Sam: Cips is great but we can’t rely on one man
SAM Underhill has been impressed by the positive and creative input Danny Cipriani has brought to The Rec so far and believes the former England man has been a shrewd signing.
Cipriani, 33, is expected to make his Bath debut at Sale Sharks next Saturday as the West Country outfit attempt to make a flying start to the new campaign.
He signed a one-year deal with what is his fourth English club following a break from the game after leaving Gloucester at the end of last year for personal reasons.
Underhill feels Cipriani’s arrival is another important piece in the Bath jigsaw to help them regain their status as a real title contender having floundered to a lacklustre seventh spot last season.
The England flanker insists: “Danny has been brilliant so far and will be very good for us. He has already been helping others to develop their games. On a team perspective he has given us good clarity in what we are trying to achieve in attack.
“He is obviously a very talented guy whose decision-making with the ball
is very good. He’s an excellent communicator who explains to the guys what different style he wants to play and what he expects and how he sees the game, which is cool.
“But while Danny is a great player we don’t want a team that relies on one player.
“I don’t think you can afford to be that way. You need to have a whole squad which fully understand how you want to play the game. Then guys will know what they have to do in training to put their hands up and be picked, and then produce it on the field.
“To succeed over a long
season of 22 Premiership games you need everyone in your squad contributing and pulling their weight. That’s where we are trying to get to.
“We need a coherent style of rugby which is consistent and works for us. We’ve had that in patches in the past, especially when we reached the semifinals. We had a style we wanted to impose on the opposition but perhaps we went away from that a little bit last season. Hopefully, from what I’ve see so far in training, we are gaining that identity.
“The game is becoming more attack-based. It is hard to defend for long periods now and contain teams. If you are going to play a more structured game you have to be physically dominant otherwise the opposition are going to make breaks with fast ball and get into you.
“It becomes less of a defensive focus and more of an attacking one where we are going to try and score more tries than you.
I definitely feel that’s the way the trend and game is going.”
Underhill, 25, describes himself as “fit as ever” and ready to show off his all-action, energetic back row skills for Bath which have earned him 24 caps so far.
He says: “We don’t have any excuses not to enjoy a successful campaign. We are in a good place. But it is important to measure ourselves on our performances rather than results.
“If you can put in good performances, build that playing style you will get consistency on the field. If you focus too much on the results you can fall into the fool’s gold trap.”