Bath "Come On Without" Lipman To Beat Quins

Whilst the Bath coaches may have put a ban on their players watching the World Cup Final the supporters were clearly suffering the backlash of England's magnificent victory as they continued to roll in to the ground 10-15 minutes after kick-off and required more "pee-breaks" than ever before. Not only was the game disjointed on the field, with countless injury breaks, it was very ragged off the field with much grumbling and complaining (mainly from me) as large chunks of the game were obscured by supporters standing up to let the late arrivals get to their seats and the "small bladder brigade" relieve themselves. A word of advice for both categories of supporter - either buy a watch or don't drink more than your bladder can hold!

Harlequins could have taken the lead in the first minute with a penalty attempt but Paul Burke missed and it was just 6 minutes later when our "Boy Wonder" stroked home the first of his six penalties from the touchline. But it was the visitors who were to be the only try-scores in this game when, after 15 minutes, Bath were penalised for pulling down at the line out. Burke kicked for touch and from the line out, Quins' hooker Tani Fuga took a return tap from the throw in and passed inside to Pat Sanderson who stormed over the Bath line. Hey this was not in the script! Paul Burke took heart from Barkley's kicking skills and swung in a lovely kick from the touchline to give his side a 3 - 7 lead.

Three minutes later Olly Barkley made the score 6 - 7 with his second penalty after his forwards had struggled to make much headway. For both England and Bath, today was all about accumulating points and (if necessary) grinding out a victory and if that meant "Winning Ugly", as sported on the T-shirts in Sydney this morning, so what?

Bath seemed to be trying to emulate England in that they were clearly the better team but still spent the whole game offering the opposition a chance to steal the win at the end. Jonathan Humphrey's was penalised for taking too long to get the ball in to a Bath line-out, mainly because his jumpers were swapping places like it was a game of musical chairs. Our kicking up-field appeared to be aimless at times, though Robbie Kydd stuck in two magnificent Cattesque long spiraling clearances.

Despite the majority of the game managing to match the drabness of the weather there were several things to warm the cockles - firstly Olly Barkley chipped a lovely little kick off the side of his boot to offer Simon Danielli a good chance in the corner (which he couldn't take) and Matt Perry was running on to the ball from Quins clearances like a child who has just learnt to catch - great stuff.

Referee Roy Maybank took a fair bit of stick from my part of the ground for his apparent lack of control: well I wonder how the moaners would have felt had he been injured as the replacement was our old mate Ashley Rowden? It may be Maybank's continuous inane grin that upset the supporters because he appeared to be calling most things correctly, and the big decision to show Bath flanker, Michael Lipman, flanker the red card for stamping came from the intervention of the touch-judge. Whether this was right or wrong only Lipman will know.

A 40th minute penalty from Barkley saw Bath steal a half-time 9 - 7 lead.

Almost as soon as the second half started, and certainly before some people got back to their seats, Bath were awarded a penalty some 35 yards from the posts despite the fact that Martyn Wood had chipped the ball to within a yard of the Quins' line: where was the advantage in that? Thankfully Barkley kicked his goal but we would have been more than a little miffed had he missed - where are you Ashley when we need you?

The rest of the game trundled through the motions with Bath scoring two more Barkley penalties to one by Paul Burke's replacement, Andy Dunne. It was not a game to fire up the emotions but then again most of us were drained from our morning exertions.

This was a dull game but one in which Bath snatched 4 Premiership points whilst not giving up a losing bonus point, and with only 14 players for a large part of the match, so we have to look favourably on the result and the performance. It's Tigers away next Saturday and the thought of "doing the double" has whetted my appetite already.

Let's have a look at the latest league table.

Scorers