Hooper sees progress in Bath’s defensive system
STUART Hooper hopes that in the furnace of adversity his Bath Rugby side have forged a new defensive sturdiness that they have been missing so far this season.
After a poor first period against Harlequins last Saturday, which saw the Blue, Black & Whites trailing 21-3 at the Rec, the home side galvanised after the break in a show of dogged determination despite being down to 13 men.
Bath were beaten 28-15, but replacements Will Muir and Tian Schoeman showed positivity off the bench to illustrate that, despite a long injury list, there is competition for places in this Bath side heading to Sale Sharks this evening.
Hooper, right, said: “It think it is really important to have competition
“You can’t build your team on guaranteeing people starts. There are different reasons why people might start or not, that has to be consistent, but there needs to be an aspirational route to the first team.
“They have to keep performing because there are other guys coming through, we saw Ethan (Staddon) starting on the flank at the weekend, Bath’s youngest ever Premiership player. Now he has had a taste of Premiership rugby and wants to keep going, that is what we want.
“Whether you have got 60 or 70 caps for our country or one cap for Bath you are in the mix.”
Hooper says defensive improvements have been at the forefront of their work in recent weeks, and he hopes his side had an epiphany against Harlequins.
He said: “We have done a lot of work on our defence, it is something that Hats (head coach Neal Hatley) takes a lot of pride in. He has been disappointed with the results there, we all have. We worked on a few things going into the game (against Quins) and early on we conceded a few soft tries.
“But then we went down to 13 men and we didn’t concede any points and the lads worked hard for each other and there was a moment they realised the system we have in defence was the way to shut teams out instead of trying to solve things on our own.”
Following an impressive debut last week, Muir is set to make his first start against the Sharks. Semesa Rokoduguni and Tom de Glanville complete the back three, with Josh Matavesi and Max Clark in midfield, and Ben Spencer and Rhys Priestland at half-back. Fit again Josh McNally returns to the fold to captain the team at lock.
Bath Rugby: T de Glanville; S Rokoduguni, M Clark, J Matavesi, W Muir; R Priestland, B Spencer; J Schoeman, T Dunn, C Judge, J McNally (capt), M Williams, J Bayliss, M Reid, Z Mercer. Replacements: J Walker, J Bhatti, H Thomas, E Richards, E Staddon, W Chudley, T Schoeman, A Gray.
Replacements: J George (Saracens), E Genge (Leicester), W Stuart (Bath), C Ewels (Bath), B Earl (Bristol), J Willis (Wasps), D Robson (Wasps), M Malins (Bristol).