The less said about 2021/22 the better as that was an absolutely brutal display of rugby. Injuries did play a factor, but that cannot be the excuse. Whatever the reason was, defense and cohesion were not at it’s best for one of the historically best clubs in England. However, it’s a brand new era at Bath as there is a new head of rugby and a lot of turnover.
Johann van Graan is the new director of rugby after a successful spell as the head coach at Munster and he’s still young at 42 years of age. It took no time for van Graan in his recruitment in both the squad and in his coaches as he brought in JP Ferreira as defense coach and Joe Maddock as attack coach. The list below are the players whom van Graan recruited:
Niall Annett (Hooker) from Worcester Warriors
Matt Gallagher (Fullback) from Munster
Wesley White (Back Row) from Jersey Reds
Louis Schreuder (Scrum-half) from Newcastle Falcons
Chris Cloete (Flanker) from Munster
Dave Attwood (Second Row) from Bristol Bears
Piers Francis (Fly-half) from Northampton Saints
JJ Tonks (Back Row) from Northampton Saints
GJ van Velze (Back Row) from Tel Aviv Heat
Aranos Coetzee (Tighthead Prop) Free State Cheetahs *Short term deal
Quinn Roux (Second Row) from Toulon
Michael Etete (Second Row) from Leeds Tykes
This is some good depth for the club especially with Attwood coming back. Annett, Schreuder, Cloete, Francis, van Velze, and Roux make this team significantly deeper and more intrigue. Gallagher, Coetzee, and Tonks are interesting cases, but are nonetheless depth.
Bath did lose some talent, but they also were able to cut some wages that would’ve been hard for the club in this round of recruitment. Below is a list of players that left Bath:
Taulupe Faletau (Back Row) to Cardiff Blues
Max Clark (Centre) to Dragons
Semesa Rokoduguni (Winger) to Montauban
Valery Morozov (Loosehead Prop) to Worcester Warriors
Tian Schoeman (Fly-half) to Newcastle Falcons
Anthony Watson (Fullback) to Leicester Tigers
Jacques du Toit (Hooker) to Zebre Rugby
Ollie Fox (Scrum-half) to Ealing Trailfinders
Danny Cipriani (Fly-half) released
Will Vaughan (Loosehead Prop) released
Harry Casson (Second Row) released
Tom Prydie (Winger) released
Ma’afu Fia (Tighthead Prop) returned to Ospreys
Joe Simpson (Scrum-half) returned to Gloucester Rugby
Faletau and Watson will be huge losses and they lose depth in Clark, Rokoduguni, du Toit, and Morozov, but the team didn’t seem to lose too much. The unfortunate spell for Schoeman as he was seriously injured and is now off to a better opportunity for him to play more frequently.
Bath does have a lot of talent here and fully fit looks to be dangerous. Especially in the backs as a lot of young talent emerged like Max Ojomoh, Orlando Bailey, and Tom de Glanville paired with some experience such as Jonathan Joseph, Ben Spencer, and Piers Francis. There are other stout players such as Will Muir, Ruaridh McConnochie, Cameron Redpath, and Joe Cokanasiga. If injuries do occur, it will be interesting to see who fills in. However, the area of concern will be at fly half as Bailey is the only proven 10 and Francis mostly plays at the 12.
The forwards also boast a lot of talent. Tom Dunn and Niall Annett are quality hookers, but Tom Doughty played admirably last season. The props seem to have some depth too with Beno Obano and Will Stuart likely to be the starters, but with D’Arcy Rae, Aranos Coetzee, Lewis Boyce, and Juan Schoeman available to back them up, there’s good depth there plus talented young players such as Arthur Cordwell and Kieran Verden. The locks will be interesting as Charlie Ewels will be injured for most of the campaign. Attwood and Josh McNally should be the expected starters, but Roux and Will Spencer provide good cover as well as the talented and young Ewan Richards. The back row is probably the deepest part of this squad with Sam Underhill, Miles Reid, and Josh Bayliss expected to be the starters while Cloete, Jaco Coetzee, Tom Ellis, Mike Williams, Tonks, and van Velze providing cover as well as a talented and young Ethan Staddon. The back row should be the least of Bath’s problems if injuries arise.
It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly Bath will do this season, but they should be remarkably better and can’t be as bad in 2021/22. The only way for the club to finish 13th again will be because of injuries. A mid table finish seems like a good bet, but a higher standing might be harder to achieve due to how close the other teams played for the top four last season. That being said, Bath could make things interesting. While the club will likely not finish in the top four, there seems to be a lot of hope and positivity as they could be a force in the next campaign or two under van Graan’s direction.
Analyzing Bath’s Fixtures
To determine how Bath will finish their 2022/23 Premiership campaign, one will have to look at the fixtures and see what it looks like for them. The club is significantly better than last season and be a much more competitive side, but there’s still a lot of competition to play that made things interesting as many clubs were in the hunt for a top four finish. There is an advantage of playing at The Rec, but that can only go so far.
Here are the fixtures:
Match One: Bristol Bears (away)
Match Two: Sale Sharks (home)
Match Three: Wasps (home)
Match Four: London Irish (away)
Match Five: Gloucester (home)
Match Six: Saracens (away)
Match Seven: Northampton Saints (home)
Match Eight: Worcester Warriors (away)
Match Nine: Newcastle Falcons (away)
Match Ten: Leicester Tigers (home)
Match Eleven: Harlequins (home)
Match Twelve: Exeter Chiefs
Match Thirteen: Newcastle Falcons (home)
Match Fourteen: Gloucester (away)
Match Fifteen: Saracens (home)
Match Sixteen: Northampton Saints (away)
Match Seventeen: Exeter Chiefs (home)
Match Eighteen: Wasps (away)
Match Nineteen: London Irish (home)
Match Twenty: Sale Sharks (away)
Match Twenty-One: Leicester Tigers (away)
Match Twenty-Two: Bristol Bears (home)
Match Twenty-Three: Harlequins (away)
Match Twenty-Four: Worcester Warriors (home)
Leicester and Saracens are both going to be difficult teams to face especially as they are likely to be top finishers again. Harlequins and Northampton are going to be hard as well. That being said, the rest of the clubs are beatable. Obviously predicting how each match will go is almost impossible especially considering not knowing what the factors will be. On paper, Bath looks to be better than Worcester, Bristol, Newcastle, and Wasps. London Irish got better, but might be on the same level as Bath. Sale and Exeter are not as solid as they have used to be and are matches that possibly the club can snatch victories from. Gloucester will be hard, but possibly the game at The Rec will be a victory for the Blue, Black, and White. Even against Northampton there is a chance that Bath can grab one. There’s so many variables here that it’s almost impossible to think which teams Bath can defeat, but this should be a much better campaign for the club.
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