Anthony Watson explains 'grudges' he still has for his old club Bath

England winger Anthony Watson has given a withering account of his brutal exit from Bath last year, claiming he still holds a grudge about the decision to let him go and how it was handled. It was 2013 when the now 29-year-old switched from London Irish to The Rec, but their nine-season relationship had a tempestuous break up in December 2021 at a time when Watson was just a couple of months into his rehabilitation of a serious ACL injury.

Watson claimed he had been under the impression that Bath wanted to keep him and would be offering an extension beyond the summer of 2022. However, just days before a plus-one clause in his existing contract was due to be activated, he received a call from the club telling him they had nothing to offer and wouldn’t be keeping him for the 2022/23 season.

The news sickened Watson and even though he is currently enjoying a successful move to Leicester and is back in the England team, how Bath treated him continues to leave a sour taste. Appearing on this week’s The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast with James Haskell and Mike Tindall ahead of this Friday’s Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final trip to Leinster with the Tigers, Watson unloaded on Bath in a damaging way.

“I’m not happy with how it was finished and I don’t think it was dealt with in a respectful manner. I hold grudges. There is no way I will let that slide,” he began, recalling how things finished up at Bath when they were imploding under the then-director of rugby Stuart Hooper.

“I felt like I had given a lot to the club. One, a pay cut during covid which for them to sign a million-pound player 18 months later [Finn Russell] is questionable in my opinion. But there were also times, one example that springs to mind was they made me captain for a European Cup game (versus Harlequins in January 2020) which was a dead rubber and I was struggling with my calf.

“Retrospectively I should never have stepped foot on the pitch. If I was a selfish-type player I wouldn’t have played that game, but I decided to play because I wanted to do what was best for the club and I ended up tearing my calf and missed the first three games for England. That is not a great thing for me to have done personally but I wanted to do what was best for the club.

“The same happened when I did my ACL (versus Saracens in October 2021). I played two weeks before that. I wasn’t supposed to because you were supposed to have 10 weeks of mandatory rest coming back from a Lions tour, I wanted to do what was best for the club so I came back, played and then two weeks later I did my ACL.

“I’m not trying to get sympathy from anyone, I am just trying to explain why I am so frustrated. I felt like I had given a lot and the way it was managed in the end was terrible in terms of there being a clause, plus ones and stuff in people’s contracts. Mine was December 31. I was flying to America with Alyse to spend new year’s over there and I got a call the day before the clause saying, ‘Sorry mate, we can’t keep you’.

“All indications prior to that were ‘we are going to try and keep you’. I was okay, expecting them to make this offer or this offer, and it was, ‘No, we can’t offer you anything’. By that point, my head was just fried. I felt like I had given so much to this club, of years, injuries, playing through stuff I should never have played through, and just getting cut like that.

“I personally was extremely upset by that. Some individuals involved avoided me for six months until my contract was finished and never really gave me the answers as to who made the decision. I just didn’t like how that was handled.”

With Watson’s current Leicester riding high in the Gallagher Premiership and in the last-eight in Europe, he couldn’t resist a dig at Bath’s years of underachievement. Asked to explain how much he is enjoying life at the Tigers, he said: “The rugby side of it at Leicester has been amazing.

“Strange with Steve (Borthwick) leaving mid-season and Richard (Wigglesworth) stepping up but it’s no surprise to me why they have been so successful in the last two years because their programme, everything they do is down to a tee. Like, there is nothing in the schedule that is pointless. It has been good.

“After the Six Nations, we came in and played straight away and I remember trying to deal with it in my head. It was strange because usually, I am going back to play for nothing (at Bath) and then we are in Europe and stuff so it’s trying to get my head around that. But genuinely it has been good, I am really enjoying it.”

Watson, though, is unsure which club he will be playing for in 2023/24. His deal with Leicester was just for a year and he has been linked with a switch to Castres in the Top 14 following the upcoming Rugby World Cup with England.

“It comes down to a lot of things. At this stage in my career ideally, I would like to live at home near my parents in Surrey. My missus isn’t from here [she is American], so we have got no help with the little one. That is the ideal scenario for me. I want to play for England as much as possible but I also would explore an opportunity in France if it came about,” he said, adding that Top 14 offers have been a conversation amongst the England squad.

“It has to be talked about because ultimately it is a bit of a problem. I wouldn’t say all of those players (who have taken up Top 14 deals) are desperate to leave the country but circumstances have forced them to do so. I can’t remember how long Joe (Marchant) has been at Quins but for him to go to Stade, whether it’s a lifestyle decision or not, it’s pretty rough for them to not be able to keep him.

“It is definitely being discussed amongst the lads but ultimately, we can’t make the decisions of how to solve them. We have got ideas and suggestions that we put forward,” he said before admitting the players are listened to more now than before. “Moreso now which is definitely important because previously the players have been very much the last people (to be involved).”