Not many sides appear stronger on paper than last season but Bath can lay claims to be one of them. Yes, Bath, I know...the club has been ripped apart, the first team decimated etc, etc but that’s the parallel world of headlines, not playing realities. Here is the reality - the squad is emanating confidence. Of all the players missing because of the drugs furore, only two of them will be missed, Matt Stevens (whose absence Bath failed to cover last season) and Alex Crockett, the local boy with the big Bath heart.
As for the rest, Michael Lipman has been replaced by Julian Salvi of the ACT Brumbies. George Smith kept him out of the Super 14 team but Lipman – had he been fit and raring – lacked the class to do likewise. David Wilson is no Stevens yet but he is one of the most impressive young props in England who could push for honours off the back of a good season with his new club.
Justin Harrison blew in and out of Bath like a moody hurricane (and did plenty of good for the team as well as the more publicised bad) but a revamped Danny Grewcock adds bite and direction to the Bath pack. Behind him, Luke Watson brings much more than a moral set of scruples from Cape Town. A magnificent ball carrying eight, he and Salvi strengthen Bath where they were weak last season.
The big question is whether Ryan Davis can find the keys to the mystery of fly half while Butch James is absent with injury. If he can vary his game and pick the odd defensive lock, Bath are going to be right up there in the Premiership race.
Prediction: 4th