Forwards Drive Bath To Victory At Quins

By Glen Leat
September 25 2004

Bath ground out an 18-10 win to send Harlequins crashing to a four from four losing record this season and even managed to deny the home side a valuable losing bonus point. The Bath forwards replicated last season's form to give their team this massive boost and take them to 7th in the League.

Bath shut out Harlequins in the second half with a marvellous display of forward power and dominating defence to win at The Stoop after suffering too many recent defeats at the ground overshadowed by Twickenham. At times, the Bath forwards looked back to their best as their driving runs and passing interplay was wholly reminiscent of the games which took our team to the top of the league last season. However too often the dominating forwards looked forlornly back to their colleagues and saw a mixture of confusion and collision as the backs stood flat, crashed in to one another or just couldn't get moving.

At present our backs are not capable of matching the impact(sic) of the forwards and you get the feeling that if coaches Connolly and Foley could get away with playing fifteen forwards they would do so! One exception today was Lee Best, who played with composure and an assuredness totally belying the fact he has been out of action for 12 months. He took numerous high balls with ease and made one scintillating run which was only spoiled by his attempt at playing the ball in the tackle when he would have been better setting up a ruck for his forwards. After such a long absence from top flight rugby it was no surprise to see him hobble off the field with cramp after 60 minutes. Well done Lee!

Both Nick Walshe and Martyn Wood, who replaced Walshe after 52 minutes, tried to maintain a fast pace throughout the game but played scrappily and gave Chris Malone little opportunity to make the most of clean possession. When he did get the ball with time, Malone looked ponderous and was never going to set Barkley and Fleck on fire. The one time the Bath backs got in to top gear, Barkley ran at a retreating defence and beautifully set up Lewitt for a try with his first touch in Premiership rugby.

Andrew Higgins scored Bath's second try to wrap up the match on the hour after Bath had been pounding the Quins line for much of the second half without much penetration. It was amazing to see a statistic pointing out that Bath had 92% of the possession in the first eight minutes of the second half, with much of that in the Quins twenty-two, yet could could not penetrate to score. It wasn't that Harlequins had a mammoth defence it was more that the Bath forwards set up a platform but the backs did not have the skill or confidence to take the ball over the line. The closest Bath got to scoring in the first twenty minutes of the second half saw Malone drop the ball has he reached over the line.

The day started for Bath knowing two first choice players, Brendan Daniel and Joe Maddock, picked up late injuries so weakening the back-line further but when the rain started falling the coaches must have been rubbing their hands in anticipation as the conditions would certainly suit the Bath forwards and make life difficult for the likes of Moyne and Keogh.

Bath started the game with fast tempo play, seeming to shake free the torpor from which they had suffered in recent weeks and it was not long before Olly Barkley was swinging his boot through a successful penalty. However this was not to be a great day for Barkley with the boot and he only managed one more successful shot at goal despite sufficient opportunities to make this a far easier win for Bath.

Bath's fast, attacking play which appeared to be driving them towards a fair few points at the start of the game, soon became their undoing as Harlequins scored the first try of the game. Michael Lipman echoed the earlier play of Lee Best by flicking a pass from the floor into the waiting arms of Tony Diprose who set Keogh off like a hare to the Bath line. Alex Crockett again struggled on the turn to stop Keogh scoring, further demonstrating why he is not a winger, and it was not long before he limped off to be replaced by the debutant (try scorer), Kieron Lewitt.

This was an away win, which is what we wanted, and the performance of the forwards will have warmed quite a few blue, black and white cockles. However the ever deepening skills and confidence gap between forwards and backs means we are in for a torrid time over the next three weeks as we face Glawster, Leicester and Wasps. All three will take no prisoners and unless our backs can improve we could easily end up having played 7 won 2, lost 5 and that is not a position many thought we'd be in before the season started (excepting Messers Hignell and Barnes of course).

Harlequins: Duffy, Monye, Harder, Reay, Keogh, Staunton, So'oialo, Jones, Tiatia, Dawson, Rudzki, Miall, Sheriff, Vos, Diprose.
Replacements: Fuga, Fitzgerald, Winters, Horstmann, Molitika, Dunne, James.

Bath: Best, Crockett, Fleck, Barkley, Higgins, Malone, Walshe, Barnes, Humphreys, Bell, Fidler, Grewcock, Beattie, Lipman, Fea'unati.
Replacements: Lewitt, Mears, Stevens, Wood, Davey, Delve, Hudson.

Referee: Chris White