By Jeremy Guscott
ON paper it looks like Bath have a squad to compete against the best sides in the Premiership when you see the quality of Faletau, Louw, Fotuali’i, Joesph, Watson and Rokoduguni, plus the heavyweight signing of Jamie Roberts. But to do that they must find consistency and that’s why the signing of scrum-half Will Chudley from Exeter could be the key finally to making this side tick.
Chudley has come from a proven squad with a winning mentality and is a consistent performer week in, week out. He could be instrumental in kick-starting this Bath side because over the last four seasons it must have been highly frustrating for the season ticket holders wondering which team were going to turn up.
It was probably equally frustrating for Todd Blackadder and his coaches having overseen good training during the week only for them to underperform at the weekend. Chudley is a steady player and at No.9 will have a huge say in how Bath perform. But he needs back up – starting with his fly-half.
Like Northampton, who have struggled in the 10 position in recent seasons, Bath need a No.10 who commands the position. They had that in 2014/15 in George Ford on their march to the Premiership final. Since then the majority of players have struggled to find consistency in performance and since Ford’s departure, Bath do not have a recognised first choice No.10.
Constantly chopping and changing your fly-half affects the team dynamic and Bath need either Freddie Burns or Rhys Priestland to step up and demand the jersey. If Burns rediscovers his 2012 vintage, it’s his – if Priestland finds his 2011 form, it’s his. Either way one of them must emerge as clear favourite.
But it all comes down to the front five and Dave Attwood needs to carry on his Toulon form to give Bath the go forward up front. When Bath were at their best in 2015, they had two sets of front five forwards that were almost interchangeable because they were all playing at their peak. At his best, Attwood is international quality but we haven’t seen it enough in Bath colours.
Without front five dominance the back row struggles and the scrum-half gets slow, scrappy ball which stops the back line functioning at its best. With a stronger front five, the back row are released and the No.9 has more time which in turn frees the backline.
The injury to prop Beno Obano was unfortunate as he was hitting decent form and pushing for a Test cap, but there is still enough quality in the pack and Toby Booth needs to get them rebooted. Jamie Roberts could be a key signing as last season the backline sometimes lacked bulk with Semesa Rokoduguni injured. Bath need Roko back to his best to help shoulder the carrying burden and that’s where Roberts comes in to provide more bosh-ability.
Roberts will be fighting to stay in Warren Gatland‘s thinking for the World Cup and if he plays well for Bath he will be in line to add to his 94 Wales caps. Having Priestland inside him could trigger it, but I’m sure Burns will have something to say about that.
It’s a blow to be without Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph for the start of the season, more so Watson. He had a brilliant season off the back of his Lions exploits. It’s a pity Joseph won’t be fit to start outside Roberts, but the England man has struggled to score tries for Bath like he does for England and that’s a challenge in itself if he’s going to be wearing the 13 jersey.
I’m excited to see what powerful winger Joe Cokanasiga brings to the squad after his switch from London Irish and I hope he gets off to a good start.
Lots of Bath supporters have struggled to understand why Matt Banahan was allowed to leave for Gloucester and the pressure will be on the 20-year-old to come in and score tries otherwise questions will continue to be asked over Banahan’s exit. I hope that doesn’t happen because he looks a huge talent and it would be great if he played a big part in making Bath successful.
The pressure is on Blackadder and his assistants to solve this rugby puzzle. With the talent in this squad if they cannot pick a front five to perform it is down to poor selection. If the pack falters again and Bath have another poor season, coaching personnel will change.
Girvan Dempsey comes on board as attack coach and I’m intrigued to see what he does with the backline. He comes after a very successful stint with Leinster but I’m not sure that style will work with Bath. Leinster’s recent success has been built on Joe Schmidt’s foundation which saw the side adopt a very prescriptive style of rugby.
Very good players can do that, and Leinster have a team of top internationals. It’s hard to follow that type of rugby script but Schmidt managed to get his players singing the same tune and it has continued to work under Leo Cullen. It will be a great test of the Bath players and we’ll find out how good they really are if they can execute a similar formula.
Saracens were very prescriptive a few seasons back and it was highly successful. Exeter fall into that category at times now as a super-fit, well-drilled side where every player knows the playbook of what to do and when.
All in all Bath have a decent, balanced looking squad but they’ve been here before and not delivered. It’s about time they showed up for a full season.
The Rugby Paper is on sale all year round! Keep abreast of your club’s activities in the off-season by subscribing: http://bit.ly/TRP-Sub
