Bristol -v- Bath Derby Returns

By Glen Leat
September 1 2005

It's almost upon us once again, not just the start of a new season but a Premiership match against our nearest neighbours Bristol. After a couple of years in the League wilderness Bristol will be looking for victory to set their out stall in the toughest domestic league in modern day rugby.

The anticipation of a new Premiership campaign is enough to make your hands itch with anticipation, but add to this the return of a Bath-v-Bristol derby and it's Christmas and birthdays rolled in to one. As supporters we've had our spats with the Brisslers over the years, and will do so again no doubt, but I hope we can retain some of the magnanimous spirit we all enjoyed before, during and after the Moz Memorial Match back in April. Cheap shots we can do without, honest banter is fair game and something we all (mostly) enjoy. Having said that we want to stuff them and they want to spank us - hey that's sport!

After Zurich comes Guinness and I'm sure that we'll all be celebrating with a drop of the blue, black and white stuff come Sunday afternoon. But it won't be easy. Bath have the Premiership history in their corner, winning 17 of the past 20 encounters, however Bristol have won three of the last four and many of the previous Bath victories were hard fought matches between two clubs desperate to beat each other. I'm sure this will be edge of the seat stuff for both sides and the pressure will be on the away side as they have so much more to lose. After all Bristol are favourites with many to tumble back down to the First Division so they can afford to take a few more risks and play games like this as though it's a knock-out.

It's too early in the season (well you can't get much earlier can you?) to make any judgements about how Bath is likely to perform. Forget the pre-season friendlies, they are played for a reason and the final scores are immaterial. Also players can gain and lose form, fitness and confidence over the summer break so we must all put aside the final few results from last season. However I'm sure I speak for most when I say I hope we make more use of our backs than in recent seasons. Whilst I generally support a "safety first" approach to make sure we win games, I see no point in getting to a Final only to be beaten because our game cannot adapt to the circumstances.

A new skipper in Steve Borthwick is a great move by the management: I've not seen a more obvious manager since John Harvey-Jones was strutting his stuff on the telly a few years back. It's easy to forget this lad is still only 25, he's been with us and dominating the pack for so long that it's easy to think he's over 30. Borthwick is now reaching his peak and, providing he stays injury free, the next 2-3 seasons should be the time he's been planning for throughout his rugby career.

Richard Hill has announced his team but, as normal, John Connolly is keeping his cards close to his chest. My personal view is he will not make too many changes from the core of the team he wanted to pick most weeks last season.

Bristol: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Lee Robinson, 13 Rob Higgitt, 12 Manu Contepomi, 11 Vaughn Going, 10 Jason Strange, 9 Shaun Perry, 8 Geraint Lewis, 7 Craig Short, 6 Matt Salter (capt), 5 Gareth Llewellyn, 4 Mariano Sambucetti, 3 Darren Crompton, 2 Mark Regan, 1 Dave Hilton.
Replacements: 16 Alex Clarke, 17 Saul Nelson, 18 Roy Winters, 19 Dan Ward-Smith, 20 Greg Nicholls, 21 Danny Gray, 22 Mark Denney.

Bath: (Possible) Perry, Bora, Welsh, Barkley, Maddock, Malone, Walshe, Feaunati, Beattie, Scayscrook, Borthwick, Grewcock, Stevens, Mears, Bell