Bath struggle against the mighty Quins
By Nicola Curtis
November 5 2011
Bath were unable to overcome the power of league leaders Harlequins this afternoon, as the visitors put on an impressive display to beat the West Country team at the Rec.
The first truly autumnal day for a home game at the Rec this season blew in not only damp leaves and mud on the ground, but the current leaders of the Aviva Premiership, Harlequins. Bath have been on an encouraging run of late, beating Newport and Worcester by a mile, and snatching a last minute win against London Irish in Reading. Quins, who have been beating all who come before them this season, would prove a much stiffer test.
Bath started really brightly, with some smart and switched on play that steam rolled the home side into the opposition’s 22. Sam Vesty had the opportunity to put points on the board for Bath with just one minute played when Bath were awarded a penalty. It looked as if Bath were going to notch up three points but the ball hit the posts and fell into Harlequins’ arms. The visiting team cleared, but Bath’s good start continued when they were awarded another penalty a few minutes later. This kick was also missed and although Bath could have been six points clear, the scoreboard remained at zero.
Quins remedied this near enough straight away, when the always impressive Nick Evans stepped up and kicked their first penalty. Bath reacted well and moved quickly across the field in lots of space. Tom Biggs nipped up the wing and it looked as if he had piled over the line with his mates until the ref signalled that the ball had been held up. The subsequent scrum- at the third time of asking- was good from Bath and the ball popped up to the right. Dave Atwood slammed over for a try and Vesty converted.
Far from carrying on playing well after this score, Bath went downhill rapidly from here, and Quins turned it on. A Quins penalty which was kicked to the corner resulted in a try when Chris Robshaw went over the line. The conversion was kicked successfully; Evans, as ever, was magical with the boot. Quins kept attacking and were rewarded with another penalty, this one taking the score to 7-13. It was all Quins for the next 10 minutes with Bath just about hanging on. The defence, while not as good as last week against Irish, certainly held strong here for a while.
A tight decision from the ref meant Harlequins had a scrum 5m from the line. While the referee didn’t make any glaring mistakes, from my (admittedly biased) viewpoint, Bath were not getting the rub of the green. In this case, the ball was cleared away by Nick Abendanon.
Bath had hold of the ball for the last few minutes of the first half and played well. No points were scored though, and although it is an obvious point to make, it was not taking the chance to get points on the board when we had the ball that was part of the problem today.
In the opening of the second half, Bath were trying hard, but were totally pinned back by Quins. Bath were making lots of small mistakes which added up to a disappointing display.
Soon Evans, then Vesty, then Evans again successfully kicked penalties, taking the score to 10-19.
All Bath attack at this point was cancelled out by Harlequins and the referee. Nick Evans missed a rare penalty, and with 20 minutes to go, Bath began to wake up a little.
On the 12th minute mark, there were some energetic breaks from Bath. There was lots of space, but Bath players made the wrong decisions and ran into the Harlequins’ defence. When Quins were penalised, Vesty kicked to the posts. He was lucky to get the points, for the ball hit the sticks and only just went through.
There was light at the end of the tunnel for Bath, but it was turned out pretty sharply when a few awful missed tackles and a strong break from Mike Brown from behind the 22 resulted in a try and conversion by the visitors. Although Bath fought to score a try at the end to get a bonus point, I think we had all lost interest by this point. The whistle blew to signal the end of the match and I was left with an overall feeling of annoyance at Bath’s performance.
This result was down to Harlequins’ superiority but I couldn’t help but feel that Bath had really not helped themselves through poor kicking, a weak scrum and capitulation in promising situations. I thought this would be a tough game, and so it proved.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:11:11:17:31:23 by Glen The Ed.
