Fez star in Bath’s Comedy of Errors
By Mike James
November 21 2010
Bath 13 Saracens 17 In spite of a spanking at the hands of Exeter last time out, Sarries must have turned up relishing the task against Bath, whose loss of the winning habit in the previous 3 Premiership games has set a worrying tone of expectant mediocrity amongst the faithful who turned out at 4pm this Sunday.
With the Theatre Royal closed on a Sunday, the BBW served up a true farce for us today, reaching a half-time lead of 13-3 without really getting going, then failing to score at all in the second half in a hapless performance which must be leaving the coaching staff scratching their heads. The game was 90 seconds in when Farrell junior popped up a kick deep into the Bath 22 which was gathered and knocked- on almost immediately, and this set the tone for the opening 10 minutes, Vesty having to bundle Strettle into touch to prevent a likely Sarries opener. In fact it was Bath who managed the opening points, Barkley converting from close to halfway after a Sarries scrum infringement. Not long after, Abendanon was (perhaps) fractionally late on the Sarries 12 who took an early bath as a result, and we will await the anticipated moanings & grumblings of Farrell senior and Venter before advising him to check his post from the RFU later this week.
Barkley’s second penalty followed on 25 minutes after Abendanon was undone in a tit-for-tat encounter, - described as an ugly kick by those around me, but they all count given Bath’s propensity to squander a good lead. (6-0) Abendanon’s try was a gem, Classen's kick from just inside his own half deflecting off De Kock’s or the ref’s head(still being debated) and our man sprinting through with two controlled fly hacks, gathering the ball at pace and going over for 11-0. Barkley converts and all looks to be going splendidly albeit there isn’t much structure. Countless knock-ons, scrum infringements, inaccurate line throws and a picky game from the ref all conspired to keep the theatre fare pretty average, and with the exception of Claassens, Taylor & Abendanon, it seemed that the Sunday omnibus edition of Corrie had captured the imagination of the rest. G&T looked stoically on as Bathbadger left the terrace after 36 minutes muttering, shortly after Farrell junior had plonked one over. 13-3. I think we all thought he was off to rustle up an alternative cast for the second half, and suddenly the ticket seemed good value for money. The normal Prozac-filled half-time séance gave up a new routine at the start of the second half with a grubber kick that didn’t go 10, and the curtain was up once more. We would have preferred a thriller but what followed was one of the worst second-half performances I have ever seen at the Rec, with Bath failing to add to their half-time total and having seemingly no alternative options to slinging the ball from left to right and eventually knocking on.
Young Farrell kicked through to the Clubhouse corner from halfway 10 minutes in, and Ratavou turned the Bath chorus line leaving Abendanon to have to cut back from the other wing to try and prevent Ratavou touching down. It was a close call, with 5 minutes of time allocated to officials debating correct grounding – Farrell ultimately converting the try given, for 13-10. Venter sent on 4 subs as Sarries smelt a win on offer. Within 5, after Bath had found a rare way of getting up field, the unfortunate Abendanon had a kick on his own 25 charged down by Short, the ultimate villain of this particular piece and the conversion followed for 13-17. Barkley left the field with a yellow after 38 minutes, his tackle to remove a Fez’s headgear adjudged marginally high, and just when Bath’s groundlings clutched at the straw of Big Duncan Bell with ball in hand, up stepped Hooper to knock on at the death to scupper a breakaway from Bath’s 22. Lacklustre it was. Theatre it wasn’t. Credit to Fez for being resolute all round. Teams are available on the Bath Rugby website. Good evening.
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