The easy thing would have been waiting for Finn Russell to move: Orlando Bailey

Trawling back through the Premiership history books it’s hard to find too many examples of players who’ve moved directly from Bath to Leicester, the two old rivals who face each other in the second of Sunday’s PREM Rugby Cup semi-finals.

It was just something that didn’t happen back in the days of Spurrell and Wheeler, and even in the increasingly fluid transfer market, post-professionalism, only a handful have made what must be the least trodden path in English rugby’s top flight. Those few that have are all high-calibre players, from Dan ‘Captain America’ Lyle to George Ford and Anthony Watson a generation further on.

By his own admission, Orlando Bailey has quite a bit to do in his career before he’s talked about in those terms, but his close-season move from Bath to Leicester is turning out well, better than most might have expected, maybe even himself, given the clubs, and the cities themselves, are very different culturally.

“That’s a good list. I’ve let the side down there,” he said, jokingly, when presented with past Bath to Leicester transfer examples.

“It’s a big move to make, one I had to consider long and hard.

“I wasn’t sure how I would be received by the group to be honest at the start, but they have all been super friendly.

“Typically they are clubs, let’s say, that dislike each other.

“They have both got a very rich history in the Premiership, and that’s probably why they are competitors, because they are both so successful – it’s not like they are particularly close together like Bath and Gloucester or whoever – and they both have amazing fan bases.

“I came to play more rugby,” the 24-year-old added.

“The easy thing to do would have been to stay, to sort of try and get a bit of game time and think, ‘well, when might Finn move on’ and whatever.

“But you can’t do that, careers are too short and time really does fly, so you have got to make the most of it in the short term and see what doors it opens up in the long-term.

“The only way you can do that is by playing rugby and getting better as a player and that’s what I needed to do.”

Bailey played every pool game in Bath’s triumphant PREM Rugby Cup-winning campaign last year, but a torn hamstring prevented him from taking part in the knockout stages, as well as scuppering his England A chances.

Thankfully, Bailey was able to put that right 12 months later, appearing for England’s second side against an Ireland XV in February.

Bailey was one of half-a-dozen players from Leicester to make the England A squad, and he played outside club teammate, Billy Searle, who has played a big factor in his move to Welford Mattioli Woods being a success.

“He’s been on an incredible run of form at the moment and, most importantly, he’s an incredible bloke, and we get on really well.

“We have a laugh off the field, and I think that sometimes shows on the pitch – we have a good relationship and we trust each other.

“When I was told I’d be starting at 12 (for England A) with Billy, that was a really cool moment.”

Bailey has flitted between fly-half and inside-centre in the past few seasons and is reluctant to say which he sees as ‘his’ position.

However, there are many reasons why he’s enjoying playing 12 at present, other than being alongside his room-mate Searle.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing 12 as an option; I have played a few games there throughout my academy days and stuff, and I had a few opportunities at Bath,” he said.

“I find you get that little bit of extra space and time and the skillset you have as a 10, seeing space and communicating well, which I think most 10s across the board have, when you put that into a 12 shirt, as long as you can do the physical bits, it can be a real positive, because you can tell the 10 where the space is and organise the forwards around him.

“So I have really enjoyed that opportunity at 12, it has been good fun and I want to keep exploring my game there, for sure.

“The coaches have been class for me,” he added.

“They said we think some of your skills would be suited to playing at 12, just go and do your thing and be brave with the ball, play to the space and don’t worry about too much else.

“That sort of messaaging really suits me, it’s allowed me to be alive to any attacking opportunities.”

While supporters have been denied a direct head-to-head with his best mate, Max Ojomoh, in Suinday’s PREM Cup semi-final, with the exiled England centre left out of Bath’s matchday 23, Bailey is still very familiar with the bulk of the Blue, Black and White squad.

He admits it adds an extra edge to the occasion for him personally.

“There’s some guys I’ve played with 10 years, some five years, and some of my best mates, so it’ll be in good spirits but there will be a few late shots and a bit of chat I am sure.”

Leicester Tigers: 15. James O’Connor, 14. Gabriel Hamer-Webb, 13. Will Wand, 12. Orlando Bailey, 11. Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10. Billy Searle, 9. Tom Whiteley; 1. Archie van der Flier, 2. Jamie Blamire, 3. Will Hurd, 4. Harry Wells, 5. Tom Manz, 6. Harry Palmer, 7. Tommy Reffell (c), 8. Joaquin Moro.

Replacements: 16. Finn Theobold-Thomas, 17. Tarek Haffar, 18. Ale Loman, 19. Hanro Liebenberg, 20. Josh Manz, 21. Charlie Bemand, 22. Joseph Woodward, 23. Izaia Perese.

Bath Rugby: 15 Sam Winters, 14 Austin Emens, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Will Butt (c), 11 Charlie Griffin, 10 Will Roue, 9 Ieuan Davies; 1 Scott Kirk, 2 Dan Frost, 3 Kieran Verden, 4 Jack Bennett, 5 Ewan Richards, 6 Ethan Staddon, 7 George Timmins, 8 Arthur Green.

Replacements: 16 Kepu Tuipulotu, 17 Ioan Emanuel, 18 Mikey Summerfield, 19 James Maloney, 20 Alex Ridgway, 21 Neil le Roux, 22 James Linegar, 23 Jack Harrison.