But he said: “All we were concerned with in training this week was being relaxed and perhaps that showed for the first 40 minutes.

“We always believed we were in control and then the forwards started producing quicker ball in the second half.

“The more ball I get, the more I enjoy the game. It’s a bit frustrating at times playing at 12.”

Barkley added: “We said that if we didn’t win today last week’s victory in Dublin would have been a waste of time.

“We just coasted through the Heineken Cup last year, we never put in a decent performance and we wanted to do it differently this time around.”

Barkley looks a totally different player from the hesitant figure who missed a succession of kicks in the early games of the season.

Having ditched a new place kicking style recommended by England’s kicking guru Dave Alred to return to his former routine, he said: “I don’t think I am playing fantastically well but I am kicking well after the schoolboy performances early in the season.

“With all due respect to Dave I felt I had to go back to my own style.”

Bath head coach John Connolly said: “At 16-12 with 15 minutes to go it was all to play for.

“We had played some reasonable rugby but up to that stage we had not put them away. I didn’t think that we took the game by the throat and it took a long time to impose ourselves.”

On Barkley’s return to form, he added: “I have told him that it’s so important that he separates his general play from his goalkicking. We are seeing the benefits.”