Side will not be left wondering this year
Bath Rugby are not going to die wondering this season, that is the message from players and coaching staff alike.
Again the idea of being brave both with and without the ball is a prominent idea being hammered into the players at Farleigh House this summer.
Last season the Blue, Black and White conceded the most tries in the Gallagher Premiership (82) and the second-most points (604) in their seventh-place finish in the table.
To put that into perspective, second place Exeter Chiefs finished with the tightest defence in the league having allowed in just 40 tries and 356 points in the regular season.
Talking in the club’s excellent Bath Rugby Unseen video series which has been chronicling their pre-season preparations for the new season, head coach Neal Hatley - who is also in charge of defence - and flankers Sam Underhill and Miles Reid outlined the switch in mindset which is being instilled.
Bath will no longer try and merely contain opposition attacks but aggressively go after their opponents, following in the footsteps of the likes of Saracens and Sale Sharks.
Hatley said: “We have had a long hard look at the frailties from last year with a real priority to fix those.
“We had games where we scored 40 points at home and still lost.”
The head coach of course was referring to Bath’s painful 44-52 defeat to Wasps back in January, a result that really stung and left a mark on the club’s psyche.
Hatley continued: “We had some moments when we defended well but on the whole, it was disappointing the way we defended.
“That starts with me and it wasn’t good enough.”
Bath have adjusted the way they train to build in defensive and attacking work into every training session, whereas previously the starting side would focus on one area of the game in isolation.
Hatley continued: “We want to love defending, but we want to love defending to get the ball back.
“Some of our best moments, you think of the last try of last season off the back of a good defensive set, Josh Mcnally’s rip to set up the Josh Bayliss try, that rip and our ability to play in transition off the back of that was outstanding.
“A lot of it is about trust and faith and if we ask them to be aggressive and they make a mistake it is not the end of the world.
“Mistakes are going to happen, if you defend in a certain way people might bust you or there might be errors, it is then about the desire to get back and to scramble and work for your mates.
“Last year we had that [desire] but it was not as organised as it needed to be.”
The 2020/21 season also saw northern hemisphere officials clamp down on high, dangerous tackles, which cost Bath dearly.
Hatley explained how the club have been taking steps over the summer to ensure they do not repeat their mistakes.
He said: “One area we have put a lot of attention on in is pre-season is tackle height. We had five red cards last year, four of those were tackle height.
“You can’t just fly out, you have to work on your height.
“Five reds is just ridiculously high, I think it was the highest in the league.
“We had good intent but it has got to be married with good technique to make sure you don’t put the rest of the team at risk.”
England star Sam Underhill, who has built a reputation as one of the best defenders in world rugby, added: “The main thing about defence is it is a very collective effort, there is not one way of defending but every defensive system is a collective effort.
“It is very much an effort based part of the game, technically you have got to be good but the bottom line is you have got to work hard for your mates.
“It is a good way in checking in as a barometer of how hard the team is working hard for one another.”