareth Cooper and Elvis Seveali'i conjured up a little piece of magic in the 84th minute of a pulsating relegation battle to ensure Bath snatched a 18-15 win at the death against London Irish. There was not a lot of skill tonight but one hell of a lot of commitment from the blue, black and white.

As referee Chris White raised his hand to signal a successful drop goal for Barry Everitt in the 83rd minute the whole of the Bath Rugby family (to quote Jack of old) hung its collective head in its collective hands and got ready to look out the directions to clubs where we have not played at in many years. From where I sat the drop goal attempt looked wide of the mark, but as they say "check tomorrow's paper". This was a match winning score for London Irish but this is Bath, the team who have taken us to the very end of our tethers for so many years. Swift and Fallon late in the Cup games against Glaws when all was lost; Barnsey's drop goal against Quins at Twickenham and of course Lander's late score for us against Leicester a few years later.

Little did we suspect, as Olly Barkley re-started the game, that a simple knock-on by the Irish would result in a clever little run from the base of the scrum by Gareth Cooper who set up Elvis Seveali'i for his second try for Bath, again at a crucial time and again in the same corner of the Rec. What was "Victor's Corner" is fast becoming the property of Elvis - the king of ruck 'n maul (well he isn't really but it scans well and sound like rock 'n roll)!

Olly Barkley hit the post with his conversion attempt, his first miss of the night, the whistle blew for no side and the players and fans went wild. Few noticed the totally dejected Irish players traipse off the field only moments after they thought they had grabbed victory and almost certain safety in the Premiership. As the accolades are rightly saved for Coops and Elvis we should make mention of Olly Barkley. Like most other Bath players he has suffered greatly at times this season yet we have come to rely on him as our main points gatherer and on the few occasions we win penalties within kicking range, up he steps, does his little shuffle and slots the ball home. This boy is cool and he as much as the try scorers won this game for us. Well done mate!

The game opened with the usual Bath pressure which results in little but frustration on the terraces as Bath fail to capitalise on their possession and it was a testament to both sides (and perhaps even the referee Chris White) that despite the tense atmosphere it took 11 minutes before a penalty was conceded. The first kickable penalty went to the Irish after 15 minutes when a Bath player was adjudged to be in play and in front of Matt Perry as he cleared the Bath line but Barry Everitt missed from the half-way line.

However the away team got another chance to score when Mike Tindall was handed a guilty verdict by the touch judge for being offside when trying to intercept a long Irish pass. There was no missing this time and Everitt took the score to 0-3 and added a further penalty 10 minutes later. Bath, and in particular Mike Catt, were struggling with their touch kicks and kept placing themselves under great pressure when a few relieving kicks would have reduced the strain on the home side. Matt Perry generally looked safe in defence and it is great to have a proper full-back in the team, though it was his poor relieving kicks which set up the (disputed) last gasp Everitt drop goal at the end.

Just on half time Bath scored twice to end the break in the lead. Firstly Barkley kicked a penalty and then Kevin Maggs scored under the posts, or should I say on one of the posts to be more accurate. Steve Borthwick grabbed the ball and touched down to make sure but referee White had already awarded the try. 10 - 6 at half time.

The second half saw the game pick up where it had left off with Bath putting themselves under pressure and London Irish grabbing the lions share of possession. Everitt missed another penalty on 50 minutes but did better four minutes later to take the score to 10 - 9. Bath got themselves penalised four times for running in to their own players and this could have been very costly against a sharper team than London Irish; this sort of indiscipline in the forwards is not what we need when trying to wriggle our way out of the relegation battle and a fair bit of practice will be required in the loose play between now and when we travel to Ashton Gate.

London Irish took the lead after 58 minutes with another penalty but Bath retaliated after 72 minutes to take the score to 13 - 12. Bitten nails were lying all around the ground. Mike Catt spent all night trying to make things happen but he could not break the Irish defence and a leg injury forced him to leave the field late in the game. He smacked the ground in frustration at the injury but showed his commitment to the cause as he hauled himself on to one good leg to put in a strong defensive tackle.

And then we had the Barry, Gareth and Elvis show and Bath and Irish fans collectively experienced a range of emotions guaranteed to test the resolve of the best underwear Marks and Spencer can produce.

Phew what a night!

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

Question: Will we beat London Irish on Thursday? Yes 36% No 44% Draw 1% Don't Know 3% Don't Care Anymore 16%

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:

Perry , Danielli, Tindall, Maggs, Barkley, Catt, Cooper, Barnes, Humphreys, Mallett, Borthwick, Grewcock, Thomas, Beattie, Thomas

Relegation battle: To play: Bath: Bristol (A), Newcastle (H) London Irish: Leeds (H), Leicester (A), Bristol (H) Bristol: Northampton (A), Wasps (H), Saracens (A), Bath (H), London Irish (A) Newcastle: Gloucester (A), Northampton (H), Saracens (H)