Players urged to take chance in local friendly
‘Take your shot,’ that was the message from back-rower Miles Reid to the Bath players who run out against Gloucester this weekend at the Recreation Ground.
After five weeks off due to the mid-season shutdown of the Gallagher Premiership during the Six Nations, Bath get back to playing rugby on Saturday when their West Country derby rivals come to town in a ‘friendly.’ Historically, few club games in professional rugby are unfriendlier.
The aim of the game against the Cherry and Whites, and then Leinster the following Friday, is to allow the team to get back into their rhythm before the league explodes back into life on March 24 at home to Sale Sharks, with the Champions Cup last 16 knockout game away at Exeter Chiefs coming a couple of weeks later.
Bath sit third in the Premiership and are three games away from a European final, but everyone at the club is only too aware all that work will be for nothing unless they collectively turn-up at the business end of the season.
Reid said: “We have spoken about getting our rhythm back, how the week looks building into the game. And we have spoken about how if you are not getting better, then you are slipping behind.
“So this is a massive opportunity for us to get up to speed and get better quicker than anyone else in the Premiership.”
For the players, it is about laying down markers for selection with pretty much every position on the park now hotly contested in the Blue, Black and White squad.
With the likes of Finn Russell, Cam Redpath, Sam Underhill, Will Stuart, Charlie Ewels, Beno Obano, Max Ojomoh, Ollie Lawrence and Will Muir on Six Nations duty, there will be opportunities for fringe players.
Reid said: There are some boys getting shots that haven’t played in a while and haven’t pulled on a Bath shirt in a while so it will be brilliant for those lads to get involved.
“Opportunities don’t come around often, especially when you are young, so as soon as you get an opportunity you have to be ready to perform at the best of your capabilities. There are some guys out there this weekend for whom this is going to be a massive opportunity to put their hands up.”
With Underhill ripping up trees for England, Alfie Barbeary first choice at number eight and Ted Hill set to return from his leg injury, Reid also faces competition for his place in the starting XV for the runin, but he is embracing the challenge.
He said: “It is massively important to have competition in the squad. It is really healthy to have people pushing you.
“You can’t get in and just think you have the position nailed down. You have to go and earn it, the same in training, so it just pushes the level of our performance.”