Wasps shown up by Bath fighting spirit

Wasps 17 Bath

Bath used to lose cup ties about twice a decade, so their jubilation at winning one for only the second time since the dawning of New Labour – the last was five years, three tournament sponsors and a generation of players ago – was at the wild edge of extreme. They sweated buckets for it, too.

Danny Grewcock, a world-class second row, and Adam Vander, a worker ant with the heart of an elephant, were responsible for most of the perspiration, although Steve Borthwick and Nathan Thomas were far from dry in the forehead region. The West Countrymen may not have a front row worth a dime, but they are definitely top dollar when it comes to energy and desire.

Energy and desire are precisely what Wasps do not bring to the table these days, and Warren Gatland knows it. "Some of our players think they're better than they are," said the former All Black hooker, whose first full season in charge of the Londoners is rapidly flattening out into nothing much. "They learn how to do one thing properly, then get bored with it and move on to something else. They try to think outside the box, when they would be better off concentrating on doing what they know." Harsh, but true.

Wasps' obsession with abandoning simple, winning tactics in favour of something more sophisticated was never more evident than here, in front of a miserable crowd at Adams Park. Craig Dowd and Will Green had Bath in all sorts of strife at scrum time, yet failed to press home the advantage.

Simon Shaw, Richard Birkett and Lawrence Dallaglio should have gained parity at the line-out, yet foundered pathetically against Grewcock and Borthwick. Paul Volley should have given Olly Barkley, cultured but occasionally ponderous, some grief in the loose, but was easily subdued by Vander and Gavin Thomas, a two-pronged breakaway unit working in tandem off the base of the set-piece.

Add to that some distinctly un-Waspish pacifism in contact, not least at the start of each half when Bath scored 14 of their points, and Gatland was entirely justified in going for the jugular. Both Iain Balshaw and Chris Malone were waved through for tries – Balshaw slipped through what was no more than a bog-standard tackle, Malone evaded at least three of the same – and poor Peter Scrivener suffered so many indignities at No 8 that he was substituted well before the interval. "Enough was enough," muttered Gatland. "Four times into contact, four lost balls. We couldn't carry on like that."

Yet carry on they did, ad nauseum. Trevor Leota could not have hit a barn door with his line-out throwing (how do you miss a jumper the size of Shaw?), but he looked as dangerous as anyone close to the line, and when the spherical Samoan barrelled his way over for a try in the left corner, he brought Wasps back within a score at 14-20 with bags of time on the clock.

They really should have won from there, but further outbreaks of Teflonitis and some smash-em-down tackles from Kevin Maggs restricted them to a single penalty from Alex King.

The last time Bath won a match in this competition – 3 January 1998, by a measly point against London Scottish – they walked smack-bang into the Kevin Yates ear-biting scandal. Within a month, they were European champions. They do not inhabit such worlds now. They failed to qualify for this season's Heineken Cup, and if one of their current number attempted to bite anyone they would almost certainly miss. But at least they have some attitude about them. It is a start.

Wasps: Tries Penalty try, Leota. Conversions King 2. Penalty King. Bath: Tries Balshaw, Malone. Conversions Barkley 2. Penalties Barkley 2.

Wasps: J Lewsey; S Roiser (M Van Gisbergen, 45), S Abbott, F Waters (A Erinle, 55; J Beardshaw, 84), K Logan; A King, M Wood (R Howley, 45); C Dowd, T Leota, W Green, S Shaw, R Birkett, L Dallaglio (capt), P Volley, P Scrivener (M Lock, 35).

Bath: I Balshaw (C Malone, H-T); T Voyce, M Tindall, K Maggs, S Danielli; O Barkley (M Perry, 65), G Cooper (A Williams, H-T); D Barnes, J Humphreys (A Long, 55), J Mallett (A Galasso, 47), S Borthwick, D Grewcock (capt), G Thomas (A Beattie, 75), A Vander (J Scaysbrook, 66), N Thomas.

Referee: A Rowden (Berkshire).