Sale Score Five Against Struggling Bath
Bath-v- Sale
By Glen Leat
November 30 2002
Bath travelled to Manchester with with a warning from Michael Foley about the strength of the opposition ringing in their ears and returned with a five try hammering as Sale ran out winners 36-18.
After steadying the Bath ship a couple of
weeks ago, the last two loses show we are
taking on water at an alarming rate and could
soon sink in to Division One.
In their first Friday night sell out of the
season Sale spent the first twenty minutes
soaking up Bath pressure, though they could
do nothing as the Bath forwards powered their
way over the try line for James Scaysebrook
to score his second try of the season. At
10-6 up the travelling Bath fans must have
thought they were in with a chance as their
team was easily holding its own. However
ex-England winger Steve Hanley put paid to
any thoughts of a shock away victory as he
stormed in for two trade-mark tries in both
halves setting up what was to eventually
be a very easy win for the home side.
Mike Catt's re-appearance for Bath can only
be classed as a cameo as he left the field
after just five minutes of play. This forced
a total reshuffle of the Bath backs with
Olly Barkley moving forward to fly-half and
Tom Voyce replacing Barkley. The decision
to play Catt has to be bracketed with the
decision Nasser Hussain made a few weeks
ago when he elected to put Australia in to
bat in the First Test of the Ashes series
- total madness. It has been widely reported
that Mike Catt is not fit and needs a lengthy
lay-off if he is to continue his rugby career
so why risk him in this game? One could almost
question whether our management team pressed
the "panic button" when discussing
the selection of the team to play Sale after
watching a very poor performance against
Bristol.
Of course it doesn't help our cause when
our two most senior players get sin binned;
both Jonathan Humphreys and Danny Grewcock
found themselves on the touchline staring
at the stop watch and this really isn't good
enough. Forget any complaints that in binning
is often down to the vagaries of the officials,
any player who gets binned has put himself
in the position to be cautioned and whether
or not a decision is deemed harsh the player
should have known better in the first place.
It's just a shame we don't get bonus points
for sin binning because we would probably
be well outside the relegation battle by
now!
There are murmurings in the Bath ranks about
whether the coaches can get us out of this
current pickle and if owner Andrew Brownsword
has the rugby heart to provide the resources.
Jack Rowell has already said that we have
to ride out this season so the Management
Team can make the longer term player changes
that will see Bath move forward but is this
really acceptable? Jack sounds like a Chancellor
of the Exchequer who tells everyone to accept
lower pay settlements this year so the country
can afford more next year. That's ironic
when it was the over inflated pay deals for
under performing players that got us in this
position!
There is a mathematical (though unlikely)
chance that we could go bottom this week-end,
that's a nice thought to help with your rest
and relaxation. There is a statistic that
says Christmas is the most depressing time
of year for many people, well I'm no Mystic
Meg but I predict there will be more than
a few depressed Bath supporters this Christmas!
Let's look at the result of your prediction
for this game:
|
11%Let's have a look at the latest league table.
So what did you think of the Bath players
in this game? Vote by clicking on to here
Bath scorers
Tries: Scaysebrook, Danielli
Cons: Barkley (1)
Pens: Barkley (2)
Drop Goal:
Bath: