Bath v Wasps - Cripple Fight!

[Which Tyler]

Saturday, 3.00
Kept well off TV for fear of scaring the children

Absent (from training, at least) squads:
Bath:
1: Beno Obano (Knee)
2:
3: Will Stuart (England)
4: Charlie Ewels (England)
5: Will Spencer (Calf)
6: Miles Reid (Concussion)
7: Sam Underhill (England)
8: Taulupe Faletau (Ankle)

09: Ben Spencer (Hamstring)
10: Tian Schoemonn (Knee)
11. Will Muir ("Soft Tissue")
12: Cameron Redpath (Knee)
13: Jonathan Joseph (?)
14: Joe Cokanasiga (Knee)
15: Anthony Watson (Knee)

16: , 17: , 18: Johannes Jonker (?), 19: Josh Bayliss ("Soft Tissue"), 20: Jaco Coetzee (Concussion)
21: Joe Simpson (Concussion), 22: Tom DeGlanville (Knee), 23: Max Wright (Loan) / Will Butt (?)


Wasps:
1: Ben Harris (Bulging Disc)
2: Tom Cruse (Concussion)
3:
4: Joe Launchbury (Knee)
5: Theo Vukasinovic (Knee)
6: James Gaskell (Ankle)
7: Jack Willis (Knee)
8: Alfie Barbeary (Hamstring)


09: Dan Robson (Groin)
10: Charlie Atkinson (Knee)
11. Paolo Odogwu (Groin)
12: Ryan Mills (Toe)
13: Malaki Fekitoa (Shoulder)
14: Sam Spink (Hamstring)
15: Rob Miller (Knee)

16: Dan Frost, 17: , 18: , 19: , 20: Ben Morris
21: , 22: Michael Le Bourgeois, 23: Will Simmonds


Both with a good spread for their injuries, which is preferable to clusters all in one position.
Obviously also, some of those will be available, and probably be available to train - especially the Concussions and "Soft Tissue" injuries. For Bath, Joseph and Butt are unknown injuries, all we know is that JJ withdrew ahead of Quins, and that Butt hasn't been spotted training for a couple of weeks. Equally, Jonker has gone from starter to not making the bench.

[Peej]

Wasps are down to absolute bare bones at centre and hooker. Gopperth will probably play 12 at the weekend but put in a massive shift last week.

[fivepointer]

Bath Rugby: 15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Max Clark, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Will Muir, 10 Orlando Bailey, 9 Ollie Fox; 1 Lewis Boyce, 2 Jacques du Toit, 3 D’Arcy Rae, 4 Josh McNally ©, 5 Mike Williams, 6 Richard de Carpentier, 7 Miles Reid, 8 Josh Bayliss

Replacements: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Ewan Richards, 20 Nahum Mergian, 21 Max Green, 22 Danny Cipriani, 23 Jonathan Joseph

Wasps :15 Marcus Watson, 14 Zach Kibirige, 13 Michael Le Bourgeois, 12 Jimmy Gopperth, 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Jacob Umaga, 9 Dan Robson; 1 Robin Hislop, 2 Gabriel Oghre, 3 Jeff Toomaga-Allen, 4 Vaea Fifita, 5 Elliott Stooke, 6 Brad Shields ©, 7 Thomas Young, 8 Tom Willis
REPLACEMENTS
16 Michael van Vuuren, 17 Zac Nearchou, 18 Elliot Millar-Mills, 19 Tim Cardall, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Will Porter, 22 Alex McHenry, 23 Ali Crossdale

[Puja]

That is not an inspiring bench for Wasps. Really down to the bare bones.

Puja

[Raggs]

The hooker has been borrowed from Chinnor for this week. I suspect most our front row will go as far to the 80 minutes as they can. As will the centres if they can.

[Which Tyler]

The hooker has been borrowed from Chinnor for this week. I suspect most our front row will go as far to the 80 minutes as they can. As will the centres if they can.

Didn't realise he'd sunk that low. He's plenty good enough to be 3rd choice Prem level.

Oh, and Ian Tempest has the whistle - he who hasn't been forgiven yet for his handling of Bath v Bristol a few weeks ago.

I see no reason whatsoever to remove the "Cripple Fight" moniker from this match.


Last man standing - wins (actually, I doubt that, that Wasps starting pack is WAY stronger)

[Which Tyler]

Open letter from Tarquin, Bath's CEO - who, IMO, is the one who should be carrying the can.

29 October 2021

Dear supporter,

Tomorrow will be our sixth game of the 2021/22 Gallagher Premiership season and the home fixture where we mark Remembrance Day.

When you travel to the Rec to support your club as passionately as ever, I know you will be hungry for a winning performance. Every one of us at the club shares that hunger. I also know that you will have questions, that you will want to know the reasons for our results so far this season, and what we are doing to turn around performances.

Over our first five games there is a consistent theme that our platform to our game - our set piece, discipline and defence – has not been good enough. This is currently compounded by the availability of our squad - half our squad are unavailable this weekend due to injury and international duty, albeit a number of players will be available to return to action imminently.

At the same time, we have seen excellent coming-of-age performances from a number of our homegrown players like Orlando Bailey and Max Ojomoh. We have also seen the clear emergence of our new attacking style allowing us to create opportunities through clean breaks, offloads and defenders beaten.

What we haven’t seen is a consistent winning performance built on the foundation of a solid platform and, as we approach Round 7 of the 2021/22 Gallagher Premiership, the reality is that we stand 13th in the table.

Each week we review the immediate-term reasons for our results in the context of both the game and training week, and the game block. As standard, at the end of each block of games we review what we do in greater depth. In the context of our current standing, our review process must look different.

After Round 8 of the Premiership we have two weeks of Premiership Cup rugby, including one bye week without a game, before the Premiership recommences with Round 9 at the end of November. We will use this pause in the Premiership to analyse what we do and scrutinise each component part.

We will examine the key areas of our game, our training and preparation to identify how we can deliver a consistent platform, whilst also continuing to create scoring opportunities and converting them.

We will appraise each part of what we do including player availability, and we will work with world-leading external experts where appropriate such as Sports Surgery Clinic - based in Dublin - to assess if there is anything further we can do to mitigate the risk of ACL injuries which have such a catastrophic impact on players and the squad.

At the same time it is important that we stand back and assess how all of these component parts fit together. The aggregation of these parts is our ‘system’ – what we do, how we do it, and how we bring it all together. We want a system which is delivering winning performances, and which supports our ambition to compete consistently for Premiership and European honours.

In order to make the most of this review period, to challenge ourselves and maximise our learning, we are bringing in some external perspective. Ed Griffiths is consulting to us in a short-term advisory role. Ed has previously held senior roles as Chief Executive at Saracens and the South African Rugby Union, and over thirty years he has held a number of senior roles and consulted to professional sports organisations in rugby and other sports. Importantly he has been fundamental in building winning systems.

Ed will work with me, Stuart, our coaches and Performance department Heads to provide perspective on what we are doing, how we work, what is working well and what we can focus on improving.

Where we are today sits in the context of our long-term plan. We have achieved some successes. We have now achieved a core of 50% home-grown talent within our squad, and our pathway is thriving one year ahead of our planned target.

Josh Bayliss and Miles Reid are evidence of this. Players who in 2018 were emerging and have now earned recognition from the international game. This season you have also witnessed the potential of Orlando Bailey, Max Ojomoh and Tom de Glanville to name just a few of our developing players.

This next few weeks is an important opportunity to challenge ourselves in terms of what we are doing, to double down on what is good, and be crystal clear on what needs to improve and how we make those improvements.

We have an outstanding group of staff and players at the Club who will not shy away from the questions that we need to answer. We are also incredibly lucky to have passionate and ardent support from Bruce, providing us with the stability to focus on our system – to deliver winning performances here and now this season, whilst also supporting our long-term vision for sustained success.

I will continue to be transparent following our review process and we will share the headlines which emerge in due course. In the meantime, I must reiterate that delivering a winning performance here and now is our priority and that is our focus against Wasps.

Thank you for your continued support. I look forward to seeing you at the Rec tomorrow.

Tarquin

[Oakboy]

I don't know much about the internal club politics at Bath. What I see, constantly, is a team that does not perform. A quality coaching set-up, inspiring the squad to produce a display up to (or above) the sum of its parts would be winning matches. They are losing. What else is there to say?

[Puja]

Tarquin appears to be laying the building blocks for a comprehensive review that results in him smelling of roses and Hooper's departure. Thankfully, it appears he's not planning on doing it before next week when Leicester play your lot.

Isn't he the guy in charge of the fact that there's still no new stadium on the Rec yet?

Puja

[Which Tyler]

OK, I've generally tried not to get into this here, but here goes.

Bath's day-to-day coaching crew are:
Luke Charteris - Line-out - ex Bath lock
Mark Lilley - Forwards - ex-Bath prop, promoted from being an academy coach helping out as an assistant with the seniors
Ryan Davies - Backs - ex-Bath FH, promoted from being an academy coach helping out as an assistant with the seniors
David Williams - Attack - ex-Bath coach, brought in from a decade in SA and Japan learning from the likes of Wayne Smith
Neal Hatley - HC and defence - promoted from forwards coach.

Our problem areas are set piece, defence, and yes, disciplin - but mostly as a result of being under the cosh for so much of matches.

Day-to-day:
Charteris is... okay I guess, line-out is neither a particular weakness, nor a particular strength.
Mark Lilley is failing at his role. OK, so he's not helped by us not having enough locks, but the tight 5 are terrible given that all 5 of them have England caps; scrum is a particular weakness. I'm happy to suggest he's been promoted too fast, rather than being poor, but for now, he's not a senior level coach.
Ryan Davies - it's a little hard to judge the backs given the lack of platform from in front of them, and absences of Spencer (and Simpson) and Cipriani - but there have been plenty of flashes from them, so he's got some promise there.
David Williams - much as with Ryan, there's been flashes of promise, and we're actually creating things, even if they're not quite coming off, the chances are there - seems a good acquisition.
Hatley is failing as a head coach, and abject as a defence coach - He's been Peter Principalled to failure; spread too thin, and failing at was he's supposed to be concentrating on.

Above them sits Stuart Hooper - DoR with no coaching experience, and (officially, at least) does no coaching, beyond as an assistant with a pod under the direction of the specialist. His job is the 4-8 year planning, and is hamstrung by his options mid-season. He can change coaches, change players - but only really in the off-season. Recruitment has been... fine, given a fairly stagnant transfer market this summer. Somewhere between himself an Hatley sits the overview of what coaching happens, Hooper shold be giving the broad brush strokes for Hatley to create a game-plan, to give the lower coaches their jobs. Given Hooper's experience, this pbalance SHOULD be more into Hatley domain; but we don't really know.
Hooper may not be the answer, but he's not really the problem - though I suspect he's a symptom of the problem.

Above Hooper sits McDonald - the CEO and author of that open letter. He replaced Gold with Ford (and then didn't keep an eye on Ford's meglomania), then replaced Ford with Blackadder (chasing a big name), and then replaced Blackadder with Hooper (home grown). It's also his directive that sees Bath wantig to promote from within at every opportunity, when it's the right call or not.


IMO everyone should have the opportunity to learn from a mistake, in the time frame their job allows for.
So Lilley and Hatley can make changes week to week, or more realistically month to month, set to set, in coaching, preparation, and selection.
Hooper can make changes year to year, in recruitment, and overall instructions to the coaching staff.
McDonald can make changes year to year in club directions and instructions to the DoR.

IMO Lilley, Hatley and McDonal have made mistakes, had time to correct them, and continued to fail.
Hooper has made msitakes, and has made some corrections, in the 1 opportunity (1 off-season) he's had to do so. I'm far from convinced by him as a DoR, but he's a symptom, not a cause. Equally though, if McDonald goes and Hatley either goes or accepts a demotion, then his position is untenable.
"Hooper Out" solves nothing.

[Peej]

Wasps have a strange policy regarding loan hookers. Either we keep breaking them, or we are only bringing them in for a week at a time

[Danno]

Wasps have a strange policy regarding loan hookers. Either we keep breaking them, or we are only bringing them in for a week at a time

I have just had to explain a *lot* of rugby to my 15 year old niece who read this post over my shoulder

[Puja]

OK, I've generally tried not to get into this here, but here goes.

Bath's day-to-day coaching crew are:
Colin Charvis - Line-out - ex Bath lock

I'm assuming you mean Luke Charteris rather than Colin Charvis? I don't remember the latter being the right shape to jump in the lineout!

Useful knowledge all of that - I guess I was assuming Hooper was like Murphy in terms of his control over the rugby side of the club and that you'd get similar satisfaction from the same action we took. Hadn't realised that he was that dissociated from the actual rugby tactics.

Puja

[Which Tyler]

Bugger. Brain was fading after a long day at work.

As for Hooper's day to day role - that's what we're told it is, alongside the final word in selection; whether what we're told is what what actually happens, may be a different story. I struggle to believe that Hayley would have accepted his role if Hooper's was being too hands-on though.

I'd have more faith that it actually worked like that if he wore a damned suit though.

[Which Tyler]

Red card for Bath today for clearing out a ruck - happy to see it carded, pity the once-a-season happens to be against Bath whilst desperately playing for a bit of pride - and actually getting some

[I R Geech]

Red card for Bath today for clearing out a ruck - happy to see it carded, pity the once-a-season happens to be against Bath whilst desperately playing for a bit of pride - and actually getting some

Had some absolute tool screaming ‘Cheat’ at St Jimmy while he wasn’t moving. Most Bath fans are lovely, but some...

West stand, I reckon row U, sear 217ish, you’re a prick and even your mates were embarrassed.

[Peej]

Had a chance to watch the highlights of this. Not really sure how anyone can protest about Williams' red card

[Which Tyler]

Had a chance to watch the highlights of this. Not really sure how anyone can protest about Williams' red card

Is anyone?

[p/d]

Had a chance to watch the highlights of this. Not really sure how anyone can protest about Williams' red card

Is anyone?

Row U seat 217

[Which Tyler]

Ah yes, of course - sorry.
Idiots everywhere - and I'd rather doubt that Row U, seat 217 even saw the incident

[Peej]

Had a chance to watch the highlights of this. Not really sure how anyone can protest about Williams' red card

Is anyone?

McNally and Anthony Watson

[Puja]

Had a chance to watch the highlights of this. Not really sure how anyone can protest about Williams' red card

I don't know I'd necessarily protest, but it did seem a little harsh to me. I've only seen it once, so I may be wrong, but it wasn't a shoulder or leading elbow, but more an unfortunate contact. Certainly, given the precedent that that set, I was astounded that Dino Lamb got away with just a yellow the day after, for something that looked much worse.

Puja

[Raggs]

Had a chance to watch the highlights of this. Not really sure how anyone can protest about Williams' red card

I don't know I'd necessarily protest, but it did seem a little harsh to me. I've only seen it once, so I may be wrong, but it wasn't a shoulder or leading elbow, but more an unfortunate contact. Certainly, given the precedent that that set, I was astounded that Dino Lamb got away with just a yellow the day after, for something that looked much worse.

Puja

It was a forearm into the neck/chin. And he flew in from a distance. No mitigating circumstances, high degree of force and danger, direct to the head. That's a red.

[Puja]

Had a chance to watch the highlights of this. Not really sure how anyone can protest about Williams' red card

I don't know I'd necessarily protest, but it did seem a little harsh to me. I've only seen it once, so I may be wrong, but it wasn't a shoulder or leading elbow, but more an unfortunate contact. Certainly, given the precedent that that set, I was astounded that Dino Lamb got away with just a yellow the day after, for something that looked much worse.

Puja

It was a forearm into the neck/chin. And he flew in from a distance. No mitigating circumstances, high degree of force and danger, direct to the head. That's a red.

In which case, I blame watching it once on a mobile phone screen. My mistake.

Puja

[Puja]

I don't know I'd necessarily protest, but it did seem a little harsh to me. I've only seen it once, so I may be wrong, but it wasn't a shoulder or leading elbow, but more an unfortunate contact. Certainly, given the precedent that that set, I was astounded that Dino Lamb got away with just a yellow the day after, for something that looked much worse.

Puja

It was a forearm into the neck/chin. And he flew in from a distance. No mitigating circumstances, high degree of force and danger, direct to the head. That's a red.

In which case, I blame watching it once on a mobile phone screen. My mistake.

Puja

Actually, scratch that. Just watched it again and I don't see the direct head contact. His forearm is wrapping around the shoulder/neck/chest area - it's not particularly pleasant, but I don't see a strike to the head.



Puja