Plenty to work upon for an improved campaign
Bath Rugby writer DANIEL EVANS outlines 7 areas for improvement...
Most of the Bath Rugby squad are back at Farleigh House on the tough road of conditioning, priming and preparation for the campaign ahead. The Blue, Black and Whites ended last season strongly as big wins against Gloucester and London Irish secured Heineken Champions Cup rugby for 2018/19. But the coaches and players know that late surge didn’t atone for a campaign which fell short of their goals of making the Premiership play-offs and knockout stages in Europe. There were a number of aspects of Bath’s play which weren’t where the club or fans wanted them to be. But what does director of rugby Todd Blackadder hope to see improve for next season? It’s not an exhaustive list, but if gains can be made in the areas below, Blackadder believes Bath should be a bigger player, both domestically and on the continent.
1 First-phase attack
Bath’s first-phase attacking has lagged behind the top teams in the Premiership for several seasons. They are hoping Girvan Dempsey, who has joined from Leinster as the new attack coach, can have a positive influence here. Blackadder said: “We’ve got Joe [Cokanasiga], [Aled] Brewy, Roko [Rokoduguni], Anthony [Watson], Cooper [Vuna]... we’ve got firepower there. Let’s get them involved more. “The framework is going to be the same, but I want Girvan to bring some subtle differences. “We don’t want to be Leinster, don’t get me wrong. I think we’ve got different strengths.”
2 Home form
Bath lost four of their ten Premiership matches at the Rec last season, plus their Champions Cup pool clash with Scarlets. “Last season, we focused on improving our away performances,” the director of rugby said. “This season, we need to get our home form right. I just look at the way we’ve been supported – a sellout every week. “I just want us to play like men possessed at home. We should be able to do it, rather than just talk about it.”
3 Possession
Bath made more tackles (3,688, 167.6avg) than any team in the Premiership and averaged more tackles per game in the Champions Cup pools than any team in the tournament. Blackadder said: “Building pressure
with the ball would go along way to us making less tackles. We need to be more patient. “I think we’ve got a balanced team from one to 23, and 23 to 46. There’s a really good group of men here and it’s time to get the best out of them. “We brought in a new attacking structure last season [in the absence of a dedicated attack coach after Tabai Matson left], but we were almost learning ourselves as coaches. “There were things we did well, but we just can’t keep making so many tackles a game. We need to be focused on having the right strategy and tactics to put ourselves in the right positions to keep pressure on.”
4 Squad rotation
Such was the injury toll last season, squad rotation in most positions was pretty much impossible. Whoever was fit played most weeks. Blackadder is hoping all the longterm injured other than Beno Obano – expected to miss the whole of next season – will be available come September. “We carried an injury front into last season, then all the way through the season,” he said. “When players aren’t available, it’s bloody hard work, micro-managing. The injury impact means we’ve had no rotation and we’ve thrashed the guys to the point where they break.
“I think on the man-management side, keeping our guys fresh and giving other guys hope of game time is what we need to get to. “An older guy, we need to manage differently from a young guy. We’ve just got to make sure we do that a bit better.”
5 Contracting
Bath have more than 20 players, including senior stars and internationals, whose contracts are due to expire next summer. Blackadder doesn’t want the futures of a significant chunk of the squad to be up in the air come November, December and January, when most re-contracting, negotiating and business is done. A sign of that intent has been the early contract extensions for Taulupe Faletau and Beno Obano. “Maybe we need a change of environment around contracting,” the director of rugby said. “There’s a lot of noise around the contract arena at that time [November-january]. “The uncertainty of contracting does leave a footprint, whether you like it or not. We’re definitely going to do things better – be a lot more proactive and decisive. “Maybe we need to get on the front foot a lot earlier around retention. We want to make sure guys can see their future here. “We want to see our young guys develop and we want to be in a position where we can keep them
for the best of their careers.”
6 Hunger
Blackadder wants the players to attack the season ahead and be more hungry than ever before. Challenging the squad, he said: “I want them to come in, really grab the bull by the horns and decide that this season is going to be it. “I want this to be the best season ever. I want us to enjoy what we’re doing and really go bloody hard. “The Gloucester mindset from last season [Bath won 43-20] will stick in my mind. It was about fronting up and we showed some real backbone and spine. “We want to achieve something which hasn’t been done for a long time this season.”
7 A not so shaky winter
Bath’s winter slumps in recent years – when results and performances have tailed off in December through to January – has not gone unnoticed. “The middle part of the year we really struggled,” Blackadder admitted. “That’s not just happened in my time. “We start well then we got through the Christmas patch, where we struggle, then play some fantastic rugby. We’re going to look at that.” He is hoping better availability and squad management will make for better mid-season form.