Hoping for return of England players
Bath rugby, table tennis and angling
Stuart Hooper is hopeful to have a quartet of England internationals back for Bath Rugby’s daunting European opener away at Leinster on Saturday in what would be a much-needed boost.
Ben Spencer, Ruaridh Mcconnochie, Jonathan Joseph and Josh Mcnally could all make the trip to Dublin for this weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup contest having been absent on Saturday in the league defeat to Northampton Saints.
However potentially more crucially, young fly-half talent Orlando Bailey looks set to be fit to go headto-head with Leinster’s second choice stand-off Ross Byrne having missed the trip to Franklin’s Gardens last weekend with a knock.
Leinster’s Irish international great Johnny Sexton is sidelined with a knee injury sustained in his country’s win against the All Blacks this autumn and he is targeting a return to play next weekend against Montpellier.
Discussing Bailey, Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper said: “Landi came through training pretty well today (Tuesday) so we are hopeful he will make a recovery and be ready to go at the weekend.”
News of Bailey’s improved condition comes as a huge boost with former England fly-half Danny Cipriani doubtful for the match having failed another HIA and suffered a cut in the defeat at Saints which saw Max Ojomoh shifted from inside centre to stand-off for the first time in a senior game with no fly-half cover on the bench as Hooper opted for just two back replacements in his squad.
Cipriani and lock Mike Williams are now both going through the graduated return-to-play protocols following a head knock; meanwhile the Blue, Black and Whites’ other senior fly-half option Tian Schoeman remains sidelined with a knee injury.
Hooper revealed: “Danny took a nasty cut alongside the HIA and he is getting that looked at today and Mike Wiliams is on his return to play.”
Explaining why he opted for a 6:2 split on the bench last weekend in the 40-19 defeat to Northampton, Hooper explained: “It was a combination of tactical and numbers available.
“The big thing that was unseen is Josh Mcnally and Charlie Ewels didn’t train all week because they were sick. Will Stuart didn’t train all well because he was sick so we needed to make sure we had some energy in our forwards as well which is why we had Mike Williams and Ewan (Richards) on the bench.
“Those were the things we saw in the week and made our decisions based on that. Obviously, you can’t foresee you are going to lose both your nine and 10 early in the game, but we knew those guys were sick and were going to struggle to play the full game.”
Last weekend Bath lost Cipriani in the 21st minute and Ben Spencer in the 26th minute, bringing on winger Gabe Hamer-webb and scrum-half Oli Fox as replacements.
Spencer left the field in visible discomfort but Hooper had not ruled out his mercurial scrum-half making the trip to Ireland when he spoke to the press on Tuesday.
Frustratingly Spencer has only made three appearances this season after injuring his hamstring against Sale Sharks on the opening day.
Hooper said: “He took a nasty blow on the weekend but it is that rather than anything structural.
“When he went down he was down for a while and I had limited comms about what was going on because the medics were making sure they were looking after him but that picture got a bit better after the game and he is improving so we will see where we get to at the end of the week.
“I don’t foresee it being a longterm thing.”
As for winger Mcconnochie and centre Jonathan Joseph, Hooper said: “The guys we lost in the week were minor bumps and bruises so hopefully there is a good chance we can get them back involved this weekend.”