Bath win in their sleep

Bath 34

West Hartlepool 22

IT WAS a day more suited to water polo than rugby, and the ball sometimes appeared to be auditioning for the next Imperial Leather ad. Even the usually fly-paper hands of Jeremy Guscott were seen to spill the ball.

In these conditions, Bath against West Hartlepool was never going to be a classic. The home team coasted to victory. But to their credit, West Hartlepool never said die. Afterwards their captain Tim Stimpson even thought that his team had "turned the corner".

When Guscott danced over after a minute and a half, a cricket score looked on the cards, but the visitors fought throughout like West Hartlepool terriers. They never once allowed Bath to get out of sight.

Indeed, they posted the last two scores of the game - tries from Owen Evans after a break by Paul Hodder, and No 8 Paul Evans breaking free from a melee of players. In the process, West Hartlepool became the first team to score three tries against Bath this season. They are obviously grittily committed, but as they remain rooted to the bottom of League One with no points to their name, they looked in need of the flair that someone like Mark Ring - mooted as a potential coach - would bring.

After Guscott's early score, West Hartlepool laid siege to the home line after a canny kick by Hodder. From a tap penalty, the tight-head prop Mike Shelley bullocked over, oblivious to two defenders clamped to his back.

After Jon Callard and Stimpson had exchanged penalties, Bath produced the handling movement of the day. Callard, who had an impressively secure afternoon under the high ball and also passed the 1,000-point mark for Bath during the match, fielded a West Hartlepool kick-through on his own 22. He fed Jon Sleightholme, whose head was bandaged up like a Russian roulette player from The Deer Hunter. The Bath left-wing sliced across the field to devastating effect and put in his opposite wing, Audley Lumsden.

With Martin Haag, as always, showing up well in the loose and West Hartlepool's brave forwards visibly tiring, Bath's pack started the second half driving forward almost at will. In the 48th minute, another scything break by Guscott set up a rolling maul, from which Ben Clarke plunged over. Eighteen minutes later, pressure from a scrum five metres from the West Hartlepool line led to a penalty try.

The home team then took their foot off the accelerator. You couldn't help but agree with the home supporter who shouted out "Wakey, wakey, Bath".

But as the cliche would have it, like the Liverpool FC of old, the mark of Bath's greatness is that they win games even when they're not playing well.

Bath: J Callard; A Lumsden, P de Glanville (capt), J Guscott, J Sleightholme; R Butland, I Sanders; K Yates, G Dawe, D Crompton, M Haag, N Redman, S Ojomoh, E Pearce, B Clarke.

West Hartlepool: T Stimpson (capt); O Evans, P Hodder, A Elwine, A Blyth; A Parker, D Patterson; P Beal, T Herbert, M Shelley, C Murphy, K Westgarth, D Mitchell, R Leach, P Evans.

Referee: A Rowden (Berks).