New Look Bath Must Beat Leeds on Sunday!


By Glen Leat
September 11 2003

Bath travel to Leeds for the opening game of the season for the second time in three years. The first time around they were surprised by a newly promoted Leeds and since that game Bath have just managed one win in four League encounters.

This is the first game under a new Bath regime and everyone connected to the West Country side will be looking for success. There is a lot of pressure on Jack Rowell, John Connolly and his staff to get us off to a flier and a trip to Leeds is probably just what the Doctor didn't order. 

In the space of a few years Bath have gone from the team everyone wants to beat to the team everyone can beat and it will take some effort this year to turn things around, but hey this is as good a starting point as any!

With the various World Cup stars out of the reckoning and a mass purge of the squad during the summer it will be a very new look Bath that takes to the field. After losing Catty to England duties Bath were forced to recall Chris Malone from Bristol. Malone came to Bath from Exeter with high hopes of success but last season was as bad for the young Aussie as anyone can expect to experience. Maybe he was just unlucky enough to be part of a losing team or maybe he just isn't up to Premiership standard, it is very unfortunate for us that we have to test his mettle once again in the thick of the Zurich Premiership.

It doesn't help things that Andrew Higgins, who was a likely starter, picked up an  injury last week to weaken our back line even more: injuries and Bath backs seemed to stroll through the season hand in hand last year and we could well do without a repeat this season! Matt Perry will have a massive role to play in managing the back line whilst Catt, Tindall and Balshaw are away with England.

With the return of Malone it is unlikely that Martyn Wood and Olly Barkley can forge their new half-back partnership at Headingly and Bath are likely to suffer as a result. However it was great to hear how Simon Danielli asked to be released from the Scotland squad to play for Bath: I've given this lad some gip over the past 12 months for a string of sub-standard performances but he is gradually ramming this criticism back down my throat and this demonstration of commitment to the Bath cause buys him a kitbag full of brownie points to be spent throughout the season - well done mate!

It will be worth paying good money to watch Rob Fidler turn out in a Bath shirt (shame we're not playing Glaws as this would really wind them up) in a competitive match and he will play well with a fired up Steve Borthwick, who now knows where he stands in the England pecking order. The new Bath pack looks strong on paper but, as the saying goes, it's on the grass that matters.

This is a very difficult result to call but as we have a lot of players desperate to prove their worth to their new club and it's the first game of a new season I have to go for a Bath win.

Remember, if you want to have a go at predicting the score of this and every other game throughout the season why not join our Prediction League (see the side bar menu).

Click here to remind yourself about the last match against Leeds.

Click on to the Leeds site for their perspective on things.

In preparation for this clash let's have a look at a few recent statistics:

Head to Head Statistics
Played 4 %
Bath Won 1 25
Leeds Won 3 75
Drawn 0 0

Biggest Win

Bath 23 - 12 13 Apr 2002
Leeds 20 - 7 5 Jan 2003

Last Meetings (Bath scores first)

5 Jan 2003 7- 20 Headingly
26 Oct 2002 20- 22 The Rec
13 Apr 2002 23-12 The Rec
2 Sept 2001 6 - 10 Headingly

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