'Flip-flops and ripped t-shirts - Bath were the boy band of rugby'
Bath have not been a consistent heavyweight in the professional rugby era, their struggles continuing to this day with Johann van Graan, their latest coach, enduring a difficult first few months in charge in the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership season before some wins finally came to lift the team off the bottom of the league.
It’s now 25 years since their first campaign in the professional era – 1996/97 – ended in failure. They had finished out the 1995/96 season, the last in England before the clubs turned pro, by claiming their sixth league title, pipping Leicester to first place by a point, and then defeating the Tigers to secure their tenth English Cup final title in front a then world record club attendance of 75,000 at Twickenham.
The following season, though, their amateur-era supremacy came apart at the seams with the sport going pro at club level. Bath finished six points behind the first-past-the-post league champions Wasps, they were knocked out of the cup in the round of 16 by Leicester and they were also defeated by Cardiff in the quarter-finals in the first Heineken European Cup campaign to feature clubs from England.
Bath did gloriously get it right at the second attempt, becoming the first British side to lift the Heineken Cup when they defeated Brive in the 1998 final in Bordeaux. That incredible decider has now been brilliantly remembered in the latest episode of Rugby Stories, the BT Sport Pods series that has been recalling famous moments in the histories of the Premiership clubs.
This compelling story of the Bath European success, however, had its genesis in what unfolded during their haphazard 1996/97 attempt to make the transition from amateur to professional. Former Test-level duo Richard Webster and Andy Nicol were among those to shed light on those teething issues.
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Ex-Wales forward Webster, who moved from the 1993 Lions tour into rugby league with Salford, recalled his first impressions of the professional-era Bath. “I went to the first game in a blazer and a tie like I would normally and they all turned up in flip-flops and ripped t-shirts. They were the pop stars, they were the boy band of the rugby world. They were confident.
“They did come from a very successful amateur era which I had watched and admired but then as they came into the professional era, it didn’t quite pay off. Brian Ashton was the head coach and he had this idea of complete rugby and he wanted the ball in play, he used to time us on how long we kept the ball in play.
“He didn’t want it kicked off, didn’t want dead play, he wanted the ball to be played in the hands as much as possible so they were trying to play a brand of rugby and we wanted to be the best team but it wasn’t a marker and coming into the professional era, Europe became a marker but unfortunately we were off the mark for the first year.”
Ex-Scotland scrum-half Nicol, who was skipper for 1998 European final, added his take on how the Bath amateur-era dominance diminished in that first professional season after they failed to understand what the transition should have involved.
“It was appalling but we weren’t alone. When the game went professional nobody knew what to do. Nobody knew how to prepare a rugby team in a professional environment.
“The only team that did it well was Newcastle because under John Hall they were aligned to Newcastle United. They knew sports science, recovery, nutrition, all of that because Newcastle United Football Club had done it for years and years and years. The rest of the rugby teams were just making it up.
“There was almost a blank sheet of paper. We went from training twice a week and playing on a Saturday to training twice a day and playing on Friday, Saturday, Sunday depending on when the TV game dictated it. It was like they filled each day with training and there was no real science to it.
“It was probably the science that was available at the time but you look back even five years into professional and you go, ‘Wow, we got that so wrong’. I don’t know who it was that said this but I’ll take credit for it if I can’t remember who it was – Bath were the most professional of amateur sides yet the most amateur of professional sides.”
"He was saying it to JC to inspire him and it really p****d me off."
– @AndyNic9 takes @heagneyl ??? through the epic story of Bath winning the 1998 Heineken Cup, including his infamous late fumble and bringing the cup to a McDonald's.#Bath @btsportrugbyhttps://t.co/w4aVwBSIHZ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 14, 2022
Back to Webster, who compared life as a pro rugby league player to what he initially encountered at Bath. “I played for Salford for four seasons and in four seasons we never tackled each other once in training, we never did one physical contact session but when we went into the game in rugby league an unwritten rule is there are 13 of you and we were hard and 13 of you stand up and be counted.
“I have seen small backs, outside halves playing with broken arms until they get dragged off. That’s the unwritten rule but we never had to do it in training, it was always done on the field. I went to Bath and why I don’t think they grasped the professional era quite so much was we trained five days a week and every day we beat each other up in training.
“When we came to the weekend we weren’t quite as sharp as we should have been but I think it was a case of ‘we’re paying you, we’re paying you lots of money, you do as we say’ which didn’t really work out when it came to putting it out on the field on a Saturday.”
“We didn’t make that transition well at all,” agreed Nicol. “As I say we weren’t alone in that, it’s just I guess because of the success that Bath had had in the amateur era everyone just presumed that that success would continue and the mistakes that were made meant we probably came back in the pack a little bit.”
- For the full Bath episode, check out BT Sport’s podcast series, Rugby Stories, part of the BT Sport Pods lineup of podcasts. Every Monday, Rugby Stories, presented by Craig Doyle, will spotlight and celebrate English club rugby history. Btsport.com/pods
Comments on RugbyPass
The value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
3 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
10 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
41 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
10 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
41 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
3 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
41 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
51 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
41 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
41 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. All the Kiwis sticking up for this unprincipled individual because they can't accept justified criticism, he has zero credibility or integrity. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
41 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
41 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
2 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to comments