Cardiff Harlequins 10 - 3 Bath

Zenith West Division 1

21st March 2008

With two wins in two weeks over league leaders Bath, Harlequins are piling the pressure on the West Country outfit as the race for promotion to the Premiership reaches its climax. This victory, ground out in splendid spring sunshine, means Cardiff must beat Cheltenham on the last day of the season, and hope Bath slip up on the road at Portsmouth University, to claim a place in the promotion play-off. Bath, suffering from injuries and missing several key players, battled gamely throughout but ultimately could not live with Cardiff’s firepower up front in what was a scrappy encounter.

Despite taking the lead early through top scorer Alan Croft, Cardiff struggled to find a rhythm and found their offense and transition frequently undone by poor decision making. With Bath obviously under-strength, there was an air of complacency about Harlequins’ approach, and they were fortunate that Bath only managed a single goal in the first period to share a 1-1 scoreline at the break. Things improved somewhat during the second quarter for the hosts, as Croft completed a hat-trick and midfielder James Gibson profited from space created by a Mike Peters cut, driving from behind the goal to beat Bath keeper Dan Weil in the top corner. However, poor delivery and lacklustre finishing cost Quins a chance to extend the gap even further – one exception being an inspired ‘coast-to-coast’ run by long-stick defender Phill Pexton which was finished with the aplomb of a veteran attacker. At the back, communication was lacking and Bath capitalised with a superb crease cut and finish by welshman Rhys Morgan, to narrow the Cardiff lead to 6-2 at halftime.

The story of the second half was not much different. Cardiff were profligate, particularly on man-up situations, and were uncharacteristically wasteful in transition, failing to execute fundamentals properly. It was their good fortune that Bath were not at full strength, as a better side would have punished these mistakes with goals – Bath’s only consolation coming again from Morgan with an instinctive finish from the crease which gave goalkeeper Matt Grindle no chance at point blank range. At the other end, Rory Peters notched up Cardiff’s only extra-man goal, and midfielder Chris Lee twisted and turned his way through the Bath defence to score a fine individual effort. Attackman Will Barrett grabbed his first of the game right at the whistle, taking advantage of an unsettled defence to dodge on South of England defender Tom Fewson and finish past Weil before help could arrive.

With the result all but settled, Cardiff fell back into the same mistakes that had plagued the first quarter and were guilty of a lack of intelligence with pass and shot selection. In defence, Rory Dewhurst was quietly putting together a man of the match display with yet another consistent and unflustered performance, but Bath rarely troubled Grindle’s goal. Barrett grabbed his second with minutes remaining to push the Cardiff tally into double figures although Harlequins will be well aware of their shortcomings which ought not to be masked by the convincing 10-3 final score.

Next week Harlequins host 3rd placed side Cheltenham, who have already beaten Cardiff this season, and will need to see significant improvements across the board if they are to profit from any help offered by the students of Portsmouth – any hint of complacency will be exploited in full by their league rivals.