THE PREM CUP RUNNETH OVER: SALE AWAY

Bath return to Prem Cup action this Saturday in Salford, with the return fixture against our previous opponent in the competition: Sale.While the focus of the wider media and rugby followers will, inevitably, be elsewhere this is still a competition that offers value to the club.In a Cup preview earlier in the season, I made the point that while the win in the final at Sandy Park last year was an important stepping stone to the greater things that followed, it was the experience and exposure provided to a cohort of younger players that really mattered.

Retaining the trophy would be wonderful, but the priority has to be the benefit these four games can give us (a) for longer term squad development and (b) getting the players still at Farleigh during the Six Nations fit and firing for the season’s finale.

That said, no Bath fan would turn down the chance to beat Bristol, Exeter and Gloucester in successive weeks…

The format

A reminder: the Cup only involves the ten Prem teams. The fun of the “Champ” teams joining in has gone by the wayside. The ten teams are divided into two groups of five. Each team plays its group-mates home and away with one team for each group having a rest each weekend. The top two from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.

The Story So Far

We started the campaign with a gutsy defeat at home to a (full-strength) Exeter; following that up with a big win at Ashton Gate. Week three saw us blow a number of chances to beat Glos at Castle Grim and then we fielded a considerably stronger side (with a 7-1 split of first teamers on the bench) to beat Sale 20-0 in the final round pre-Christmas. That match was a strange old game. Four tries, four missed conversations and a bomb squad that failed to detonate.

The Standings

With our rest week last weekend, we have played four to everyone else’s five matches.

· Glos P5 W4 19pts

· Exeter P5 W3 13pts

· Sale P5 W2 12pts

· Bath P4 W2 11pts

· Bristol P5 W1 6pts

Qualification Prognosis

With four games to go, we will almost certainly need 3 wins to qualify in the top two – and even then, bonus points will be important. Our hardest game is likely to be Exeter away – I expect Baxter and co to be going all out for home advantage in the semi-finals. That makes winning this Sunday very important should we want to progress.

The Players

Representative call-ups have depleted the pool of available players for all clubs, be it full internationals, A teams or the U20s.

Bath have fielded 43 players in matchday squads in the four Prem Cup games so far this season with Will Butt, Scott Kirk and Ethan Staddon the only players to start all the matches.

A further 13 have started or been named on the bench in at least three of the four games. Of those Woods, Linegar, Offiah and Winter will be on U20 duty and Ewan Richards is injured.

That gives us a core of 11 players I expect to play this week and next. My assumption is more first teamers may appear in the last two group games as the need to tune-up for the Prem and Europe intensifies.

The one obvious area for concern is Fly-Half. Finn and Max are on 6N duty, Santi is on holiday, Ciaran Donoghue won’t play for a couple of months and, as above, James Linegar is with the U20s. Resources are thin.

JVG named checked Will Roue this week and he may well get a chance this weekend. If he needs any inspiration then he need only look to Donoghue. It was this time last season that an injury to Orlando Bailey handed Ciaran the 10 shirt for the Cup, and we all know how that story ended.

A Possible Squad (Prem Cup appearances this season in brackets)

The pack: Kirk (4), Spandler (3) and Verden (4) up front. Cuckson (4) and Jeanes (2) in the second row. Staddon (4) and Cowan (2) on the flanks and Green (3) at number 8.

In the backs: Van der Linde (0) and Roue (1) at half-back; Butt (4) and Harris (2) in midfield; and a back three of Griffin (3), Emens (2) and, er…?

TDG and Will Muir are possibilities – and the Horse definitely needs a few more gallops – but both were on safari a few days ago. That said, so was Cam Redpath and he is playing 12 for Scotland A this weekend…

The Opposition

Sale lost badly last weekend as Exeter who – according to Torbay Weekly – “turned on the style in a 9 try blitz.” The Sale XXIII featured 14 names who had featured in the Cup game at The Rec in November and just six who had featured in the squad against Saints in the Prem a week earlier. I’d expect a similar team this weekend.

If Bath are to repeat that 20-0 scoreline they will need to do so with a considerably less experienced team - De Glanville, Redpath, Reid and Frost all started that day – and away from home.

If they manage it, then Will Butt’s Barmy Army will be very much in the mix to make the knock-out stages. COYB!