Bath were given a major Heineken Cup fright by Edinburgh at the Recreation
Ground before wing Tom Voyce's late try preserved their 100% Pool Three record.
Bath, the 1998 European champions, are well on course for a place in next
January's quarter-finals.
But they were pushed all the way by an unfancied Edinburgh outfit, who had
only collected one point from a possible six before Saturday's encounter.
Voyce pounced 10 minutes from time, finishing off a slashing Mike Catt break,
to register his sixth European touchdown of the season.
Voyce has now scored in all of Bath's group fixtures, but he is unlikely to
claim a more important try this term. His effort put Bath seven points clear,
establishing some sort of breathing space between themselves and their spirited
opponents.
Up until then, Edinburgh had scored the only try of a scrappy match, centre
Kevin Utterson capitalising on an Iain Balshaw blunder six minutes before
half-time.
Balshaw, rejected by England for next Saturday's Twickenham appointment with
world champions Australia, slipped inside his own 22, fumbled a Duncan Hodge
kick and Utterson could scarcely believe his good fortune.
Hodge's conversion, added to an earlier penalty, meant that Edinburgh
established a 10-6 interval lead. It took Bath full-back Matt Perry's third and
fourth successful penalties to inch the home side ahead.
Even after Voyce left the Edinburgh defence for dead though, the Scottish side
threw everything at Bath in pursuit of an equalising converted try.
Their cause was not helped when giant lock Richard Metcalfe was sin-binned by
French referee Joel Dume for killing possession, but Bath's one-man advantage
quickly found itself cancelled out as Steve Borthwick received a yellow card,
also for a technical infringement.
Bath had easily beaten the same opponents 37-6 in Edinburgh last weekend, and
there was certainly a hint of complacency about today's display.
They should have been 10 points up inside the opening 10 minutes, but skipper
Dan Lyle made a glaring error when he dropped Perry's pass with no-one between
him and the Edinburgh line.
Had Lyle scored, then Bath would surely have settled down and probably gone on
to have the game wrapped up by half-time, but they continued to make unforced
errors and Edinburgh gradually grew in confidence.
Their forwards were more than a match for the Bath pack, Edinburgh number
eight Graham Dall claiming man of the match honours, but Perry's four penalties
and that vital Voyce touchdown denied them glory.
Bath are now well set for the knockout stages, and should get there by winning
just one of their last two games - against Swansea away or Biarritz at home - in
January, while Edinburgh now bow out.
Bath though, will require a drastic improvement after Christmas when the
competition resumes because today's performance mirrored their Zurich
Premiership form, which has seen them register just one win from six starts.
Teams:
Bath: Perry, Balshaw, Maggs, Barkley, Voyce, Catt,
Williams,
D. Barnes, Regan, Emms, Borthwick, Grewcock, G. Thomas, Gabey,
Lyle.
Not Used: Cooper, Long, Hopcroft, Crockett, Danielli, El Abd,
Beattie.
Tries: Voyce.
Pens: Perry 4.
Edinburgh: Howarth, Murray, Di Rollo,
Utterson, Sharman, Hodge,
Burns, Jacobsen, Scott, Smith, Hines, Metcalfe, A. Dall,
M. Taylor, G. Dall.
Not Used: Brannigan, Di Ciacca, Jolly, A. Walker, Fairley,
Ross, Lee.
Tries: Utterson.
Cons: Hodge.
Pens: Hodge.
Att: 7,711
Ref: Joel Dume (France).
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