Jeremy Guscott: Honesty is the best policy to get Bath out of this mess

Bath have a playing roster that would be the envy of a lot of teams in Europe and yet they are struggling to produce the brilliance of last season. It’s hard to work out how such a talented group of players are ninth in the league and already out of the European Champions Cup, playing for nothing but pride in their last pool game against Toulon.
Seeing how a team or player that has had a really good season ups the ante the following season and keeps on improving to get better and better, or conversely don’t step up, has always fascinated me.
Bath played some scintillating rugby during the 2014/15 season, claiming impressive wins such as beating Toulouse away from home in the Champions Cup and thrashing Leicester Tigers at the Rec twice.
However, this season they have been on the skids, and at the matches I’ve attended Bath supporters have given me their opinions on why they think it’s not clicking, many of which are wide of the mark. It goes from things like Mike Ford isn’t a head coach, he’s an assistant; Farleigh Castle (Bath’s HQ administrative and training facility) is too nice; George Ford can’t tackle; bringing in Sam Burgess was disruptive; and players are paid too much money.
After Bath lost away from home to Newcastle, Mike Ford said he thought the players needed to look at themselves and ask if they were ready to play. Were they prepared for the game or did they look at the fact Newcastle hadn’t won a game all season, did they turn up just expecting to win?
The day after Mike had called his players out publicly he said he did it on purpose to get a reaction in training as they prepared for the next game against Toulon. It worked for that match – but the following week they went down to Leinster looking flat and lacking energy.
The coach’s comments were born out of frustration. Before the Falcons game Bath had been hammered by Wasps 36-10, failing to match them in any department. The same Wasps team they had beaten six days previously had done their homework and outclassed Bath.
As a coach it has to be maddening watching players who in training and games before have shown they are more than capable, then somehow from nowhere turning in totally sub-standard performances.
Coaches should know all their players’ weaknesses and strengths, what makes them tick and how to get them fired up. The hardest job for the head coach is selection, and it’s made even tougher when some of your best players aren’t playing well. You know they’ve got it in them, but it’s about how many chances they are given before you drop them.
Bath giving away penalties is simple. It’s a call by a player in a match whether to infringe – risk for reward – or not. There are some dodgy decisions that don’t go your way, but the referee is right most of the time.
Turn-overs recently appear to be coming from Bath players getting isolated from their support and either getting the ball stripped, or giving away a penalty by holding onto it on the deck.
Penalties and turn-overs are dislocating the team’s performances. Part of the remedy must be to start leaving the players out who are becoming serial offenders, even if they might be your best players.
When a team are making as many errors as Bath are, it’s tough to get yourselves out of the funk you’ve created. The best way is through reality and honesty within the squad. A lot of the teams I played in were incredibly fit. I don’t mean beach body looks, I mean fit for the purpose of playing at an intense level every time we went out.
You take it as a given that all teams should be pretty similar, but it varies because of different genetics, injuries, methods and beliefs. Small marginal gains or losses can make a big difference in elite level sport.
If you’re supremely fit you are sharp and responsive, full of energy and absolutely flying.
Fitness is the foundation on which a player’s performance and abilities are built more than anything else. It’s the fitter teams that win games they look like losing because they stay in the match long enough to use their quality skills.
I was fortunate in my career to play in some high-performance teams. They were all competitive environments, selection wasn’t easy, and to remain the best required personal commitment. Sub-standard training and performance wasn’t tolerated. You would be dropped without a second thought.
At Bath the coaches and players know what’s required to turn fortunes around, yet they haven’t synced with one another. They needed to add a level of intensity and smartness to last season’s playing template. Instead,
currently Bath have become very inconsistent with their intensity and accuracy whereas Saracens, Exeter, Tigers, Quins and Wasps all look fit and dynamic – and have added a level of performance since the end of last season.
Last season Bath’s front five was a huge success. They had six in-form quality players, who were unbelievably competitive in the scrum, lineout and breakdown, and it was a great platform from which to start attack and defence.
That consistency has vanished, and without a firing front five you cannot expect your team to be high performance.
Minus that platform you will be defending for most of the game, and that’s probably why Bath top the Premiership tackle success stats.
The slick try-scoring backline has all but sunk, only resurfacing from time to time when quick ball is supplied. George Ford is getting a rough ride in the media, mainly because the forwards he was conducting last season are way out of tune (although his goal-kicking is still hitting the high notes at a healthy 83 per cent).
Until Bath start to climb the table Mike Ford will be feeling the heat, because that’s the nature of being the head honcho at a big club. He selects the team, and so performance, and accountability for it, starts and stops with him.
Those are the terms and conditions of a head coach, and if the team loses too many games or isn’t reaching expected performance levels, or getting the right results, the pressure will be on.
At the same time, this Bath team is learning about how hard it is to live with the pressure of expectation. Getting there with no expectation is the easy bit, because there’s nothing to lose.
On the road to improving as a team, and as a player, there are going to be some bumpy moments, but it’s how you overcome those disappointments that allows you to continue to improve.
Bath have got to reverse out of the dead-end they keep on driving down, and quickly get back into the fast lane of their motorway destination of a top six Premiership finish.