'I let out a sigh of relief': Will Butt on Johann van Graan hybrid call

Even with England duo, Max Ojomoh and Ollie Lawrence, and Scotland and Wales internationals, Cam Redpath and Louie Hennessey, blocking his path to the first team, Will Butt insists that he has no desire to immerse himself fully in the hybrid player route.

Butt’s strapping physique – he’s 6’2 and 16-and-a-half-stone – has made him a useful option at flanker, when the need has arose, plus a handful of his 58 appearances for Bath have been on the wing.

The 25-year-old’s senior club debut was actually on the wing in October 2019, opposite Louis Rees-Zammit, no less, in a 26-24 Premiership Cup win at Gloucester, where he will lead Bath out for the first time as captain this Friday night.

“I got absolutely melted off two high balls, back to back, and I got a lot of advice the week after about how I needed to get in the air more,” he recalled this week.

“When Covid was hitting and we were having people dropping like flies, and it was next man in, I ended up picking up a few games on the wing. I’d trained on the wing a lot because we had a lot of really good centres.”

In October, against Sale, the first of his two PREM apperances off the bench this season, Butt moved to the back row after Bath lost their frontline locks and needed to rejig the formation of the pack.

“It is something I have done when we have had a yellow card before, so it wasn’t something that was completely new to me.

“And then, within that game, I didn’t have to do too much that was technical as a back row, so it wasn’t hugely different for me, and they protected me a little bit, they kept me out of the limelight. So I just had to roam around and hit things.

“You’ve seen more and more with a 6-2 bench, that players who can play in multiple positions are becoming more and more valuable.

“We have got people like Josh Bayliss, who plays in the back row and has played on the wing and in the second row, and that’s really key for us.”

While Butt recognises the importance of being a Swiss Army knife type of player, he was reassured by a conversation with Bath boss Johan van Graan at the start of last season, when his strong running in midfield helped to offset, in part, the loss of Lawrence to an Achilles injury.

“Definitely, I would rather play centre,” when asked about his preference.

“I think Johann and I had a conversation at the start of last season and he said, I see you as more as a centre than a wing, and I let out a sigh of relief as I don’t really like playing on the wing.

“But at the same time, like I said earlier, if you can cover multiple positions that can be really valuable, and anything I can do to get on the pitch, I am so happy to do so.

“So I want to keep it in my armory but I want to play centre first and foremost. I am so used to playing centre, I’ve been playing centre all my life, and in a game I don’t want to be overthinking what I do, I just want it to be instinctive.”

As for Ben Earl, and the much-talked about experiment of playing the back-rower at 12 for England, Butt doesn’t see an issue with it.

“I think it would be interesting. He certainly has all the physical attributes to manage it, so I don’t see why he couldn’t do that.”