Bath 2016/17

First topic message reminder :

Apologies if this has already been done - couldn't see a Bath thread. Just wondering if any other Bath fans are worried about next year:
No DoR (rumours surrounding Dean Ryan or the Assistand Head Coach of South Africa).
No Inside Centres (both Kyle Eastmond and Ollie Devoto having left). That said, Max Clark was excellent for the U20s 2 seasons ago...
Front Row not performing - props struggling, Auterac with injury, age catching up with Wilson etc.
Need some more resource in the back 3 - Watson, Rokoduguni, Banahan can't play every game. Not convinced by Homer.
What happens if Joseph gets injured, Banahan back at 13...???

Was worried about the 2nd row for a while, but good signings in Charteris and Stooke.

Seems to be a bit of a mess at the moment, with no leadership are the club looking at where the squad seems light/underperforming?

I would take Fruean. Was hailed as the next big thing in the S15 a few seasons back. As others have said, hopefully injuries would be behind him. Bath need a week in week out guy.

Talking of week in week out players Bath have announced Guy Mercer as Club Captain for the coming season. A one club, local man and Francois Louw is clearly being protected from another seasons workload. Curious to know how much input Blackadder had, if any. George Ford nominated as Vice Captain and will clearly be match day captain for a number of fixtures.
Interesting times, expecting further announcements soon.

Visas for Leroy Houston appear to be easy to sort unlike for various centres that have been muted as signing for the club.
Houston however returns as a injury dispensation til the end of October. He has some boots to fill as currently back row players away or injured include; Louw, Mercer, Faletau, Denton, Garvey and Ellis. Sisi at the weekend, hobbling after the Newcastle game, didn't look too clever either.
Houston should come back permanently and then we can ditch Denton.

Isn't Australia included in the kolpak agreement along with SA? There's some rule that makes Aussies easier to sign than Kiwis. Plus, doesn't Leroy also have dual nationality, thought there was maybe an Italian link, but I might have made that up

Bathite wrote:Isn't Australia included in the kolpak agreement along with SA? There's some rule that makes Aussies easier to sign than Kiwis. Plus, doesn't Leroy also have dual nationality, thought there was maybe an Italian link, but I might have made that up

You could be right on the visas - no idea on the Italian link.

Another nasty rumour doing the rounds is that George Ford is going back to Leicester at the end of this season. Perhaps Burns would come back the other way, being an ex-Bath Academy prospect.

The rumour currently sounds quite credible with Bath mngt. hoping over the duration of the season, that current emotions will calm down for the Ford family.

Houston is a Legend.

Great to see Bath firing again.

At last the signing of Robbie Fruean announced - Blackadder will clearly be confident that this signing can make an impact - fingers crossed.

Almost as importantly, a new tight head Shaun Knight, an ex England U20, has signed from Newport. He has also played for Counties Manuka, which is perhaps where Blackadder has seen him. He completes an entirely English rota of competitive props with only one SA hooker, who is probably fourth choice after Batty, Dunn & Walker. Nice to see.

Shaun Knight the former Glaws prop who would struggle to scrummage his way out of a paper bag? If I remember rightly he got binned at Tigers with Ayerza giving him no end of trouble. I'm a little surprised Bath have released Wilson only to gamble on Knight.

He also played for Edinburgh for a while - he was guff

formerly known as Sam wrote:Shaun Knight the former Glaws prop who would struggle to scrummage his way out of a paper bag? If I remember rightly he got binned at Tigers with Ayerza giving him no end of trouble. I'm a little surprised Bath have released Wilson only to gamble on Knight.

He had huge promise as an U20 player and then proceeded to be utter garbage. He couldn't even get in the starting line up when we had the truly awful laughing stock of a scrum, with Rupert Harden at TH! Mind you, I bet the owners of Schwartz Bros are absolutely delighted

You know Bath are in poor shape when NGD are their new feeder club

If for every Shaun knight there's a faletau, then I'm happy to continue the partnership!

Bathite wrote:If for every Shaun knight there's a faletau, then I'm happy to continue the partnership!

And you go and break him

Knight will only be third choice TH after Thomas and KPN. It also means that Lahiff doesn't have to get drafted across from his preferred LH position.
Clearly also means a significant release of funds from Davey Wilson's salary. Blackadder will want another fetcher in the back row to cover Louw and the injured Mercer would be my bet.

Knight is bloody awful, I can't believe he's back in the AP. I hope for Bath's sake he gets very little game time.

On the other hand, Fruen could be an aspired signing. If he's anything like he was in S15 a few years back, you've got a star.

I can't believe you guys let Max Northcote-Green go.  He has been fantastic for us so far this season.

Ozzy3213 wrote:I can't believe you guys let Max Northcote-Green go.  He has been fantastic for us so far this season.

Glad to hear we could return the favour for once! How is it going in the champ for you guys?

So far so good - 24 points out of a possible 25 so far ...

How dare you raid our academy! Seriously though I think Bath wanted to keep him but couldn't offer him much serious game time. I'm glad he's doing well though, he will be a good AP level player I think.
You guys are going to walk the championship, it's hard to see where you will slip up.

Let's hope so and that we don't fall foul of the stupid play-off system.

Leroy Houston has been picked for the Australian squad for the game against Argentina at Twickenham. So our injury dispensation is now unavailable. We seemed to be jinxed at the moment.
Zach Mercer the English U20 is certainly getting some game time. Another academy prospect, Levi Douglas on the bench looks likely.
Sale compete like devils at the breakdown - another scrappy match like the Glaws game looks likely. Hopefully our two wingers in midfield continue to hold the line and George conjures some space for Roko & Watson to do their thing.

Where have all the Bath fans gone?


With all the injuries they have they are doing well this year, Banahan for an England call up if he keeps his great form going.

http://www.bathrugby.com/news/bath-rugby-team-named-for-european-derby-clash/

The first of four games against Brizzle, the local big city !
Pity we are missing through injury of two props, two hookers, three scrum halves and five back rowers. Against Pau, at the end, we had a Lock and a hooker in the back row.

George Ford having played the first six league games is rested for the second fixture in a row. Priestland to start earning his corn with academy SH Will Homer and Banahan lurking at IC to get the ball moving wide to JJ, Williams and Brew.

Andy Robinson and a number of the Bristol squad will get a warm welcome home.

No reserve scrum half...! Hopefully enough to get past Bristol though, surely they must be targeting certain league fixtures already?

Forgetable game last night with two scratch teams struggling to achieve any fluency.

The Bristol back row were very combative and Evans in the second row put himself about too - clearly looking to make a point with Charteris opposite.
Priestland was average in terms of attack but made his kicks and put in his tackles as Bristol targeted him in at various points in the game. Zach Mercer was everywhere last night and provided much of the energy from a Bath perspective. Will Homer, our last SH standing, did well and tried to keep a high tempo.
The players looked tired after a five day turnaround from being in Paul and need a few more of the walking wounded to return soon. Exeter away next week.

How did Will Hurrell go in the centres for Bristol?

formerly known as Sam wrote:How did Will Hurrell go in the centres for Bristol?

Impressive, yet again. I really wish we'd have went in for him as he was fantastic last season. Banahan looked good too, showed a nice kicking game.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:How did Will Hurrell go in the centres for Bristol?

Impressive, yet again. I really wish we'd have went in for him as he was fantastic last season. Banahan looked good too, showed a nice kicking game.

Banahan does seem to be thriving under the Bath regime. 

I'm rather hoping Hurrell has a relegation release clause at Bristol so that we can bring him home to Leicester in the summer. We need a hard running centre and he could be the man. Especially as I think Roberts will leave and we could do with an additional senior centre anyway. He has done well to re-invent himself in the Championship he was a winger with a taste for the beer when he left us.

He's certainly going well. He's exactly what we need at Falcons, I imagine he's on a decent wage at Bristol.

A few names I do not recognise in the Bath team for tomorrow's fixture. Mind I guess you can say the sameaubout Tigers.

It's certainly an 'A' team with lots of youngsters in there. Perhaps we will see a few more senior guys on the bench next week to get back up to speed for the league matches.

I'm a bit surprised to see Burns playing? I don't see what there is to gain having him risk injury in this. Still it will be good for Hastings to go up against a full international.

Burns hasn't started in the last 4 games (I think) he prob needs some game time.

Why have Priestland on the bench? He is your only senior 10 available till Decemeber.

I guess a combination of him only playing two matches this season and a lack of other fit players. Hastings and Jennings are the two academy FHs and are already involved so I would guess it might be due to a lack of players.