Bath Rugby are currently the enigmas of Premiership Rugby and will remain so until the opening few rounds of the competition have been played. At this moment in time the rest of the league don’t know quite what to expect from the West Country side - will they arrive back in force or will they take a while to find their feet?
We all know that last season didn’t pan out as planned but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Bath have a squad of players with the potential to make big waves in this competition and they do have solid foundations that were laid by Mike Ford over the last few years. A few people spent the summer berating the club about the fact that they didn’t have a new management structure in place and of course if Todd Blackadder and Tabai Mason had been able to arrive sooner then it would have been beneficial. However, it’s not as if Bath were directionless as those taking the reins over the summer months (Darren Edwards, Stuart Hooper and Toby Booth) are experienced individuals - to put it into perspective this was Toby Booth’s 15th pre-season.
Todd Blackadder has only been in the UK for a short amount of time but he’s done his homework having watched every single match that Bath have played for the last two seasons. Not only did he do that to provide himself with a feel for the side that he’s now in charge of but it was also done to get a current grasp of the Aviva Premiership as a competition. He's an experienced coach and from his words so far it doesn't sound like he's going to try and force a Super Rugby template or model on the Premiership side. Instead his desired game plan for Bath makes for very similar to reading to that, that they were previously working towards. The premise is that Bath need to adapt to the conditions presented to them but also play heads up rugby and have the courage of their own convictions to take the opportunities that present themselves.
There aren’t too many new entrants at Farleigh House but the big three that are arriving are exactly what the club needs in their respective areas of the field. Taulupe Faletau immediately puts any side on the front foot, Luke Charteris will own the skies and work brilliantly with Dave Atwood and Kahn Fotuali’i will provide George Ford with the type of good quality ball that the fly-half needs as well as having his own pace and dynamism in spades. Clearly next on the shopping list must be someone else to help Dan Bowden in the centres because they are far too light there. Equally they might do well to add another fly-half to their roster. Adam Hastings is certainly a talent but having another individual with a little more experience to call on during the International windows would be useful.
In my opinion Bath Rugby won’t have the type of challenging season that some are predicting for them. Their pre-season has been a productive one and I personally believe that they’ll be hell bent on moving back up the table, securing Champions Cup rugby and reminding the rest of the competition what they're made of.
Opening Six Matches: Northampton Saints (A), Newcastle Falcons (H), Worcester Warriors (H), Leicester Tigers (A), Gloucester Rugby (A), Sale Sharks (H).
Key Focus: Delivering a confident start, generating a platform to build off and making the most of their new high quality signings.
In: Luke Charteris (Racing 92), Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons), Elliott Stooke (Gloucester Rugby), Michael van Vuuren (Leicester Tigers), Harry Davies (Cardiff Blues), Kahn Fotuali’i (Northampton Saints), Jack Walker (Yorkshire Carnegie)
Out: Will Spencer (Worcester Warriors), Ollie Devoto (Exeter Chiefs), Rob Webber (Sale Sharks), Jonathan Evans (Scarlets), Luke Arscott (Bristol Rugby), Max Northcote-Green (London Irish), Brett Herron (Ulster), Stuart Hooper (retired), Dominic Day (Toyota Verblitz), Amanaki Mafi, Tom Woolstencroft (Wasps), Leroy Houston (Queensland Reds), Horacio Agulla (Castres Olympique) Kyle Eastmond (Wasps), Alafoti Fa’osiliva (Worcester Warriors)
