 Butch James struggled on the rain-soaked outfield at The Rec |
Congratulations to Cardiff Blues, Munster, Harlequins, Leicester, Bath, Leinster, the Ospreys and Toulouse on reaching the Heineken Cup quarter-finals. I was watching Bath take on Toulouse on Sunday at the Recreation Ground where, 15 minutes before kick-off, the rain started to hammer down on an already sodden pitch. It created an ice rink where the players found it very difficult to stay on their feet, along with a very slippery ball. But all the same I was disappointed with Bath's performance. They had a couple of good opportunities to score and none better than when they were laying siege to the Toulouse try-line 10 minutes into the second half. They must have been camped inside their 22 for about 20 phases of play - then enter Butch James.  | 606: DEBATE |
Mr James decided to run into a ruck from the side and smash a Toulouse player out of the way, giving away an unnecessary penalty and undoing all of Bath's hard work. The South African was brilliant one minute, total twaddle the next. Unusually for this season, Bath looked disjointed in their play. This may have been down to losing captain Michael Lipman after only 15 minutes after an accidental clash of heads. The Bath scrum got a first-half pummelling from Toulouse. However, that was reversed in the second half when David Flatman came on for David Barnes. Toulouse did enough to win this game and would have done easily had Jean-Baptiste Elissalde not lost his kicking boots. Instead, the usually reliable France international missed a number of kicks at goal. I'm not really sure if the Bath players knew what was at stake going into this game. | I do not envy the Ospreys going to Thomond Park to play Munster |
Quite a few punched the air when the final whistle blew, apparently content with the draw, two points and an away quarter-final to Leicester. But Bath have not won in the league at Welford Road for years, although they did win at the Walkers Stadium at the same stage in Europe in 2006. That quarter-final, on paper, looks like a home win but Bath pushed them very close a few weeks ago in the Premiership. If Bath play like they did then and finish what they started, then a semi-final spot will be there for the taking. I do not envy the Ospreys going to Thomond Park to play Munster. The Welsh team have an amazing amount of talent in their squad, but I'm just not convinced they can win in Ireland. Leinster travel to play Harlequins, where the Irish team have to prevent themselves from choking as they have done on previous occasions in the knockout stages. Harlequins are new to this pressure, however, and if they can find their early-season form, they stand a great chance of winning at home.
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