Priestland fitness worry for European clash against Scarlets

Bath Rugby’s only out and out flyhalf Rhys Priestland left the field with a head injury on Saturday leaving his side heading into Europe potentially without a specialist number 10.

Welsh international Priestland, inset, left the pitch in the 10th minute of the 33-17 victory over Worcester Warriors after a clash of heads in a tackle with centre Oli Morris as he ran back a long kick.

After a long TMO check the officials decided there was no foul play as Morris had wrapped his arms and Priestland had dipped into the tackle. Referee Tom Foley called it ‘a rugby incident.’

Much has been made of the shallowness of Bath’s resources at flyhalf and unfortunately, but inevitably, incidents like this are why.

To make matters worse Fijian international Josh Matavesi also departed early in the match after suffering a head knock in the eighth minute when he was caught by the forearm of Melani Nana as the Worcester full back gathered a grubber kick through and stepped him. He was replaced by Max Wright. Centre Cam Redpath moved into the fly-half role with a reshuffle in the backline, playing there for 70 minutes as Bath picked up their first win of the new season.

After the match Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper confirmed both players had gone off having failed Head Injury Assessments.

He said: “The key thing in this situation is their health and that’s the biggest thing because obviously they were both head injuries.

“But we will look after them and in the next couple of days we will know if they’ll be available for Scarlets.”

The Blue, Black and Whites open their European Heineken Champions Cup campaign on Saturday at home to Pro14 side Scarlets, looking to make amends for a disappointing showing last season when they failed to win a group game.

Asked about playing at 10 earlier in the week Redpath said: “I played a couple of games at fly-half when I was U18s, U20s, so if I had to play there I would happily play there.

“We have got Josh Matavesi who can also cover there, Orlando Bailey the youngster and even Tom de Glanville can play there as well.”