UNFINISHED BUSINESS: BATH V MONTPELLIER

Ferreira: much to do

“Bath Rugby a des comptes à régler en Europe.” After the disappointment of last year’s semi final defeat at the hands of eventual winners UBB, with all its attendant controversy, there is a definite sense of having a score to settle or at least having unfinished business in the Champions Cup. The road to closing out that unfinished business begins at the Rec on Saturday evening with the visit of Montpellier Hérault who convincingly defeated Ulster in the final in Bilbao to win the Challenge Cup last season.

It's difficult to know what to make of Bath's start to the season. A competent enough away win against a struggling Harlequins team in the first round, albeit with some worrying signs of defensive lapses, was followed by a nail biter at the Rec where it looked for 20 minutes or so after half time as if the result from the playoff game from last season was going to happen all over again. Fortunately, dogged resilience got the result in the end. And then there was whatever that was at Franklins Gardens last Saturday.

Continuing with the French theme, I think adapting the words of General Pierre Bosquet after the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava is apposite: "C'est magnifique mais ce n'est pas le rugby; c'est de la folie". The Bath boys, especially the "young guns" were magnificent at times in the first 45 or so minutes and certainly played some rugby, but there's no denying that there was a touch of "folie" about the game, especially in terms of defence and control in the latter stages. I'm not one of those who yearns nostalgically for the days of a 6-3 "slog in a bog" match. Tries are fun to watch, but neither am I convinced that chucking the defence baby out with the bathwater is good for the game in the long term, attractive though it might be for the TV companies. Chaos rugby is a useful tactic but maybe not so much of a go-to strategy as we go into the Champions Cup. I think JvG's old mantra about being "hard to beat" as a core element of our ethos has to be dusted off.

So what of our opponents this Saturday? Bath and Montpellier have played each other 5 times in European competitions since 2011, with Bath just edging the win tally by 3-2 although the last meeting of the teams at the Rec in 2021 ended in a 10-19 win for Montpellier. They've had a mixed bag of results so far this season, notching up wins against Vannes, Perpignan and Toulon but losing to Pau, Toulouse (no disgrace in that) and last weekend Stade Francais. They're currently in 7th place in the Top14 on the same number of points as Stade Francais, who face the Bulls in the other Pool 4 competition on Saturday. The game between Stade and Montpellier was a useful showcase of what we can expect when we play both of them. Not much between them at half time, but the Stade Francais team gradually gained ascendancy over the Montpellier side which included Messrs Hogg and Vunipola and sealed the win with a bonus point try by Barre in the 77th minute. However, and we need to note this carefully, Montpellier didn't go away, scoring their third try on the 80th minute to make the final score 30-22. As David Flatman would say, we need to be "on it" for 80 minutes on Saturday. We certainly can't afford the vulnerable 10 minutes immediately after half time that showed again against Exeter.

Team selection for this one is a bit of a conundrum. We're at home and it's the Champions Cup which we know JvG values highly so you would expect us to name the strongest team available, given that we know some key players are still out with injury. The problem is that on the basis of who looks to be in good nick in the first few games of the season, it's not as easy as it used to be to know quite who the best player is in every position across the squad. Already some of the "young guns" are demonstrating that they are more than ready to challenge for selection against top opposition and some of our best players over recent seasons aren’t looking like the nailed-on selections that they used to be. Some tough calls may need to be made.

Part of me says why not use the core of the rotated squad who did so well against Northampton for 45 or so minutes. That said and going back to my earlier comments about being hard to beat and exercising control, we probably need a few more "been there and done it" heads in the mix. And if they're fit, surely we need to find places in the squad for the likes of Henry Arundell, Bernard van der Linde and Tom de Glanville.

The Rec will be rocking again on Saturday evening as it always is on European nights. Don't get me wrong; I'm delighted with the attacking improvements that Mike Prendergast is bringing to the team but by the same token I hope J P Fereira runs some fairly brutal defence sessions this week!

I think we can and will get it right on Saturday and start to close the book on our unfinished European business!

ALLEZ BATH!