SUMMER 2025 BATH RUGBY PLAYERS REPORT CARD

Now that the Lions tour has concluded I thought it would be interesting to review the performance of the Bath players, those on the Lions tour, and those with the other nations and of course not forgetting our new Argentinian!

British and Irish Lions   

With only two Bath players in the squad Mr Russell and Will Stuart, unlike the load from Leinster, we don’t have much to discuss except Finn started each of the three test matches and Will Stuart was on the bench and came on in each match.

Mr Russell was awarded player of the series for the Lions which I feel must have been largely for his performances in Test 1 and Test 2.  In common with much of the squad his performance in the Third Test fell well below his normal very high standards.  It felt like the performance was “after the Lord Mayor’s Show”.  Given he has played an awful lot of rugby this season I suppose we can accept one game of a sub-par performance. 

A friend of mine, who went to Australia for Tests 1 and 2 said that universally amongst Lions and Australians supporters Mr Russell was considered to be one of the standout players and amongst the British travellers how envious they were that Bath had him as a player!

On the other hand, Will Stuart seemed to get better as the tour went along and was the first Lions tighthead to score a try since 1980!

England

England played two test matches against Argentina and a very strange game against the United States that was interrupted by the weather, much like the final Lions test. 

In the first match the following Bath players were involved, Charlie Ewels, Sam Underhill, Ben Spencer and Will Muir starting, with Guy Pepper coming off the bench on 62 minutes.

It was a fairly similar selection of Bath players in the second test.

Santiago (“Santi”) Carreras played the whole 80 minutes for Argentina in Test 1 and 66 minutes in Test 2.

In the test against the USA Guy Pepper and Max Ojomoh started and Ted Hill (inexplicably) was only on the bench.

Overall, I think the second string of England players did well and having watched all of the games.  I think Ben Spencer did all that was expected of him, but probably not enough to push himself up the pecking order.  Charlie Ewells played very well and appears at 30 to be playing the best rugby of his career.  However, with the victorious Lion captain a second row his continuing England options appear limited with so much competition.

Will Muir played the way, and as well as the Rec faithful have got used to, over the past few years.  However, sadly, I am not sure Mr Borthwick sees what we see.

Sam Underhill was well Sam Underhill!

Finally, Guy Pepper really did make a difference and enjoyed two sparkling performances.  However back row is an area that Mr Borthwick enjoys a multiple of riches and he can almost perm three from a large number and end up with several world class back rows.

Moving to the opposition I didn’t feel Santi Carreras played as well as we have often seen him play for Gloucester and how we expect him to play for Bath.  In particular his kicking was well off the mark and as Mr Russell will be taking an enforced break at the start of the campaign he needs to sharpen this up.  

Scotland

Josh Bayliss was picked as vice-captain for the game against New Zealand Maoris which was won by Scotland and Cam Redpath started and Josh came off the bench against Fiji which was lost by Scotland.

Wales

Archie Griffin was a substitute in the first test against Japan and started in the second test.               

So, in total Bath had 2 for the Lions, 7 for England, 2 for Scotland, one for Argentina and one for Wales.  A total of 13 players playing senior representative rugby.  

I am not sure that Mr Borthwick will have learnt anything more about all of the players who have played for the Lions and England other than that he has amazing strength in depth.  With “just” two years to go until the next World Cup one feels that he needs to settle on his combinations and play them consistently, perhaps 10 – 15 times over the next 24 months.    

At least all of these players now are sitting on the proverbial sunbed for a few weeks as they have collectively played a lot of rugby in the past 12 months and of course, thankfully, it all starts again in two months’ time!