Balshaw will battle his way back
Mike Catt's break out of the blue earned Bath a narrow victory over Edinburgh that leaves them primed for the quarter-finals. The only regret was that, for the greater good of club and country, it came on the wrong side of the field. Tom Voyce was the grateful recipient of Catt's devastating burst with 10 minutes remaining that shook off the spirited Scots at The Rec. When Catt released him into space, Voyce could have walked to the line untroubled. He is striding into a rich vein of form and this was his sixth try in four Heineken Cup matches. He does not need gifts.
On the other wing, jettisoned by England and riddled with self-doubt, Iain Balshaw would have taken any charity going. Nothing ran for him on Saturday, most notably when he lost his footing, allowing Duncan Hodge's chip to be touched down by Kevin Utterson.
Balshaw is a pale shadow of the man who lit up the Six Nations, with hopeful punts replacing lightning breaks. Matt Perry, friend, team-mate and England rival, predicts a complete recovery.
He said: 'Balsh is more determined than ever to come back. I feel for him, but it's a long career and the player he is and the class he has means he will go up and up. He'll come back stronger because of this. We are friends as well. People make a lot of the fact that we are competing at full back but we want to develop each other as players.' Perry turned in a composed performance as Bath triumphed 17-10, but his four kicks from eight attempts was a moderate return.
After Voyce's routine run-in, Bath hung on. Edinburgh ultimately paid the price for losing their heads when Bath were stretched and squandered three overlaps.
