Walshe magic conjures Bath a quarter-final spot

Nick Walshe's second-half try in France last night, allied to the boot of Olly Barkley propelled Bath into the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.

Brian Ashton's struggling Premiership side trailed Bourgoin 6-3 at half-time, but tries from Walshe and the back-rower Michael Lipman gave the English side a lead they never relinquished.

Bath's 22-9 victory is the first time a visiting side have won at Stade Pierre Rajon this season. The win guaranteed them a spot in the Heineken Cup quarter- finals, whatever happens in the match between Leinster and Glasgow in Dublin today. But Bath know a win over the Brian O'Driscoll-led Leinster side at the Recreation Ground next weekend will ensure a home play-off match.

Bourgoin went into this match as huge outsiders to make the quarter-finals, and they were facing a Bath side with 10 changes to the one which lost to Leeds Tykes in the Premiership last weekend.

The goal-kickers Alexandre Peclier and Olly Barkley swapped early penalties in the first quarter as both sides sorted themselves out. Peclier's second penalty goal in the 40th minute gave the home side their narrow lead at the break.

Ashton threw on the England prop Matt Stevens at the start of the second half, with his fellow Test front-rower David Flatman lasting only 40 minutes of his comeback from Achilles problems, only to see Peclier's third penalty put Bourgoin further ahead.

A piece of magic from the scrum-half Walshe, who powered his way over the try-line on the hour mark, took Bath to within a point of the French club and Barkley did the rest to give his side the lead for the first time in the match.

The back-rower Lipman crashed over for his side's second try, and Barkley's superb sideline conversion gave Bath a play-off-sealing eight-point lead.

The Welsh duo of Gareth Delve and Tom Cheeseman carved out Bath's third try. The replacement backrower Delve - who looks odds-on for a spot in the Wales squad next week - did all the hard work and offloaded to the exciting young centre Cheeseman for the score.

Bourgoin refused to give up, and their resistance prevented Bath securing a try bonus point to cap off a superb night for the throng of visiting fans.

Elsewhere, Ulster's already slim hopes of Heineken Cup qualification evaporated against Biarritz after a 24-8 defeat last night. The French side look likely to secure a home quarter-final after ending Ulster's run of 14 unbeaten games at Ravenhill, which stretched back to 2001.

The hosts had their chance with Biarritz spending periods of the game on the back foot and even had two men sent to the sin bin.

But the French side comfortably recovered after Ulster got the perfect start with Rory Best's drive-over score after five minutes.

Humphreys missed the tricky conversion but Biarritz quickly closed the gap with a Dimitri Yachvili penalty as the visitors piled on the pressure.

With frustration beginning to creep into the French ranks, Ulster looked to be asserting themselves going forward until, just before the half-hour, a lost lineout and poor Humphreys kick allowed Biarritz to counter and Philippe Bidabe to surge past Humphreys and put Sereli Bobo into the left corner.

Munster overpowered Castres 46-9, running in seven tries without reply.