Players are at fault for poor beginning
Rhys Priestland believes Bath Rugby’s poor start to the season, and particularly the 52-44 defeat to Wasps a week last Friday, was down to the players and not the under fire coaches at the club.
Bath have won just one of six games played so far this season, despite being ahead during all but the 40-3 defeat to Exeter Chiefs.
The poor run of results leaves the Blue, Black and White out of the Heineken Champions Cup - with their campaign ended by a Covid enforced forfeit against La Rochelle - and ninth in the Gallagher Premiership.
That has led fans to start pointing the finger at the club’s coaching group, headed by director of rugby Stuart Hooper, but 50 cap Welsh international Priestland suggested the players should carry a lot of weight for the results.
Speaking after the defeat to Wasps, with a bruised fat lip having failed a HIA during the game, Priestland said: “It is not the plan that is broken, it is what people are doing within that system which is killing us.
“I am gutted really. So disappointed we conceded 52 points at home. It is just individual errors that are killing us.”
Priestland, 34, couldn’t have done much more in the game to give his side a chance of winning, scoring 26 points including a stunning try from 60m out.
He continued: “So far this season it has been giving away a lot of penalties, but it wasn’t that today.
“We conceded 30 odd points last week [losing 36-31 to Leicester Tigers], 50 odd this week, 80 odd points in two games is not good enough, especially considering where we were last season [finishing fourth and in the playoffs for the first time in five years].
“When we got things right and stuck to the plan we did well, we scored 40 odd points, but it is the stuff outside of that. It is people switching off.
“And it is not the same people doing the same thing all the time, it is a lot of individuals doing one or two things, getting out of system or switching off and ultimately to concede 52 points, it is not one thing, it is lots of little things which has been the case all season.
“I don’t think it is confidence, it is about just realising how important the little things are. I think it is more concentration.
“We probably aren’t learning our lessons and the only way we can get around that is to work even harder in the week.
“We are in a fortunate position to still be working, obviously most of the country aren’t so we have to work even harder than last week.”
Bath were due to have three weeks to address the issues they have struggled with, with poor management of restarts just one of the areas hurting them, with the next two rounds of the Champions Cup cancelled due to the French government’s concern over public health during the pandemic, however a positive case in camp has forced the shutdown of Farleigh House and a period of isolation.
Bath’s next game is due to be on January 29 away at top of the table Bristol Bears who beat their near neighbours home and away last season, but that is currently under threat. Both sides would also be without their England internationals for the derby, with the game coming the weekend before the start of the Six Nations, with EPS players contractually obligated to take part in a training camp.