Winning Bath Team Fully Tested By Colomiers

By Glen Leat
January 17 2004

Bath staggered in to the next round of the Parker Pen Cup with an extremely narrow 26-17 home win over Colomiers taking the aggregate score to 58 - 42. The Colomiers' coach said they could cause a shock at Bath and his team certainly pushed their opponents in both legs of this tie.

Rob Fidler scored a try in the final moments of this game to make the difference appear greater on the scoreboard than it was on the pitch. There is no doubt that the patching up of the Bath back-line is taking its toll. The strength of the Bath pack has been greatly helped by the lack of change in personnel and it is amazing that the backs are still holding things together despite having the heart ripped out every other game. The backs may not have looked at their best today but we must give full credit to the players and coaches that this massive weakness in our game is not costing matches. Nevertheless we have to be disappointed today at the form of Kevin Maggs who, as the most senior player in the back-line ranks, is not making the sort of difference needed to take the pressure of the less experienced players.

Bath took the scoring honours during the first half hour with Olly Barkley kicking 6 points to Dubis' 3 but things went slightly awry for the home team when Barkley tried to nip up the blind side in the Colomiers 22 and lost the ball: Winger,  Larguet, gave the ball a whack upfield to clear his lines and managed to re-gather possession and run like a hare to score. Suddenly Colomiers were in front and, by sharing a penalty apiece with Bath, they kept this lead until the interval.

Refreshed with their half-time oranges, Bath regained the lead through Andy Beattie, who continues to shine up front, as he scored Bath's first try of the game: a successful Barkley conversion took the score to 16-11. Two more Dubois penalties and Fidlers' try, Barkley's conversion and another penalty gave Bath the win they craved. 

However the Bath form in this game will have given the coaches as many problems as solutions as they prepare for the much more important clash against Wasps in a few weeks time. Coach Connolly has been quoted as saying some of his "star" backs will be available by then, and on this showing he will be desperate to be able to pick a first choice back-line instead of the cobbled side he was forced to pick today.

We've enjoyed a wonderful season so far but this could be a very long run in for some mentally as well as physically exhausted players.

Bath Team

15 Simon Danielli, 14 Andrew Higgins, 13 Kevin Maggs, 12 Alex Crockett, 11 Ross Blake, 10 Olly Barkley, 9 Martyn Wood, 1 David Flatman, 2 Jonathan Humphreys, 3 Duncan Bell, 4 Rob Fidler, 5 Danny Grewcock, 6 Andy Beattie, 7 Micheal Lipman, 8 Zak Feaunati.

Reps: 16 Hentie Martens, 17 Lee Mears, 18 David Barnes, 19 Chris Malone, 20 Scott Gray, 21 James Scaysbrook, 22 Matt Stevens.

Colomiers Team

B Thiery; Y Larguet, J-E Cassin, J-P Grandclaude, F Sid; J-F Dubois, A Sallecanne; Y Forestier, T Algret, R Cheron, P Albacete, J-M Lorenzi, P Magendie, T Dusautoir, F Ntamack Replacements; C Laurent, J Tomuli, M Rolland, S Bohn, F Culinat, D Giannantonio, J Arias

Other Result

Harlequins

36-17

Montauban