Cam Redpath: Super cool Santi Carreras is different to Finn Russell

Cam Redpath has likened Bath teammate Santi Carreras to launguid French football star Paul Pogba, who at his peak, was known as one of the most talented midfielders of his generation.

Carreras endured a disappointing first season at Bath in 2025/26, following his move from West Country rivals Gloucester, but started the new campaign with a bang last Friday, running in a try of the season contender in Bath’s opening night win at Harlequins.

Defending a two-on-on inside his own 22, the silky-skilled Pumas star chose to stick a boot out and intercept Tyrone Green’s pass that way rather than risk knocking it on and incurring a certain yellow card.

He then scooped the ball out of the air one handed, having managed to just about stay in play, and then sped off to score a try that has since been viewed 900,000 times on TNT Sports’ X account.

“I think it was the Tuesday of last week, he tried it in training, and it didn’t work. I sit next to him in the meetings, and he said, ‘did you see me try that?’, and I was like, ‘yeah, yeah, it’s never going to work’, and then he did it in the game and I just remember jumping up and saying, ‘Santi!’,” Redpath revealed.

“I joked to Santi after, ‘imagine if you put your leg out and you got dummied’? He’d have looked like an idiot. But he didn’t get  dummied and he scored the try. There’s not many other people who’d be able to do that, maybe one or two.”

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Redpath reckons Carreras even tops his Scotland teammate Finn Russell for coolness.

“He’s the most fluid rugby player I have ever met, he is just so smooth in everything he does. He reminds me of Paul Pogba when he played football back in the day, everything seems to be in slow motion. He is just so relaxed.

“Finn’s fluid, but he thinks a lot more about what he does. He is a lot more technical and a lot of his stuff is a lot more thought about before he does it. Finn is one step ahead of everybody; Santi is very fluid. That’s the best way I can describe the two of them.”

Redpath, 26, admits there is never a dull moment when two of the most naturally gifted playmakers in world rugby are about.

“At times they are brilliant. At times, when it gets a bit loose, it can be difficult,” he said.

“When Santi comes back from an Argentina camp, his English is a bit worse, he says the wrong calls in training. But no, they are both brilliant, they are both great guys, and they are both so competitive as well, which is enjoyable to play with.

“And obviously, I don’t need to talk about their talent; they are both brilliantly talented players. Sometimes in training it is pretty impressive what you see.”

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Bath

11:45

2 Oct 26

Exeter Chiefs

All Stats and Data

On Friday night, Bath take on Exeter for the first time since their heartbreaking 27-26 playoff loss to the Chiefs last June.

Carreras was made the fall guy for that defeat, and will no doubt want to make amends.

Directing play in the dying seconds in the shadow of the Chiefs’ posts, the full-back/fly-half was in the perfect position to drop kick Bath into a third consecutive Twickenham final. But, instead, the forwards kept picking and going and were denied on the try line after 39 phases.

At that point, Carreras’ reputation was more Carlton Palmer than Paul Pogba.

“I saw a lot of articles out there that said Santi should have drop kicked, or we should have passed the ball or whatever,” said Redpath.

“As backs we have got to help the forwards out a bit, we probably allowed them to do too much.

“But when you are on the pitch and something has worked for you so many times before – Thomas (du Toit) was up there for the last three years as one of our top try scorers, whether it is him or whoever, it is hard to argue with that.

“I would back our forwards, next time they would definitely score that, and if we passed it to the backs, we’d definitely score that as well.

“It’s not on one person, it is a team effort, and it is what it is. Exeter did a brilliant job. We were up in that game and we probably shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position in the first place. It is done now, we have got over that.”

While Bath fell just short in the PREM, and also bowed out of the Champions Cup and PREM Rugby Cup in the semi-finals, Redpath says he was personally a long way off his own high standards.

Overlooked for this year’s Six Nations and the Nations Championship, the last of Redpath’s 15 Scotland caps was over a year ago, in a shock defeat to Fiji.

And, for the most part, Bath’s favoured starting midfield has been Max Ojomoh and Ollie Lawrence, with Redpath often left covering centre and fly-half on the bench.

As one of four centres entering the final year of his contract at Bath, who he joined from Sale in 2020, Redpath knows he needs to play well to not only win his Scotland place back but also a new deal at the blue, black and whites.

“I’d love to get back in,” he said of his Scotland ambitions.

“At times in your career you’ve maybe got to look at yourself and think, there”s maybe something that I am not doing, and I don’t think I was doing enough, I probably wasn’t playing well enough last season, So, unfortunately I have got to take that on the chin, and I am exited to get going into it.

“International rugby is very different to Premiership rugby, and I feel I have always put my hand when I have played international rugby and I would do anything to get an opportunity again,” he continued.

“I’d like to hope that over the next couple of months, I’ll hear something (from Gregor Townsend). If not, I am doing something wrong and I am not playing well enough. That’s on me.”

As well as being good at taking the ball to the line, Redpath is defensively solid in contact despite his relatively slim physique. A nuisance for opposition carriers with his ability to aggressively strip the ball in the tackle, he also likes to get over the ball at the breakdown.

“I had a little bit of a dodgy back over the last 18 months and it probably hindered me a tiny little bit in certain aspects,” he revealed.

“I was still fine to play but I probably under-estimated how much it was holding me back in my jackaling game.

“It is something I really enjoy getting involved in, the nitty gritty stuff. I don’t mind a bit of that sometimes. When it is wet and horrible, sometimes as a centre you have got to do the dirty work. It helps get me in the game.

“I think in certain parts of my game last year I watched a game of rugby instead of playing it, and it’s never really been me to just sit back and watch, I am too competitive.”

One thing Narbonne-born Redpath is happy to be patient about is his contract situation.

With Redpath, Ojomoh, Lawrence and Welsh international Louie Hennessey all out of contract in the summer, the situation could prove to be as fluid as Carreras is on the ball.

“It is probably too early to think about contracts at the minute. I probably need to play better than I did last season. I would rather focus on playing well.”