Harlequins v Bath
2nd November 2002

Bath Rugby struggled through their eighth successive premiership game without a win on Saturday, the defeat this time suffered at the hands of Harlequins at the Stoop.

Bath, who haven’t won in the premiership since the opening day of the season at the Meadjeski stadium, came out looking strong. Conditions in west London were miserable and having started strongly, it was Bath and the traveling support who left with dampened spirits. 

The first thirty minutes of the match saw Bath in complete control with the possession and territory of a team looking like they meant business. Harlequins hardly entered the Bath half.

The first of two significant points came after fifteen minutes; Bill Davison, Quins lock, was sin-binned for not rolling away. It was the perfect opportunity for Bath to make their mark on the game and put real pressure on the home side. They didn’t take it.

The second came soon after Davison returned; Simon Emms took a spell in the bin for a similar offence. Quins didn’t need asking twice. Will Greenwood opened the scoring for Quins, stretching for the line from the fly-half position rather than his more usual centre.

Nathan Williams converted the first try though missed the second conversion minutes later after winger Matt Moore crossed in the corner. As has happened before, an Olly Barkley penalty was all Bath had to show for their efforts at the interval as they trailed 12-3.

Barkley added another two penalties early on in the second half and with the points deficit just three points, Bath were still in touch. 

It was a credit to the forwards that at 15-9 down with another penalty and Barkley’s kicking looking more reliable than that of Paul Burke’s understudy, Williams, Bath went for the corner. Drives had been god all afternoon though what could have been a scoring opportunity passed with a wayward Malone drop-goal attempt.

Williams kicked only 50 per cent of his attempts at goal but he was given enough chances for accuracy not to count for that much; laws of probability suggest that if you have enough shots, enough will go over. And so it was that the final score was 18-9 and Bath came away without a bonus point.

Bath co-coach Brian Smith suggested afterwards that the team had “failed to pay enough respect to the conditions.” As a result, there were too many individual errors and in general the team “butchered some great opportunities.”

Bath now lie one place above Bristol at the bottom of the table and face the fourth-placed Sharks at the Rec on Sunday.

Rowen Whittle