The nature of the match was very different but the outcome was almost identical as Bath took a full haul of points from a second successive Heineken Cup meeting while the Warriors were left to work out their consolation bonus reward yesterday.

With Glasgow's basics letting them down horribly, the most telling difference from the previous Sunday at The Rec was that with home advantage they registered just one try compared with the five scored on their trip south.

Their cause was not helped by the late call-off of Thom Evans - scorer of three of their tries in Bath - with a heel problem that flared up on the morning of the game.

That was not, however, why they took only one bonus point as opposed to the previous week's two and would not even have got that much from their afternoon's work had Butch James, the visiting stand-off, not had an off-day with his goal-kicking.

Excellent in the way they maintained pressure with and without the ball, particularly when Dan Parks right boot was dictating things for long periods of the first half, their forwards' failings at scrummage, lineout and on restarts left the Warriors scavenging for possession.

Steve Meehan, Bath's coach, was generous in his assessment of the home team's efforts, saying: "The reason they made it hard for us is that they're a bloody good side. Any team that comes up against Glasgow and doesn't respect them will come unstuck."

Yet he could say so from the perspective of a man whose side had taken a maximum 10 match points from these back- to-back matches to close to within two points of leaders Toulouse in the Pool 5 table. By contrast the Warriors are rooted at the bottom.

There was, then, considerable irony in the fact that - with local media men casting the majority of the votes - John Barclay was named man of the match. It was the Scotland flanker who said a few weeks ago that those in the Scottish rugby community must stop patronising themselves. That award, on a day when Matt Banahan, the 6'7", 16 stone plus Bath winger scored two tries, made another and won more restart ball than the entire Warriors pack, was far more patronising than anything Meehan said in his genuinely respectful comments.

Those who are far too ready to look for excuses while rewarding failure must think long and hard about their contribution to the absence of a winning mentality in Scottish rugby. All the more so because at half-time the Warriors were deservedly ahead despite their deficiencies.

Bath had twice taken the lead in the opening period, with James' early penalty quickly cancelled out by one from Parks before the Bath stand-off's well weighted cross kick allowed Banahan to take on Lome Fa'atau in the air and come down with the ball for the opening try.

For all their set-piece troubles the Warriors' competitiveness in the loose, allied to Parks' tactical kicking, saw them dominate most of the rest of the half. They took the lead with Parks' conversion of a try produced by half-back partner Colin Gregor's sharpness in hacking the ball through after James had guddled the ball 30 metres out, before he out-paced Joe Maddocks to touch down as it crossed the try-line.

Parks' second penalty success made it 13-8 to the home side at the break, but after it Bath began to take control. They continued to make mistakes under extreme harassment, but their set-piece superiority was telling and lengthy pressure finally told when they sucked in enough defenders to be able to send the ball down the line for Nick Abendanon to put Shaun Berne into the right corner on a straightforward overlap.

Parks edged the Warriors ahead again after a great piece of defensive work by Barclay had forced a penalty on the Bath 10 metre line, but the Warriors were living off scraps.

Bath claimed their third try all too easily, as the Warriors midfield was sucked in when defending a lineout, allowing space on the left for Abendanon to put Banahan away.

Ruaridh Jackson, who had made a fine first start at stand- off for the Warriors the previous week, came off the bench and quickly put his team back in front with a penalty.

However, Bath's superiority was ultimately rewarded when, having again set up camp deep in the Warriors 22, they got the ball out to Banahan, whose basketball pass out of contact gave Maddocks the easiest of run ins.

Sean Lineen, the home team's head coach, could not hide his frustration at the pack's efforts afterwards.

"We made it easy for them," he said. "You can't give them that much ball. If the platform's not there you're going to struggle.

"The boys do work hard on these things, but our set-piece just wasn't good enough . . . while Dan Turner missed three catches from restarts."

He noted, too, that the loss of key players like Al Kellock and Dougie Hall had contributed to their problems, while he had clearly been very disappointed that Thom Evans withdrawal had come only on the morning of the game, but made it clear he saw that as no excuse whatsoever.