Signs look good for Bath ahead of home and away battles with warriors

If you believe in omens, seeing Glasgow Warriors listed in Pool 5bodes well for Bath Rugby's 2008-09 Heineken Cup campaign.

Why? Because the last time the two clubs were in the same pool,back in 2005-06, Bath marched all the way to the competition's semi-finals.

And as far as history goes between the two clubs, their back-to-back pool clashes three seasons ago are the only form guide for thiswinter's double- header.

Partick Thistle's Firhill Stadium in Glasgow's Maryhill districtshould hold no fears for Bath.

A 29-10 victory there in the fourth round of the 2005-06 pool matches pretty much set Bath up for a run into the knockout stages.

Tries from Michael Stephenson, Nick Walshe and man of the matchDanny Grewcock and three conversion and a penalty from Olly Barkleydid the damage in front of a poor 1,700 crowd.

A week earlier at The Rec, 10,200 had watched Glasgow push Bathhard on home soil before they lost 31-26.

Salesi Finau, Michael Lipman, Frikkie Welsh and Stephenson scoredtries, with Barkley kicking a conversion and three penalties to turna 23-23 half-time scoreline into a home victory.

In their other pool games that season, Bath had beaten Leinster22-19 in Dublin and Bourgoin 39-12 at The Rec before their back-to-back dates with Glasgow.

From there, Bath went on to beat Bourgoin 22-9 in France and theythen qualified as pool winners despite a 35-23 defeat by Leinster atThe Rec in their last qualifying outing.

That earned Bath the privilege of a quarter-final trip to theWalkers Stadium, where they pulled off an heroic 13-man 15-12 winover tournament favourites Leicester Tigers to book a semi-finaldate with Biarritz Olympique in San Sebastian's Estadio Anoeta,losing 18-9 to the eventual beaten finalists.

As for Glasgow, Sean Lineen's side have eight Heineken Cupcampaigns under their belts since the Scottish regional sides wereformed in 1996.

So far, Glasgow have yet to reach the knockout phases of thecompetition and last season saw them win away from home in Europe'stop competition for only the second time in their history when theybeat Viadana 18-15 in Italy.

Bath should net two wins against the Scots.