Hooper targeting top four this season
Bath Rugby have set their season target as finishing in the top-four of the Gallagher Premiership, director of rugby Stuart Hooper has confirmed.
Of course, a top-four finish secures a play-off place and a shot at the title with Harlequins lifting the trophy at Twickenham in June despite finishing fourth in the league standings.
Bath secured a semi-final for the first time in five years at the conclusion of the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted 2019/20 season, before losing comprehensively to eventual winners Exeter Chiefs.
But in 2020/21, the Blue, Black and White went backwards, finishing a disappointing seventh.
Talking to BBC Radio Bristol, Hooper, pictured, said: “As we sit here now of course we are going to fight with everything we have got to get into that top four.
“It is very easy to look across a season and say you need X amount of points but you don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself. What you need to understand is what you do now, right now, affects what you do tomorrow and what you do at the weekend.
“This group is fantastic, but they are still young and still learning, they are still understanding that today affects tomorrow, tomorrow affects the next day and that affects the weekend.
“We will fight for everything and I believe we will give ourselves a good shot of being in the top four.”
While Bath have all the resources in place to be a top-four team with the arrival of Danny Cipriani to pull the strings at fly-half, the 2021/22 Gallagher Premiership season looks likely to be one of the most competitive ever.
Last season’s top four of Bristol Bears, Exeter Chiefs, Sale Sharks and Harlequins will all want to be in contention for the title again, while five-time Champions Saracens return to the top flight with a world-class squad after a year in the second-tier Championship as punishment for breaking the league’s salary cap rules.
Add to that considerable improvement expected from the likes of Leicester Tigers, now under the leadership of former Bath lock Steve Borthwick, and Northampton Saints and you have at least seven teams looking to get into four spots.
While Bath are targeting a topfour finish, Hooper insisted he is under no undue pressure from club owner Bruce Craig should they fall short.
He said: “Bruce has been incredibly supportive. I had some time with him in the summer.
“He is obviously a huge supporter of Bath Rugby and incredibly supportive as an owner.
“He wants us to be successful as much as everyone in the ground does and he is passionate but he always gives us his support. “We talk a lot, he is interested in how we are doing. He is supportive of everything else. Bruce’s view is he supports the people who are here and trusts them, he wants us to do as well as possible.”
Bath will have their first and only pre-season run-out on Friday night against Cardiff Rugby following the cancellation of their planned trip to Munster last weekend due to a number of positive Covid cases within their camp and subsequent isolations.
The Blue, Black and White are set to take a large squad to Cardiff on Friday with a strong side starting the fixture and then significant changes planned for the second half. The Bath Chronicle (Somerset Live) will be at Cardiff Arms Park providing live play-by-play coverage of the match.