Bath Rugby’s England A stars will be available for selection for the PREM Rugby Cup clash with visitors Sale Sharks on Saturday 22nd November – and the hosts are “in a good place” as they gear up for the crucial Round 5 showdown.
Saturday 22nd November is double-header day at The Rec, with Bath Rugby facing Sale Sharks in the PREM Rugby Cup followed by Bath Ladies taking on University of Exeter Ladies | Photo © Richard Briggs
The Blue, Black & White won the competition last season but lie in third place in Pool A this time around, with one win and two defeats to their name.
Sale hold second spot, six points ahead of the men from The Rec.
But coach Ryan Davis, who is leading Bath in the current block of cup games, is in high spirits ahead of the fixture, with Kepueli Tuipulotu, Vilikesa Sela and Ewan Richards back in the fold after being in the matchday 23 for England A’s 29-25 comeback win over Spain in Valladolid on Saturday 15th November.
At the club’s pre-Round 5 press conference on Tuesday 18th November, Davis said: “It was nice to see them [the England A trio] back, we welcomed them back on Monday and just said ‘Great achievement’. We were all behind them, but those three are definitely available. We’ll get the selection Thursday/Friday, but I think we’re in a good place.
“We’ve got a lot of boys fit. Some of the young lads put their hands up on Friday night, and we’ve got a few boys that we’ve got to make sure we manage to pull into the PREM block.”
Regarding pressure on Bath to earn a win over Sale to keep alive their hopes of retaining the trophy, Davis said: “I think everyone does it their own way. The way we do it is week by week, game by game – and for us, we want to win at home.
“I think they [Sale] will try to be physical. I think they’ll impose their kicking game on us. They’ll want to come down and win, that’ll put them right up in the table.
“As I said last week [at his press conference at Kingsholm Stadium after the cup setback against Gloucester Rugby on Friday 14th November], I think there’s a lot of rugby left in this competition. I think the boys are excited and they’re chomping bits for it.”
The game will be Davis’ first at The Rec in what is effectively a head-coach role.
He said: “I’ve been an attack coach. I’ve been in and around skills and first-team coach for a number of years now, but to lead the group, it will be quite a special event. The family are coming down.
“I’m excited but it’s not about me. I just hope that they [Bath’s players] let loose and achieve what they should do.
“I’ve learned a lot from Johann [van Graan, the Blue, Black & White’s head of rugby]. He’s incredibly diligent. So for me, it’s been quite eye-opening this year, being a little bit more involved than in the last few years.
“The win against Bristol [Bears in Round 3, Davis’ first match in charge] was so good because of the challenge, a bit of a different balance in the squad, versus going to Gloucester [and losing in Round 4] with a bit more of a younger squad.
“I think I’ve come away with just how you manage the week, what you prepare, to make sure that it feels like that in the week, that it represents on the weekend.
“I think the weather, probably I underestimated how bad it was Friday night [at Gloucester].
“If I reflected, we could’ve got our boys to play a little bit less rugby than we did on Friday, but learning as a head coach, it was great to reflect on in this week, another challenge.
“I’ll look at the week ahead and take those two weeks as quality information, great learning.”
Davis revealed that he prefers to watch the action from the coaches’ box, rather than from the touchline.
He said: “I just think from a bigger picture, from attack and being able to see people off the ball, it’s a lot easier up top [in the coaches’ box]. When you’re down there [on the touchline], it’s more emotive, you’re feeling it with the boys. I think as a head coach, you’ve probably got to step back a little bit.”
As for his few weeks heading the group, he said: “I’ve been able to step back and watch other people [coaches] deliver and then also have little co-coaching moments with some of the other players which has been class and then there’s other times where I’m leading it, I’m right in the middle of it. So I think it’s been a balance and the balance has been good for me.”
Davis believes that practice makes perfect in rugby.
He said: “I see someone like [Bath’s British & Irish Lion] Finn [Russell], I want to know how he got to that stage in his career.
“So you think the speed of pass, his ability to catch and get it out of his hands, he’s probably second to none, he’s up there as the world’s best, I believe, in terms of a passing game.
“You’ve seen that [on Sunday 16th November for Scotland] against Argentina. He can catch and release within a step.
“As a kid, you’ve got to be curious, you can’t just go out and play rugby.
“I think every sport allowed me, and I think other lads… football, cricket, tennis, golf, they all have a hand-eye co-ordination, they all have a sense of you and the ball, you and space and time.
“So I think the more you can expose these players, even in a professional game, or when they’re amateur youngsters coming up, you just need to be exposed to as much as you can, making decisions, doing it, doing as much as you can for hand-eye co-ordination. And then those sort of things become a bit more second nature.
“And a simple one from Finn was that when he went to New Zealand, they spent five, 10 minutes post-sessions ripping passes. It’s as simple as that, you have to do repetition in something real basic to get better at it.”
Bath back row Ethan Staddon is another man who is relishing the game against Sale – and he cannot underestimate the value of the PREM Rugby Cup to young players’ development.
The 23-year-old said at the pre-Round 5 press conference: “This PREM Cup is opportunity for minutes under the belt and when I get a go at Premiership, like I did against Leicester [Tigers on Saturday 18th October, when he was in the starting XV], just take the opportunity and show what I’ve been working on and put my best foot forward.
“I need to get as much rugby as I can. One thing I would say that’s so good about this club is the quality of players ahead of me, and the amount of learning and the level of competition between us, that I think is actually driving all of us to be much better players.
“There’s a brilliant coaching network here. Someone who’s been extremely influential for me in the last 12 months is someone like Andy [Robinson], and then having the likes of Ryan and Mark [Lilley], I know that what they say after, or in the week after, a game, I can trust their opinion on something that they want me to work on or something that’s going well for me.
“I think a lot of people will tell you the same thing, and that [the cup is] just such a huge opportunity for myself and many others to get valuable game time at a very good level.
“You get a very big variation of different squads that you end up facing. We ended up playing what was Exeter’s best team in that final [last season].
“That’s a huge opportunity to play against some Premiership-level players, and then you also get different mixes of squads.
“Last season we ended up with something like 50-plus young lads getting an appearance [in the cup].
“I think the last year for me, it’s probably been the best year by a mile. I’ve been able to play some consistent rugby and get some good game time, and that started with my time away, my 10 weeks in Sydney with the Parramatta Two Blues, and I just managed to get a few minutes under the belt.
“I think that’s meant that I’ve stayed fit, stayed active and managed to stay away from injury.
“The last year, for me, has been some of my best rugby and just pushing with the competitiveness of the first team here, it’s just meant that you have to get better.
“I like to just turn up and play rugby. I have done since I was about eight years old.
“A home game is such a great occasion. I love playing at The Rec. It’s such an intimate stadium where you feel so close to the fans, and so loud.
“So I think it’s an easy one to get up for. Sale are going to bring it physically and it’s really important that we fight that.”
Bath versus Sale will kick-off at 3pm – and, on double-header day at The Rec, the cup tie will be followed by Bath Ladies playing their University of Exeter counterparts (5.30pm).
