Watery Win In Bath

By AlanQuin
March 30 2005

In torrential rain on a Recreation Ground at Bath thoroughly soaked and showing many patches of standing water, Harlequins 2nd XV won their final Zurich A League match of the season beating Bath United by 3 points to 6 points.

If any chance of reaching the final had not disappeared with the injury time try conceded in the last match against Wasps, the conditions last night would have washed them away. It had been raining heavily all afternoon and it got heavier during the game. Ball handling skills were at a premium and keeping on ones feet, even when not being tackled, also required a high degree of expertise and luck.

Despite the conditions Harlequins sought to play their usual game and run the ball as often as they could using width and speed. Most such attempts ended in failure either as a result of a knock-on or the ball lost in the tackle or handling errors with the wet ball. Both sides sought to catch and drive from the line-outs and Bath clearly sought to impose their heavier pack as their principal weapon. But Quins were not wholly out-muscled and honours were fairly even in this aspect of the game.

Pez put Bath into the lead with a penalty after 15 minutes. He had missed with his first attempt at goal earlier and a few minutes after opening the scoring totally miskicked a third attempt. Quins continued to try to run with cross-kicks, chips and similar manoeuvres in an attempt to break the Bath defence. Attacking line-outs on both sides ended with defences paramount and the try-line uncrossed so that half-time arrived without further score.

There had been some strange decisions from the referee in the first half as the whistle seemed to blow most frequently in favour of the home team and that continued in the second half when a kick through was awarded a scrum as a knock-on! Bath reappeared in canary yellow shirts while Quins continued in their already saturated colours and the water polo continued.

After twelve minutes of the half Quins had a penalty for offside just inside the Bath twenty-two metre line and Greenwood kicked to level the score at 3 – 3. He tried again unsuccessfully from a greater distance some ten minutes later and finally with only some four minutes remaining a good run by Greenwood who was backed up by the forwards saw him driven deep into the Bath twenty-two in an impromptu running maul. The Bath defence strayed offside in trying to stop the attack and Greenwood had an easy kick to put Quins into the lead which they held till the end of the game to win 3 – 6.

To have given a blow by blow report of this match would have listed a long catalogue of errors by both teams. The real culprit was the weather which prevented any real rugby being played. Principal point of interest was the return of Will Greenwood from injury and for the whole match rather than the expected half. He was, of course, playing out of position but did pretty well. It was difficult to play well in these conditions.

So another campaign in the A league ends for Harlequins. The final will be contested between Leicester Tigers and London Wasps.