Borthwick brightens Bath's day

Bath 57 Parma 13

Time was a balmy October Saturday at the Recreation Ground guaranteed a thrilling exhibition of running rugby and a glance at the score-line might suggest that Parma suffered like so many teams before but despite their obvious superiority, Bath can take little pleasure in such a mediocre victory.

What were the good points? The return of Steve Borthwick and first start since February for Matt Perry are ovious pluses and both appear to have bulked up a little during their respective rehabilitations. Borthwick resumed his excellent second row partnership with Danny Grewcock, calmly collected the first three line-outs and the re-start and generally looked a powerful player. His support work was unstinting and his tackling aggressive. All in all, a welcome 40 minutes for the player and club.

Similarly for Bath's two-time Lion, Perry, who tried to inject an attacking threat from full-back and was genuinely keen for work. The problem was the backs rarely got over the gain line, the last 25 minutes notwithstanding when the Italians visibly tired, and part of the blame for that must go to Chris Malone, deputising for the injured England utlility back Mike Catt at fly-half.

Malone rarely challenges the defence, content to rather shovel the ball out to the centres and let them take the crash ball forward. Kevin Maggs excels at this but if Bath are to clamber above the bottom four of the Premiership they will have to deploy greater invention than Maggs impersonating a human cannonball.

The return of Iain Balshaw, expected in a couple of weeks will help but he needs to take the ball going forward or when play has broken down. Quick as he is – and his acceleration is superb – he will not threaten if there are no gaps or space.

They should get plenty of possession. Grewcock and Borthwick are a formidable lineout pair and Alessio Galasso, the French prop adds some much needed power to the front-row.

In contrast Parma are all power and no pace. Twice in the first half the centre, Federico Quaglia broke tackles but lacked the pace to score, but they did manage three tries in the second half, the last by South African-born prop Ruan Nel who played briefly for Bath during the 1996/97 season.

They defended well around the fringes, although not always legally, and were prepared to run and attack from all over the pitch. Bridgend will be a tougher proposition and at least have the psychological boost of beating Bath in a pre-season friendly, albeit by only two points.

Bath: M Perry (R Thirlby 52); S Danielli, K Maggs, A Crockett, O Barkley; C Malone, G Cooper (A Williams 59); D Barnes, J Humphreys, A Galasso (S Emms 59), S Borthwick (D Lyle 40), D Grewcock (capt, A Beattie 40), A Lloyd (G Thomas 40), J Scaysbrook (A Long 74), N Thomas .

Parma: A Tanzi (capt, P Degli-Antoni, 68); G Rodriguez, F Quaglia, S Caffaratti, M Fiorani (D Sacca 52); R Nel, L Villagra; C Nieto, C Festuccia, L Artal, F Minello, E Vaggi, V Viliani, E Candiago, D Stead.

Referee: C Saunders (Wales)