Three internationals among 9 new arrivals at Bath
Three internationals are among nine new arrivals confirmed at Bath as the club usher in a new era under Johann van Graan.
It’s been a nightmare season for Bath, who despite significant financing, finished bottom of the Gallagher Premiership. The West country side managed just five wins and a draw in this season’s competition and fared little better in the Heineken Champions Cup.
Van Graan, who presided over an admittedly mixed bag of results at Munster, will be hoping he can turn the club around after their worst ever Premiership campaign.
With that in mind, the club confirmed their playing squad for next season.
As confirmed earlier in the year, Dave Attwood is back and set add to his 157 performances in Blue, Black, and White, while the veteran quartet of Chris Cloete, former Springbok Louis Schreuder, Niall Annett and England international Piers Francis has also been enlisted.
Van Graan has brought Cloete with him from Munster, along with former Saracens fullback Matt Gallagher.
Backrows JJ Tonks of the Northampton Saints and Wesley White of the Jersey Reds join intriguing young centre Louie Hennessey.
Against this they have lost the services of Anthony Watson, Taulupe Faletau and Danny Cipriani.
Prop: Lewis Boyce, Arthur Cordwell, Archie Griffin, Johannes Jonker, Archie Maggs*, Beno Obano, D’Arcy Rae, Juan Schoeman, Archie Stanley, Will Stuart, Kieran Verden
Hooker: Niall Annett, Tom Doughty, Tom Dunn, Jasper Spandler, John Stewart
Second Row: Dave Attwood, Josh Dingley, Charlie Ewels, Josh McNally, Ewan Richards, Will Spencer, Mike Williams
Back Row: Abdul-Khalik Akenzua Al Kareem, Josh Bayliss, Chris Cloete, Jaco Coetzee, Thompson Cowan, Richard de Carpentier, Tom Ellis, Mackenzie Graham, Arthur Green, Will Jeanes, Nahum Merigan, Frankie Read, Miles Reid, Ethan Staddon, JJ Tonks, Sam Underhill, Wesley White
Scrum-Half: Tom Carr-Smith, Max Green, Louis Schreuder, Ben Spencer
Fly-Half: Orlando Bailey, Ciaran Donoghue, Piers Francis, Sam Harris, George Worboys
Centre: Will Butt, Louie Hennessey, Jonathan Joseph, Max Ojomoh, Will Parry, Cameron Redpath, Jordan Venter, Max Wright
Back Three: Darren Atkins, Joe Cokanasiga, Matt Gallagher, Gabe Goss, Tom de Glanville, Gabriel Hamer-Webb, Ruaridh McConnochie, Will Muir
Comments on RugbyPass
What a joke. Total joke and the pundits commentating, all of whom know a bit about the game, could barely disguise their contempt. Reaching for the card then pulling back when he realised a red card would carry further match suspensions is simply not his decision to make. A clear and obvious influence on the outcome of this match and indeed, the championship path.
2 Go to commentsI like the idea, in NZ the Ranfurly Shield and NPC coexist, both having their own bragging rights. The World Cup would be the pinnacle, but the competition and travels of these trophies would be interesting.
40 Go to commentsDon’t worry Sonny bill Williams leave that awkward situation about the curfew in the pass whoever it was it doesn’t matter its no big deal we back our All Blacks through the storm and the thunder until we see the Sun light again.
41 Go to commentsWho listens to this retard? He was a massive liability as a player but obviously a media sensation
41 Go to commentsI’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
41 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
40 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
2 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to comments