The replacement backrower Delve – who looks odds-on for a spot in the Wales squad next week

The replacement backrower Delve – who looks odds-on for a spot in the Wales squad next week – did all the hard work and offloaded to the exciting young centre Cheeseman for the score.Bourgoin refused to give up, and their resistance prevented Bath securing a try bonus point to cap off a superb night for the throng of visiting fans.Elsewhere, Ulster’s already slim hopes of Heineken Cup qualification evaporated against Biarritz after a 24-8 defeat last night. Peclier’s second penalty goal in the 40th minute gave the home side their narrow lead at the break.Ashton threw on the England prop Matt Stevens at the start of the second half, with his fellow Test front-rower David Flatman lasting only 40 minutes of his comeback from Achilles problems, only to see Peclier’s third penalty put Bourgoin further ahead.A piece of magic from the scrum-half Walshe, who powered his way over the try-line on the hour mark, took Bath to within a point of the French club and Barkley did the rest to give his side the lead for the first time in the match.The back-rower Lipman crashed over for his side’s second try, and Barkley’s superb sideline conversion gave Bath a play-off-sealing eight-point lead.The Welsh duo of Gareth Delve and Tom Cheeseman carved out Bath’s third try. But Bath know a win over the Brian O’Driscoll-led Leinster side at the Recreation Ground next weekend will ensure a home play-off match.Bourgoin went into this match as huge outsiders to make the quarter-finals, and they were facing a Bath side with 10 changes to the one which lost to Leeds Tykes in the Premiership last weekend.The goal-kickers Alexandre Peclier and Olly Barkley swapped early penalties in the first quarter as both sides sorted themselves out. The win guaranteed them a spot in the Heineken Cup quarter- finals, whatever happens in the match between Leinster and Glasgow in Dublin today.

Brian Ashton’s struggling Premiership side trailed Bourgoin 6-3 at half-time, but tries from Walshe and the back-rower Michael Lipman gave the English side a lead they never relinquished.
Bath’s 22-9 victory is the first time a visiting side have won at Stade Pierre Rajon this season. Nick Walshe’s second-half try in France last night, allied to the boot of Olly Barkley propelled Bath into the Heineken Cup quarter-finals. I remember the French crowd throwing snowballs at Jonathan Davies when he was kicking.”. We played on their back three – at that stage all Jason could really do was run – and it worked We lost away to Brive in the semi-finals. “I can remember the crowd singing all the old Welsh songs and Lee Jarvis kicking a goal from the halfway line Jason Robinson and Henry Paul both played for Bath It was a very wet and windy day. Nine seasons ago, in the Heineken Cup’s second season (Howley was at Bridgend when Cardiff lost to Toulouse in the final of the inaugural competition, which the English clubs did not enter), Cardiff enjoyed a famous victory over Bath in the quarter-finals.”The Arms Park was absolutely packed and the atmosphere was fantastic,” Howley said.

They recognised, much as the management team here of David Young, Richard Webster and myself do, that ultimately it’s not the coaches who make decisions out on the park There’s no point in us deciding everything in training As coaches we discuss areas that we want to work on. I’ll have my own ideas, but then I’ll go through it with the backs and together we’ll work out a way forward. Dai gives me carte blanche with the backs and I wouldn’t want it any other way. In the early stages I think I was highly critical of the players’ performances, particularly the backs. I think I’ve been learning, both through our results and through the way the players have reacted It takes time to get to know your players.

You need to know when to crack the whip and when to sit back from it.”Howley returned to Wales last summer, having finally had to concede defeat to a serious wrist injury sustained, ironically, in a stamping incident while playing for Wasps against Perpignan two seasons ago.”We looked at the video, but I don’t know who the culprit was,” he said. “I had a painkiller injection at half-time – I can say that now, though I couldn’t have admitted it at the time – and I took some painkilling tablets I played on with it in the second half. Warren Gatland wrapped me up in cotton wool for the rest of the season. I didn’t take part in any contact training for three or four months and I didn’t finish many games after that.”At the time we were talking about extending my contract until the summer of 2006, but I don’t feel any grudges That’s rugby It’s a very physical game I could have suffered the injury when I was 21. And if you could write your own script for the way to bow out, it couldn’t have been much better than the way I finished.”The only time Howley misses playing is on match days as the atmosphere builds and the tension rises. He knows he will feel that today on an occasion which will bring back one of his most cherished memories. “Kevin Bowring, who selected me for my first cap, was a huge influence on me,” he said “Graham Henry’s analysis of the opposition was brilliant.