1
The Aviva Premiership Preseason Has Started So Why Do Bath Still Not Have A Head Coach?
It’s been a strange couple of years for Bath, one of the most decorated clubs in English rugby. This summer isn’t any different, writes Lee Calvert.
ADVERTISEMENT
For a neutral, Bath are a difficult club to hate. They’re something of an anti-Saracens. They have a history of playing good rugby and their Recreation Ground is a glorious throwback to the amateur days when everything smelt of liniment and you could punch anyone on the field – bar maybe the ref – with impunity. Bath itself, with its architecture, plentiful pubs and permanent miasma of rugby, is one of the best cities in the world to watch the game. If you haven’t been, go.
The 2014-15 season saw Bath reach the Aviva Premiership Grand Final playing a brand a rugby we could all get behind, with George Ford, Kyle Eastmond, Jonathan Joseph, young Ollie Devoto and Anthony Watson using coach Mike Ford’s inventive attacking patterns behind a decent pack. Even Matt Banahan, a man who looks like an Ikea wardrobe only with less pace, looked good. They lost to Saracens (boooo!) eventually, but the last twelve months have demonstrated that in the end everyone loses to Saracens, so there was no shame in that. Despite the absence of Sam Burgess, whose value or otherwise is a whole other (very long) column, Bath started the 2015-16 season with optimism. The coaching staff of Ford and his very able deputies Toby Booth and Neal Hatley were in place along with the core of players who did so well the year before. “Time to build on the success” was the refrain from the fans and media.
They did this by finishing ninth after spending some of the season flirting with relegation, fielding a pack that at times barely warranted the name. There was George Ford playing with all the certainty of a nerd looking for a prom date, outside of the infuriatingly mercurial Nikola Matawalu. Japan No.8 Amanaki Mafi left the club amid reports of a bust-up over the club physio appointments list (I’m not joking) and the Samoan international flanker Alafoti Fa’osiliva was released after receiving a suspended prison sentence for assaulting a university student.
Mike Ford left his post in May reeling from the bruises inflicted on a gameplan that had looked so very good a year ago, and with talk of disquiet in the dressing room over the Burgess fiasco and just about everything else that had happened in the last 12 months.
Despite the borderline disgrace of a season, recruitment has continued with Toby Faletua, Luke Charteris, Elliott Stooke and others coming in, while Kyle Eastmond and Ollie Devoto going out. But still the head coach position remains vacant with pre-season already underway.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Bath suits are reportedly in New Zealand to make kissy faces in the direction of Todd Blackadder and Tabai Matson, hoping to bring their good-fit-with-Bath Kiwi style across the world. If they say no then there is talk of Gregor Townsend, whose Glasgow team also play lovely rugby, being next off the rank.
Bath fans will rightly be asking why this is taking so long. The writing was on the wall for Mike Ford last Christmas but he stayed to the very end. Neal Hatley was allowed to go to England and yet, here the famous club is, weeks away from the start of the season with no head coach and nothing concrete in the pipeline.
Maybe they should just get Sam Burgess back?
Comments on RugbyPass
Except 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.
33 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.
2 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
33 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 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
33 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.
33 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. 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.
33 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.
33 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.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
33 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to comments