Bath for the taking

Bath
By Sarah Braide
November 7 2002

Sale take on Bath at the Rec on Sunday. Their up and down (mainly down) season so far has frustrated Bath fans and probably players as well. So Sale have as good a chance as possible to add another win to this season's record book.

Bath will be losing their internationals and will be fielding a side that is even weaker than the ones that have lost to Harlequins and Leeds in recent weeks. Sale's squad will also be stretched with the absences of many key figures.

Jason Robinson and Bryan Redpath are playing international rugby, and of course Charlie Hodgson is recovering from his knee operation, so we are missing three of our (arguably) best players. Though Iain Fullarton played for a second string team against Leeds earlier this week, he is not fit enough to return to the Sharks squad, even as a replacement. And Scott Lines is also still injured. But Jos Baxendell should be back after missing a couple of games. Maybe he will start on the bench with Nick Walshe staying at fly half and Richard Wigglesworth coming in at scrum half.

In his most recent match report the Bathrugbyere.co.uk publisher, Glen Leat, showed the strain as his team failed to improve on last season's dismal form:

"The Bath forwards must wonder why they put their bodies on the line as the backs again proved themselves to be the poorest in the Premiership...

"The current set up sees us with a pack which is improving as rapidly as our backs are deteriorating."

And Bath fans voted somewhat pessimistically in their site poll, 69% saying that Bath would lose to Sale, and an even more worrying 19% not even caring any more. Compare that to the results of the poll currently on this site (at time of writing 67% say we will win).

So the bottom line is that despite losing so many important players, we have every chance of winning this one and the squad ought to be feeling confident.

Question: Will Bath Beat Sale?
Yes 10%
No 69%
Draw 0%
Don't Know 2%
Don't Care Anymore 19%

Sale squad: Vaughan Going, Mark Cueto, Steve Hanley, Graeme Bond, Dan Harris, Mel Deane, Jos Baxendell, Nick Walshe, Richard Wigglesworth, Jim Thorp, Kevin Yates, Stuart Turner, Barry Stewart, Charl Marais, Andy Titterrell, Dean Schofield, Christian Day, Chris Jones, Phil Davies, Magnus Lund, Stuart Pinkerton, Pete Anglesea.

Kick-off 14.15 on Sunday.