Bath 17 Worcester 11: Barkley shows he has nerve to pass the biggest Tests

Olly Barkley has yet to convince all the people who matter that his defensive game is up to a meeting with the All Blacks at Twickenham in November, but the Bath centre's performance on Saturday may have changed a mind or two. He did himself a mischief of the most eye-watering kind in tackling the Worcester No 8 Drew Hickey - "If it requires a transplant, I won't be the one doing the operating," said the coach, Steve Meehan, when pressed on the extent of his player's "personal injury" - and it can safely be said that if Barkley is prepared to put that particular part of his body on the line, he is not lacking in raw courage.

It was no laughing matter. Barkley's kicking game went to pieces, understandably enough, and he spent part of the evening at the local hospital bemoaning his fate to the appropriate specialist - all of which left his participation in the England get-together at Loughborough University this week open to debate. Andy Robinson, the national coach, has been losing players to every kind of ailment. Now someone has written "meat and two veg" on his sick note, he just about has the set.

Strange to relate, Bath did not struggle in Barkley's absence. Quite the contrary. Ryan Davis, knee high to a grasshopper but more elusive than most of the insect population, dared to be different in midfield, and with Shaun Berne and David Bory also asking questions of the Worcester defence - the Australian with his guile, the Frenchman with his directness - the West Countrymen nailed their second home win in as many starts.

All three were involved in the long attack leading to Nick Walshe's close-range try at the start of the second half, Davis with a lovely offload to Lee Mears deep in the Worcester 22. He can play a bit, this Davis, but in modern-day rugby, the only 5ft 6in personnel on an international field tend to be the mascots. There would be more light and shade about the game were it not quite so sizeist in nature, but things are likely to get worse in this regard before they get better.

Davis would not look the part in a Worcester shirt, that's for sure. The visitors put out a huge team at the weekend, and when they find a means of incorporating the 22st slab known as Gavin Quinnell, they will be more humungous still. They offered little outside the scrum - a very occasional dart from Marcel Garvey was about the sum of it - but they made Bath creak at times. Had Shane Drahm not twanged a hamstring kicking a pearl of a penalty from 50 metres-plus on the very stroke of the interval, they might have earned themselves more than the bonus point resulting from Aleki Lutui's try in the ninth minute of stoppage time.

As it was, they left the Rec nursing the wounds of a fourth straight defeat. "I don't think there is anything new in the Premiership that we're struggling to handle," said their coach, Anthony Eddy. "We're simply not clinical enough. We have to put pressure on ourselves to be a better side with ball in hand." Worcester being Worcester, they also need more decisions going their way at the scrummage, the most dynamic area of their game. "There's certainly a problem," Eddy said, still bemused over some of the calls made by the referee, Ashley Rowden.

"It's a real issue in the sport, I think. It was so stop-start out there, neither side could generate momentum or achieve ascendancy. It wasn't the sort of thing to bring the crowds back."

Actually, the only crowd problem at Bath is where to put them all. That, though, is another story - one for councillors and charity commissioners and businessmen and developers to tell. Maybe Barkley will have time to study the subject while the doctors are unclenching his knees.

Bath: Try Walshe; Penalties Barkley 2, Berne; Drop goal Berne. Worcester: Try Lutui; Penalties Drahm 2.

Bath: N Abendanon; M Stephenson, J Maddock (T Cheeseman, 75), O Barkley (R Davis, 40), D Bory; S Berne, N Walshe; D Flatman (Bell, 80), L Mears, D Bell (D Barnes, 58), R Fidler (J Scaysbrook, 40-41), D Grewcock, P Short, C Goodman (Scaysbrook, 58), I Fea'unati (capt).

Worcester: L Best (T Delport, 75); M Garvey, D Rasmussen, T Lombard, A Havili; S Drahm (S Whatling, 40), R Powell (M Powell, 80); D Morris (T Taumoepeau, 57), C Fortey (A Lutui, 40), C Horsman (Morris, 69), T Collier (R Blaze, 49), C Gillies, P Sanderson (capt), T Harding (Taumoepeau, 33-39), D Hickey (K Hortsmann, 61).

Referee: A Rowden (Berkshire).