Bath will not be the first side to cast an envious look at Toulon’s all-star cast on Sunday but Mike Ford has reason to be greener than most; Sam Burgess’s exit has given him a war chest to spend but there are no obvious candidates to spend it on.
Last season Bath were strongly linked with Steffon Armitage and Duane Vermeulen – both of whom could line up against them this weekend – while chief among the downsides of losing Burgess is how short it leaves them in the back row.
At least Bath will feel that a corner has been turned as preparations for the Champions Cup begin. A disruptive week, as Ford put it, ended with a six-try win at London Irish, made far more comfortable by the 20th-minute red card shown to the Exiles’ scrum-half Brendan McKibbin, but the disappointment over Burgess in the coach’s voice was palpable.
After Bath had insisted on Tuesday and Wednesday last week that Burgess was staying put, only for news of his return to rugby league to break on Thursday, sympathy for the club has been tempered but Ford’s deflation is genuine. He always viewed Burgess as a long-term project, not to be rushed, and always saw his long-term future in the back row. He does not blame England but does feel that, had Burgess spent the summer with Bath rather than as part of the World Cup squad, his head would probably not have been turned.
“I’ve got a bit of money to spend now,” said Ford, with a wry smile. “The trouble is everyone is signed up but we’ll look at the market. We’re after a back-rower. The money available is one good thing to come out of Sam leaving but only if I can spend it. Give me a player I can spend it on.”
Bath are expected to be bolstered by the arrival of the Wales lock Luke Charteris next season and in the short term they can call on some cavalry against Toulon in the shape of the Springbok flanker Francois Louw, outstanding during the World Cup and when Ford’s side dazzled away at Toulouse in last season’s Champions Cup – a result that, along with the victory in Montpellier, gives the head coach hope this weekend.
“Francois is huge for us. He was outstanding at the World Cup at the very, very top level. Up there with McCaw and Pocock and we think we’re getting Toulon at the right time,” said Ford. “It’s the champions away from home, they’ve had 19 internationals away, they’ve got to be integrated and a bit like us they’ve not started very well.
“We’re going to play with courage in Europe. We think the French league does not have a tempo as fast as ours, the ball is not in play for as long, so we will go and play at a fast tempo.”
Fighting talk but it is still hard to see Bath pull off another famous win on French soil. There were few champagne moments against Irish and while the 45-14 victory was sealed with second-half tries from Kyle Eastmond, Rhys Priestland on his first start and Nikola Matawalu, the depleted Exiles were by then flagging.
Irish have now lost all four of their opening matches and are second bottom – even if there are easier ways to begin the season than facing Leicester, Exeter, Saracens and Bath.
“We’ve played the best four teams from the competition last year so we always knew it was going to be tough,” said London Irish’s coach, Tom Coventry, “But if we’re only worried about outcome our performances are going to slip away. We need to keep the self-esteem up and focus on the next job.
“I haven’t come over here [from New Zealand] to lose, that’s for sure, but we’ve just got to be careful that we don’t get ahead of ourselves. If I worry about the result every week it would be a tough place to work every day.”
London Irish Ojo; Lewington (Steele 22, Noakes 30), Fowlie, Mulchrone (Waldouck, 55), Tikoirotuma; Geraghty, McKibbin; Smallbone (Court, 38), Paice, Halavatau (Sheriff, 66), Skivington (capt; Aulika, 53), Symons, Guest (Narraway, 55), Sisi (Ellis 66), McCusker.
Tries Steele, Mulchrone. Cons Geraghty 2. Sent off McKibbin 20.
Bath: Homer; Rokoduguni, Devoto, Eastmond (Ford, 52), Banahan (Williams, 58); Priestland, Cook (Matawalu, 68); Auterac (Catt, 54), Webber (Dunn, 54), Thomas (Lahiff, 54), Hooper (capt; Ellis, 68), Day, Garvey, Fa’osiliva (Northcote-Green, 61), Houston.
Tries Houston, Devoto, Fa’osiliva, Eastmond, Priestland, Matawalu. Cons Priestland 2, Homer 2, Ford 2 Pen Priestland. Sin-bin Fa’osiliva 18, Devoto 33.
Referee: T Foley (RFU). Att 6,641.
