When Tiatia was sent to the sin-bin, Stimpson uncharacteristically missed a straightforward penalty but with Ace still in the hole Leicester did not waste their advantage.Geordan Murphy put in a dazzling little run down the right flank and although he was caught just short of the line after beating three defenders, he found Moody on his shoulder and the flanker crashed over.The result of the Hamilton try that wasn’t was that the tie, which would have been killed stone dead, at least kept the capacity crowd enthralled in the second half. In the process their enforcer in the back row, Ace Tiatia was hurt and although Burke made it 6-8 it was the closest they got. A statement of intent if ever there was one.To make matters worse Quins then strung together 10 phases of play and even with a numerical superiority failed to gain a yard. Thus, when reduced to 14 men, Leicester had scored eight points without reply. Quins had nearly got over at the start when a slick break by Will Greenwood had Nathan Williams and Dan Luger scenting a try, but the Tigers defence held out.In the sixth minute Lewis Moody was shown a yellow card for attempting to channel the ball from a ruck and from the penalty Burke kicked Quins ahead.However, a high tackle by Fuga on Sam Vesty enabled Stimpson to level and a few minutes later came the fullback’s try. The first in the 24th minute was from a Jorgensen break through the centre and the second, 10 minutes later, was their favourite trick of a big kick from a penalty to the unguarded left wing.

Catt is excellent at spotting gaps and, although not a young buck any more, still has enough speed to embarrass slack defending.However, he and Bath lost their impetus as Saints discovered theirs and Ben Cohen scored two tries. It roused the Bath supporters and broke the rhythm of trading penalties that had given Bath a 6-3 lead and, with both sides giving the ever-willing Lander plenty of opportunity to blow his whistle, it appeared that an 80-minute kicking contest would decide matters.Instead, Bath started to bristle with attacking intent, with Catt dictating from fly-half and Matt Perry charging into the line from full-back. Beattie collected at the back of the line-out and even though Saints defended the attempted drive, they did not tackle Adam Vander, who peeled off to the blind side and fed the supporting scrum-half. A Bath runner was ahead of the kicker for the start, Tom Smith was penalised in the subsequent scrum and Olly Barkley kicked the penalty.This inauspicious beginning hardly improved until Gareth Cooper scored in the 11th minute.

The numerical advantage would have ensured an easier margin of victory, although if Matt Dawson had taken a quick tap penalty correctly Jorgensen would have scored to settle the match five minutes earlier.Bath were desperate in defence and twice forced turnovers that they immediately gifted back, although an obvious Steve Thompson knock-on when lurking deep in Bath territory was inexplicably missed by both Lander and his assistant, even though they were within 10 metres of the incident.Still, cup competitions thrive on controversy and tension, and this was a thrilling match in spite of the multitude of mistakes.It did not start out so, as it took five minutes for the ball to leave the halfway line. That the outcome came down to a solitary point and desperate defence two minutes later when Mike Catt sliced an attempted drop goal was due to their own errors and some extraordinary decisions by the referee, Steve Lander.
However many times Bath killed the ball in the final stages close to their line, he refused to sin-bin anyone even though he had yellow carded Andy Beattie for the same offence in the first half, and Danny Grewcock and Mark Connors for a fire-and-brimstone rumpus in the second. A Peter Jorgensen try in the 81st minute, converted by Paul Grayson, decided this Powergen Cup quarter-final in favour of last season’s beaten finalists, Northampton Saints. “RFU funds go into Premier Rugby, to be pooled with their other sources of income.”Confirmation of the clubs’ shortfall came from London Wasps’ chief executive, Alistair McLean, who told the Independent on Sunday: “The forecast from Premier Rugby is for central funding of between £120,000 and £150,000 a month from July 2002 to June 2003. Prompted by John Inverdale, Pearce added “from the RFU”, when he should have said Premier Rugby.”People assume that central funds and RFU funds are the same thing,” says Nick Eastwood, finance director of the RFU and England Rugby Ltd. Pearce last week alleged on BBC’s Rugby Special that Bristol’s funding for this season was short by £350,000.