We're Not Lucky Mr Rowntree, We're Winners!
Bath-v-Tigers
By Glen Leat
November 27 2003
It's the highlight of the season this Saturday for many Bath supporters as their team head to the East Midlands to face the old foe on their turf. The war of words off the field has already started with the Tiger's prop, Graham Rowntree, claiming Bath have been lucky so far.
"No disrespect to Bath but I don't think they can keep their momentum going throughout the winter," Graham Rowntree has claimed. Well Mr Rowntree I think you are showing a great deal of disrespect for a team that has won all but one of its Premiership games, lost a fair share of players to the World Cup and suffered an outrageous number of injuries in the back line. As all the top sportsmen in the world will testify you make your own luck: I could understand his comments if we had scraped through after three or four games but we have played 10 league matches and, perhaps excepting Rotherham, no one has rolled over for us!
It's a shame that Rowntree has come out with these comments because many people will see him as reflecting the view of his club, yet I can't imagine Martin Johnson making such disparaging remarks. Johnson would have paid tribute to a club that has miraculously turned itself around over the summer whilst commenting that the return of the World Cup players may make a difference during the second half of the season. No doubt Rowntree is trying a bit of pre-match psychology but hopefully it will backfire on him and positively wind up the Bath boys.
Bath travel to Welford Road to face the Leicester Tigers on Saturday in a situation reminiscent of years gone by. In recent seasons, during which the Tigers have dominated English rugby and Bath have been the whipping boys for most teams, we have not been able to enjoy an even contest but this time things could be different.
Bath coach, John Connolly, will decide on Friday whether he will play his
England World Cup winners though it is almost certain that Danny Grewcock will
play some part in this game and he has said he can't wait to get back to playing
for a winning Bath side after a personally disappointing World Cup. "It is
good to have the Cup Finalists back,” said Connolly, “Catty is in good shape and Iain
and Mike are both available.”
The biggest change to the Bath line up will be the absence of Michael Lipman,
who was given a three-week ban for illegal use of the boot against Harlequins, by
a RFU disciplinary panel in Bristol on Wednesday night.
The absence of Lipman means this will be the first time all season that Connolly has been forced to change the starting eight of his pack.
If the Tigers choose their returning World Cup stars the Bath pack will face their biggest challenge of the season to date. With the likes of of Johnson, Back, Kay, Moody and Corry turning out for their first game of the season Jonathan Humphreys and his powerful pack will do well to provide the platform the Bath backs have enjoyed all season, but let's not be too quick to assume the Tigers will have things all their own way. Humphreys has become an inspirational leader and his two props would get in to any Premiership team. Steve Borthwick and Rob Fidler have developed an awesome understanding with the back three and will test the out of form Ben Kay to the limit in the line out.
The fortress that is Welford Road has already been
breached this season and there is no reason why a resurgent Bath shouldn't grab
a win. This is likely to be a very close game but I think Bath can win by 5
points.
Possible Bath Line Up
15 Matt Perry 14 Wylie Human (Iain Balshaw) 13 Robbie Kydd (Mike Tindall) 12 Andrew Higgins (Mike Catt) 11 Simon Danielli 10 Olly Barkley 9 Martyn Wood 1 David Flatman 2 Jonathan Humphreys 3 Duncan Bell 4 Steve Borthwick 5 Rob Fidler 6 Andy Beattie 7 James Scaysebrook 8 Zak Feaunati
Click here to remind yourself about the last match against the Leicester Tigers.
Click on to the Leicester site for their perspective on things.
In preparation for this clash let's have a look at a few recent statistics:
Games Played
| Played | 18 | % |
| Bath Won | 5 | 28 |
| Tigers Won | 13 | 72 |
| Drawn | 0 | 0 |
Biggest Win
| Bath | 47 - 9 | 12 Apr 1997 |
| Tigers | 48 - 9 | 22 Sept 2001 |
Last Meetings (Bath scores first)
| 1 Nov 2003 | 31 -17 | The Rec | |||
| 1 Feb 2003 | 8 -15 | The Rec | |||
| 5 Oct 2002 | 20-22 | Welford Rd | |||
| 9 Mar 2002 | 9 - 27 | The Rec | |||
| 22 Sept 2001 | 9 - 48 | Welford Rd | |||
| 13 May 2001 | 10 - 22 | Twickenham | |||
| 26 Dec 2000 | 16 - 17 | The Rec | |||
| 16 Dec 2000 | 19 - 27 | Welford Rd | |||
| 21 May 2000 | 25-43 | Welford Rd | |||
| 26 Dec 1999 | 3-13 | The Rec | |||
| 03 Apr 1999 | 24-16 | The Rec | |||
| 07 Nov 1998 | 13-36 | Welford Rd | |||
| 14 Mar 1998 | 16-5 | The Rec | |||
| 25 Oct 1997 | 22-33 | The Rec | |||
| 12 Apr 1997 | 47-9 | The Rec | |||
| 07 Sep 1996 | 25-28 | Welford Rd | |||
| 06 Jan 1996 | 14-15 | The Rec | |||
| 23 Sep 1995 | 14-9 | Welford Rd |