'More surgeries this year than I've seen in 22 years in the sport'
Stuart Hooper has claimed he has never seen a team suffer as many surgeries as Bath have this season in his 20-plus years in rugby. The 40-year-old is nearing the end of his third year as the director of rugby at The Rec following a lengthy playing career that spanned considerable spells as a second row at both Leeds and Bath.
The upshot of this season is the unavailability of numerous players for long periods of time has hampered the competitiveness of a team that came into the 2021/22 campaign with huge ambitions. Instead, they have struggled and currently head into their third last match of the season on Saturday at Gloucester as the bottom club in the 13-team Gallagher Premiership.
Such has been the struggle that a coaching overhaul was initiated in December for the upcoming 2022/23 season, Johann van Graan agreed to move from Munster in Ireland to the West Country in the hope of bringing about a much-needed improvement. In the meantime, Bath are putting together an injury audit that might possibly help enhance their durability next term.
“We constantly look at things on a daily basis, but look back at chunks too,” explained Hooper when asked for his explanation on a Bath season that has left much to be desired. “Anyone who sits here and says we wouldn’t have done anything differently is probably lying to themselves.
“Of course, there are things we would do differently. There are issues that came up that are difficult to do differently, like the unavailability of players, injuries and all that stuff. Some of them you could look at and say that in the short term we would have reacted to them differently, which is good. That is learning and getting better as a group. Some of them you have to say it was just a tough period.
“We have had more surgeries this year than I have ever seen in 22 years in the sport. That is a reality and what we need to make sure we do everything we can to stop that from happening. But equally, if that is the new normal then we have to find a way to work around it.
“We’re looking at it. This period of time is always a time when we reflect very strongly over the back end of the season on what has happened, an injury audit and an understanding of all of those is part of that. Off the top of my head, many of them have been what we would call catastrophic contact injuries where, in the moment, there is nothing you can do.
“We haven’t changed any material elements of our training. I know there has been a bit in the media about the days that people train and the breaks in training. We have been in that model for 18 months now. Generally, our injuries have been picked up in games and when we have got all the data we will then be able to make decisions and make recommendations for what we do going forward.”
In their first season with Hooper as the director of rugby, Bath produced an uplifting post-lockdown run to the semi-finals of the 2019/20 Premiership. That consistency has since been elusive, but he is hoping that this season’s wounding struggle will be invaluable to him as a boss looking to do much better in the future.
“It has been an incredibly rich experience. I don’t think there has never been a day when I haven’t learned something and that is what I take from it. Of course, it is disappointing from a league position perspective and I wouldn’t wish that upon anybody but as a team, as a group, what we have learned can be absolutely priceless moving forward.
“I talk about that in regard to the young players who have played a huge amount of Premiership. We have never had as many minutes played by our academy graduates but also from a staffing group as well, this staffing group are growing together and learning together and will I am sure take a huge amount out of the difficulties we have encountered this year.”
A prized silver lining in the immediate weeks, though, would be Hooper and co lifting Bath off the foot of the table before the season ends. There is no relegation but all the same, no one wants to finish last no matter what the tournament they are in. “Of course, we want to make sure we put ourselves in that position. There is absolutely an opportunity to do that, picking up those wins to take us off the bottom. We will be doing everything we possibly can.”
Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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 comments