By Ed Scott
September 1 2011

I’m not sure if it is true, but it feels right now as if I’ve never looked forward to a rugby season more than this one. I’m sure I feel the same at the start of every September, but right now I am so excited I have started this preview on 15th August!!

So, what do we know so far? Well, Stephen Donald is coming (maybe the fly-half thread will finally drop of the front page of ERE!), Francois Louw has just arrived (and now left again!), whilst lots of our new signings and youngsters have already been impressing on the pitch. Life in Blue, Black and White seems pretty good if you ask me.

We start the season off with a tricky trip to Newcastle to play the Falcons. Strangely, it will be our third game in a row against them in the Premiership. Something I doubt has ever happened before. The question of course is can we make it three from three? I don’t think that anyone could deny that Newcastle (on their form last season) stand a good chance of being relegation contenders this year. However, a trip up to Kingston Park has never been an easy one and they will be desperate to get off to a winning start.

The last warm up game against Bristol was dominated in some way by the weather, evening up the sides and perhaps highlighting some frailties in the Bath kicking and tactical game. Was there also an element of ‘it’s a warm up game’ as well? In some ways I hope so, as we should expect far more than that, no matter now much a team raises its game.

Under Connolly and Foley, we spent some time winning regularly, but winning very ugly. Smee was quite the opposite style, with the many of the wins coming with a flourish, but without consistency. I still believe in the continuation of the expansive running style that Steve Meehan brought to The Rec, but hope Geech brings a balance to the side that allows for free spirited play, alongside an ability to adapt to conditions and the opposition.

We sit with baited breath to see whether this season heralds the dawn of, dare I say it, ‘something special’ happening at Bath (we know we've got 'ambition'). I think we’ve made some smart signings and could really make hay against some of our competitors whilst the World Cup is going on.

For me the key thing is to take each game, one at a time. This weekend is a tough starting task, against a team good at spoiling with a high percentage goal kicker. If we allow Newcastle to slow the game down, we could be coming back home very disappointed. Fast ball, smart decisions and good discipline should give us the 4 points and a great start to the campaign. Confidence is key to this team, completing our Newcastle hat-trick is just the start we need.

I predict the team to be:

15. Abendanon

14. Carraro

13. Hipkiss

12. Williams

11. Biggs

10. Vesty

9. Classens

8. Taylor

7. Fearns

6. Skirving

5. Caldwell

4. Hooper (if fit)

3. Palma-Newport

2. Dixon

1. Flatman

16. Batty 17. Bell 18. Catt 19. Mercer 20. Attwood 21. Scott 22. McMillan 23. Cuthbert