HEINEKEN CUP POOL FOUR: Bath 22 Ulster 26: BATH'S only victories since September have come at Aironi and against Cardiff Blues in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, modest opponents in one case and a development tournament in the other.
The optimism generated by the takeover of the multi-millionaire Brice Craig earlier in the year has given way to a despair that gnaws away with every defeat.
Ulster’s fourth victory over Bath in 14 months left the West Country club out of the equation for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals and with little chance of qualifying for the Challenge Cup quarter-finals.
Tries in each half from Adam D’Arcy and Nevin Spence and a superb kicking display by outhalf Ian Humphreys, who booted 16 points, were enough to give the province back-to-back victories over their West Country hosts, who are now all but out of the competition.
Their recalculated goal now is to qualify for next season’s Heineken Cup, but having failed to win any of their last five Premiership matches in England, even that relatively modest target looks more Everest than anthill.
Since recording a bonus-point victory over Sale at the Rec, Bath have lost to Gloucester, Biarritz, Saracens, Wasps and Ulster at home. All bar the first have been by narrow margins, but a side that scored 10 tries in its opening four matches has managed 13 in the next 11.
Bath used to be the Premiership’s adventurers, prepared to run from everywhere, and while their counter-attacking instinct has not been snuffed out, they are now more pragmatic.
They are stronger defensively, but not to the point where they can protect leads. They have lost their fluency and not even the return of Butch James pointed them to salvation.
Bath recovered from a poor start last season when James, the South Africa outhalf, started his campaign five months in, but their rugby is no longer natural. He helped create their two tries on Saturday with long, defence-splitting passes, but the reshaping of the back division, partly to England’s comfort, compromised understanding.
Shontayne Hape played in his England position of inside-centre, but he struggled to pass under pressure. James’s presence meant Olly Barkley had to play for his goal-kicking and he wore 13, although he acted as first receiver.
Matt Banahan was on the wing, the one outside-back who frequently off-loaded, a feature of Bath’s game that has dimmed.
Ulster came from behind twice in a week to put themselves in line to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time since they won the Heineken Cup in 1999.
Bath are more confrontational than they were and there were some feisty exchanges among the forwards but in Humphreys, Ulster had the player who showed calm and control in the chaos.
Ulster were behind from the first minute until, with James in the sin-bin for joining a fight, they took play through 19 phases, eventually creating the space for Spence to cross in the corner.
Spence was later sent to the sin-bin in a case of mistaken identity, but Bath had left themselves with too much to do.
“I felt like we lost it today, not that Ulster beat us,” said James.
Ulster are on course to make the last eight at least as one of the best runners-up.
“To win in Bath is massive for us,” said Humphreys.
Head coach Brian McLaughlin has warned his side they must not lose focus and warned players they must return their attentions to their Magners League aspirations with a busy festive period on the horizon.
“We’ve got two big games coming up in the Magners – at home to Leinster on the day after St Stephen’s Day and Munster in Limerick on New Year’s Day,” he said. “The big games just keep coming.”
And, despite the win, McLaughlin was not overly impressed by his side’s performance.
“We are just very happy to have a win today,” he sad. “We knew we had a tough job. In the first few minutes we looked a bit ropey but we clawed our way back to 14-13.
“Actually, I didn’t think we played that well today. Bath put us under ferocious pressure at times. We upped the intensity though and we cut our cloth a bit in the second half, playing a wee bit more the percentages. We knuckled down and knew what we had to do. If we had control we had a chance.
“I said to the players afterwards: ‘We’ve done nothing yet’. We’ve just got to keep winning.”
A Matt Carraro try and three Barkley penalties had put Bath 14-13 up at the break, but a fine Banahan try after the interval was not enough to prevent them from falling to defeat.
Bath coach Steve Meehan could not hide his frustration.
“It’s very frustrating. The Heineken Cup is a competition in which if you don’t play for the full 80 minutes, you’re not going to win your games,” he said.
“We gave them the opportunity to score 10 points in the first half when we should have cleared our lines.
“We are well aware that if we had played throughout with the intensity we showed at times, we should have run out comfortable winners. For whatever reason, that’s just not happening.”
While Bath resign themselves to non-qualification for the second season in a row, the Ulstermen can now look forward to an epic encounter with Pool Four leaders Biarritz on January 15th.
Guardian Service
ULSTER: D'Arcy; Trimble, Spence, Wallace, Danielli; Humphreys, Pienaar; Court , Brady, Botha, Muller (capt), Tuohy, Wannenburg, Faloon, Diack. Replacements: Barker for Tuohy, Henry for Diack (both 57 mins), McAllister for Court (70 mins)
BATH: Cuthbert; Carraro, Barkley, Hape, Banahan; James, Claassens (capt); Flatman, Mears, Wilson, Hooper, Grewcock, Beattie, Moody, Taylor. Replacements: Barnes for Flatman (51 mins), Abendanon for Cuthbert, Fernandez Lobbe for Grewcock, Skirving for Beattie (all 57 mins)
Referee:Pascal Gauzere (France).
