1989-1990 ANECDOTES

1989-1990 ANECDOTES
16/9/1989 v Steaua (Bucharest), Home, Won 35-12.

THE RELUCTANT REPLACEMENT
The Steaua squad was carrying a number of injuries, and David Trick was inveigled into being a replacement. When one of their backs went down, a very English voice was heard from the direction of their bench: “He looks perfectly OK to me…”

CRISP ADVICE
EVENING POST 16th September 1989 highlighted Jack Rowell’s setting of standards: “To me, it’s just like running a business. But the hard work really begins when you have to maintain success. In other words, you have to keep that edge on your competitors.” The Golden Wonder Foods Director, is said to have often referred to the spirit engendered by the Liverpool Football Club.

GROUND DEVELOPMENT
Bath’s success, coupled with restrictions on capacity was causing problems. Bath were merely tenants of the local authority and there was a restrictive clause, inhibiting dominance by any one sport. The terms of the lease meant that the ‘flowerpot’ stands had to be taken down at the end of every April, to make way for cricket and other sports. Any improvement to the ageing stand accommodation could only be achieved after protracted negotiations with the Council and the Planning Authorities. Honorary Secretary, Clive Howard advised that plans were in hand for improvement to the Press and TV facilities. The Club’s development aspirations were largely ‘on hold’ pending possible progress on Tesco’s reported £18 million bid for the Club’s Lambridge training ground.

ADEY ARRIVES
It was 18 years old Nigerian student, Adedayo Adebayo’s debut. He was to quickly ingratiate himself to players and supporters alike – a strong runner and tackler on the field and a real gentleman off.
The season had already witnessed the arrival of Callard and Ojomoh. A succession of gifted players was being attracted from near and far. Success was breeding success!
Adebayo signalled his arrival with two tries in the first 20 minutes. Bath’s pace was unrelenting and tries followed from Walklin (2), Steve Knight, Withey and Hobbs. Barnes converted three and kicked 2 penalties.

OPT OUT
Barnes, Swift, Chilcott and Hall, all opted out of Divisional Championship consideration, possibly closing the door on International selection. (Hall was, in fact, recalled in 1990 and 1994.)
The Division’s loss, was of course, Bath’s gain.
HEAD TO HEAD
Played in a downpour, this match contained interesting head to heads between Barnes and Pears, Ackford and Redman, Winterbottom and Robinson, Skinner and Hall.
Skinner soon took a shattering hand-off from John Hall, to establish that particular pecking order!
Cronin scored Bath’s try, which was converted by Barnes, who also kicked a penalty.
Harlequins had selected their ‘heavies’ for this mud splattered tie. It did not work. At no time were the Quins given a ‘sniff’ of a try and their back row of Butcher, Skinner and Winterbottom, were battered into oblivion by the rampaging Robinson, Hall and Egerton. Hall was never bested by Skinner and Robinson was yards faster than Winterbottom. Egerton was a tower of strength in the line out. Redman had a remarkable game in competition with Paul Ackford.
“David Egerton won a line-out and Richard Hill fed John Hall who did well to keep his feet long enough to find Redman on the charge. When he was brought down, Hill popped the ball up to Damian Cronin who drove through a tackle and stretched out an arm to touch down under the posts.”
The game was wrapped up in the 49th minute when Barnes landed a penalty. A change of jerseys brought short-term comfort, but all was lost for the Quins. Eleven minutes extra time was not appreciated as it brought injuries to Quin’s centres Wood and Carling.
SPACE, PACE AND GRACE
Kevin Coughland’s comments in the Evening Post epitomised this stage in Jeremy Guscott’s rugby career. Somewhat enigmatic, he could be playing indifferently, and then suddenly turn on demonstrations of subtlety, beautiful silky touches of rugby, that no one could match.
And so it was in this Pilkington Cup Quarter Final. His first try in the 71st minute was fairly straightforward; a long pass from Damian Cronin left him a 25 metre sprint for the line, which was bread and butter to the British Lions and England centre. The icing on the cake was almost on the final whistle. He received the ball on the Bath 10 metre line confronting the Richmond team, who were spread defensively across the field. There seemed to be no way through: “But changing up from a deceptive cat-like amble, he glided past on the outside where there had seemed to be no room at all, side-stepped a defender behind the try line and then dotted down behind the posts.”
(Kevin Coughlan – Evening Post)
Livesey had opened the scoring for Richmond in the 13th minute, then after a number of missed chances, Peter Blackett brushed off two tackles to go over in the corner and Barnes converted.
Richmond came back strongly, but their fate was sealed when Hill forced his way over just before half time. Hill featured immediately after the interval; his grubber kick found a good line out position; Hall grabbed possession and was driven over by all and sundry. A pretty torrid forward battle followed and two of the Richmond pack had to be replaced. A misdemeanour , gave Barnes an easy penalty, and then Guscott switched on for the clever stuff.
A product of Bath’s Mini Rugby section: “His success has transformed his life. The erstwhile Bath brickie is now a public relations executive, male model and TV personality – all within the space of a hectic year.” (Evening Post)
THE CUP FINAL VERSUS GLOUCESTER – EVERY RUGBY PLAYER’S DREAM GAME.
(Unless your from Gloucester)

5/5/1990 v Gloucester, Won 48-6 Pilkington Cup – Final. J Callard, A Swift, S Halliday, J Guscott, A Adebayo, S Barnes, R Hill, V Ubogu, G Dawe, G Chilcott, N Redman, D Cronin, A Robinson, K Withey, D Egerton.
Ref – F Howard (LONDON). Conditions:- Hot sun, perfect pitch.
Replacements – S Knight, M Lee, N Maslen, J Deane, J Webb, J Bamsey.
It was Simon Halliday’s farewell appearance. He played a fine game, but failed to get a try.
In true Bath style – Barnes handed to ‘Hallers’ to wind up proceedings – and his Bath career, with the final conversion kick.

• The Cup Final – A sweltering hot day when Gloucester got everything wrong, and Bath did everything right.
• On the day, Twickenham was a sweltering cauldron. It was most noticeable that Bath players were primed to swig Gatorade at every opportunity. While the Bath boys refreshed, poorly prepared Gloucester dehydrated behind their try line.

• In the words of Kevin Coughlan (Evening Post) –
It was a triumph of: “Skill. sweat, psychology, and science….”

Kevin Withey set the standard, with a brilliant dash of some 70 yards from the back of a line-out, in the process, breaking four tackles.
Gloucester enjoyed ample line-out possession, but Bath’s fiercely competitive back-row play snuffed out their every move.
Gadd’s dismissal hardly enhanced their chances; there was an eerie hush as he trudged off the field in the 56th minute.
Tony Swift’s try from 90 yards out, was perhaps the highlight, on an afternoon when every score was a mini-classic in its own right. Dazzling play was concluded with forwards Dawe, Redman and Ubogu all scoring tries.
The full score board was:- Tries by Swift (2), Callard, Guscott, Ubogu, Dawe, Redman and Withey. Barnes converted 4 and Halliday one. Barnes kicked 2 penalties.
Gloucester’s Kevin Dunn scored a try which Tim Smith converted.

It was arguably the finest ever performance from a superb Bath side.

It was abject dismay for the proud Gloucester Club, who had seen the League Trophy slip away, and were now annihilated in the Club.

Bath players took an open-top bus tour the next day, amid loud cheers from hosts of jubilant supporters. A Civic Reception followed.

Season’s Top Scorers.
Stuart Barnes 7 Tries, 61 Conversions, 22 Penalties, 1 Drop Goal for 219 points in 22 games.
Tony Swift 26 Tries – 104 points in 28 games.

Points For 1166 Points Against 379