Bath Rugby supporter Glyn Edwards gives his take on events at The Rec...
Last week's 'ticket refund if Gavin Henson scores' publicity stunt failed to work either for Saracens or for the travelling Bath supporters on Sunday.
Allianz Park hosted a crowd of only 8,047 for the clash of the two remaining unbeaten Premiership sides – clear evidence of why the frustrated North London club's Chief Executive felt the need to tell me that it was "bloody hard work" trying to attract bigger home crowds, despite their recent success on the field.
There were to be no refunds for any of the visiting West Country fans as Henson – not yet firing on all of his international-class cylinders – failed to make the jeering Sarries fans pay for their club's somewhat tacky marketing ploy.
Henson's team-mates fared no better – particularly in the first half, in which their collective performance was woeful. Saracens secured their try-bonus point with almost embarrassing ease before half-time, as Bath seemingly contrived to make them look like clear favourites to be champions come May.
The undoubted talent that is the prodigal Welshman will surely come good at some stage, however, as Bath themselves did in a second half which restored some pride albeit long after the match points had been surrendered, unfortunately.
It is valid to point out that Saracens were understandably less focussed after the break, and that they had – perhaps prematurely – confidently replaced some of their key players within minutes of the restart.
But, regardless of how the home side played, Bath's performance-level went up by several notches in the second period, aided by some of the players 'rotated' to the bench after the win against Leicester.
In the post-match press conference Mike Ford was keen to stress that Bath's plan is geared to the big picture of the long season ahead, and that it just had not worked on the day, especially the first half performance which Gary Gold labelled as "atrocious".
From the day that the fixture list was announced the visit to Saracens certainly looked like the toughest of the early matches, and if Bath can beat both London Irish and Sale before the Amlin distraction – and Gloucester immediately afterwards – then five from six will be an excellent return from the first half-dozen games.
I must have looked very disappointed after the match, as Ford senior encouraged me to "keep the faith". There is no danger of that not happening, Mike, but I thought that we had missed an early opportunity to show a top-four team that we really are serious play-off contenders this year.
Bath must now look to underline that ambition against the Irish exiles at the Rec on Saturday and will need to address Sunday's first half line-out failings and scrum deficiencies if they are to do so convincingly, as well as keeping on the right side of referee Luke Pearce.
We would welcome any of the players to the Supporters' Club session tonight to listen to Tony Spreadbury's explanation of what this season's new scrum engagement calls were designed to achieve and how successful the global trial has been so far.
'Ask the Ref' will now be in the Illustrious Suite, having been moved to accommodate a sixth-form party in the clubhouse.
I will keep the faith, and continue to follow the team, but I do wonder how many of those same sixth-formers were at Allianz Park on Sunday or will be supporting the team up at Sale in just over a week's time.
