Is there a game on?

By BrianC
March 17 2004

Amid all the excitement over the record crowd we expect at the Madejski this Sunday and what is traditionally our biggest day of the year, it has been easy to overlook the importance of this game.

If we wish to qualify for the Heineken Cup next season then, given our departures from European competition and the Powergen cup the next few games are crucial to our chances.

Bath are the only team we have not yet played this season, we now face them two weeks running. When the fixture list for this season was first published we were scheduled to play Bath on New Years eve. To everyone's great disappointment we had no St. Patricks game to look forward to. The subsequent decision by the RFU not to play 'A' Internationals alongside the Six Nations and to run Zurich Premiership games alongside the tournament opened a window of opportunity. It was one which our club seized.

Through most of the 80's and early 90's Bath were one of the elite teams of club rugby. Comparisons have been drawn with the Liverpool soccer team. That they have spent the last few years fighting relegation, missing it only by a hairs whisker last came as a reminder to us all of the old maxim that nothing is certain but uncertainty. Given their recent record, at the start of this season some bookmakers were offering 100/1 against Bath winning the ZP. They are now clear favourites to do so, only Wasps appear to have a chance of catching them.

Last season we lost both our games against Bath in the most heartbreaking of ways. In our first game of the season, at home, we lost 22 - 24 to an Ollie Barclay penalty taken from the half way line with the last kick of the game. This after what had appeared to be an inordinate amount of injury time. In one of the crucial 'relegation' games at the end of last season at the Rec we appeared to have the game in the bag after Barry dropped a goal deep into injury time to put us 15 - 13 ahead. One of the most gut wrenching moments of last season was then to watch our defence lost it's shape and let Elvis dance round it to score a try with the last play of the game.

After those defeats last year I feel we owe ourselves a big game against Bath. We had a bright start to this season but have faded since December. Our track record at the Madejski in front of big crowds also leaves a lot to be desired. On paper Bath should win this, but then we've never been much for paper, just as Alistair Hignel.

When we moved to the Madejski I was one of many who never dreamt we'd ever fill it. We will this Sunday for the first of what I now believe will be many times in the years to come. I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am to be wrong. We've come a long long way in a relatively short time.

The future is bright, the future is green.