Bath v Gr.A.N. Parma
19th October 2002

Bath Rugby is safely through to the second round of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup following their nine-try victory over GRAN Parma on Saturday.

Both Steve Borthwick and Andy Williams returned for Bath after lengthy layoffs, and following last week’s match in Italy, Matt Perry started at Full Back. Olly Barkley consequently moved out to the wing.

Simon Danielli took just five minutes to put the first points on the board though Barkley had a wobbly start with the boot and missed the conversion. There was no mistake the next time though; ten minutes later he was add the two points to Nathan Thomas’ try.

Kevin Maggs added two more in two minutes in stoppage time at the end of the first half and Bath went into the interval with a 24-0 lead.

The scoreline at this stage suggests that Parma had not had a look in, and that’s misleading. There were a couple of chances in the first half when Parma could realistically have got off the mark, but they were unable to capitalize. They were penalized for crossing first, and then Gareth Cooper and Simon Danielli were able to catch Frederico Quaglia after an intercepted pass by Chris Malone took the center 60 metres towards the Bath line.

Edoardo Candiago got the second half off to a better start for the visitors when he crossed the line, though Alex Crockett came straight back for Bath with the first of his pair for the afternoon.

With a quarter of the game still to play, Parma added their second try through Loosehead Luciano Artal, duly converted by South-African born Ruan Nel who had a brief spell at Bath. 

Nel went over the line himself as the half drew to a close, taking his points tally to nine, though rather than a consolation, it will raise questions amongst the Bath defence with Leeds Tykes their next opposition.

Whilst Parma’s defence was perhaps surprisingly good, particularly in the middle, they often left themselves exposed on the wings, which meant Bath were able to put together some well-constructed scores; useful practice for a team still improving each week.

Also making it onto the try sheet for Bath were Chris Malone, Gavin Thomas and Olly Barkley, leaving the final score Bath Rugby 57, GRAN Parma.

Rowen Whittle