Bath confirm 16 players leaving - including Matt Garvey - but Ben Spencer is one of 3 new arrivals
Stuart Hooper’s Bath have unveiled their squad for the 2020/21 Gallagher Premiership season, confirming 16 players are leaving, including ex-skipper Matt Garvey, announcing three more new signings and revealing that out-of-favour England prop Henry Thomas has signed a contract extension.
The club’s new intake includes Saracens’ Ben Spencer, the scrum-half agreeing to a three-year deal. Second row Will Spencer, who came through the academy at Bath, will also return to the Premiership club following stints at Worcester and more recently Leicester.
And Bath have further recruited front row Juan Schoeman from the Super Rugby Sharks – the 28-year-old was a Junior World Cup winner with South Africa – and they have also offered Josh Matavesi, who arrived mid-season from Newcastle, an extension.
Seven other players have signed contract extensions with the Premiership outfit, prop forward Thomas, Max Clark and Max Green all following Sam Underhill, Max Wright, Jack Walker and Tom Ellis who recommitted their Bath futures earlier this year.
Meanwhile, 15 players have been released while recent World Cup winner Francois Louw is retiring. Among the departures who have secured contracts elsewhere are Sam Nixon, who has signed for Bayonne, Freddie Burns is going to Shokki Shuttles, Chris Cook is joining Bristol and Jackson Willison is bound for Soyaux.
“I sat in endless meetings where the talk was about wanting homegrown talent, people from Bath – yet I didn’t get given an opportunity”
– @FreddieBurns tells @heagneyl how it fizzled out for him at @bathrugby and why @shokki is an adventure he craves ???https://t.co/c3Iqqo3so2— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 6, 2020
Director of rugby Hooper said: “I’d like to say a huge thank you to our departing players for everything they have given to our club. As a group, we have enjoyed seeing them perform and they have all made their mark in the jersey. I would like to share my personal thanks to Matt Garvey, our club captain for two seasons for his care, passion and performances for the club.
“This season is strange and due to rugby not being played, we do not have the same opportunity to deliver the traditional send-off at the Rec. We wish these lads well for their futures and share many memories that will last a lifetime.
“Our recruitment this year brings us the opportunity to build on our start of 19/20, to continue to develop our game and keep building the relationships that will drive us. Ben, Will and Juan all bring strong attributes which will develop our game. They are all crucially young men who want to improve and be part of our success.
“I feel incredibly proud of our pathway and the quality we are delivering there, to bring seven players up this season is testament to the players themselves but also the work of the academy staff over many years.
“To add seven more homegrown players into our full-time environment is a great sign of commitment to our vision and to the talented young men who exist in our region.
“Our recruitment cycle is not completely finished yet, we continue to work on our squad and this year presents opportunities not found in other cycles. The fact remains that we will not bring just anyone into the environment. They must be the right fit not only for the short term but for future years.”
How the tragic loss of two teammates has given Henry Thomas perspective on the 'dark side' of mental health issues – RugbyPass https://t.co/1uAMHrHlhI #SCI
— MD Hotline (@MDHotline) February 16, 2020
Departures
Lucas Noguera, Levi Douglas, Sam Nixon, Will Britton, Matt Garvey, Jack Davies, Freddie Burns, Alex Davies, Aled Brew, Chris Cook, Tom Homer, Jackson Willison, Rhys Webb, Levi Davis, Rhys Davies.
Retirement
Francois Louw.
New signings
Ben Spencer (Saracens), Will Spencer (Leicester Tigers), Juan Schoeman (The Sharks), Josh Matavesi (Mid Season signing and extension – Newcastle Falcons), Cameron Redpath (Mid Season Signing – Sale Sharks).
Re-signings
Sam Underhill, Jack Walker, Max Clark, Max Green, Max Wright, Tom Ellis, Henry Thomas.
Promoted to senior squad
Gabriel Hamer-Webb.
Senior academy intake
Orlando Bailey, Gabe Goss. John Stewart, Ethan Staddon, Ewan Richards, Frankie Read, Tom Carr-Smith.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments