Bath look for fourth straight win over Bourgoin

BATH will try to put a Headingley horror show behind them tonight by clinching a place in this season’s Heineken Cup quarter-finals.

The club’s enigmatic campaign currently means they are battling Guinness Premiership relegation while going unbeaten in Europe.

Victory over Pool Five hosts Bourgoin would send the 1998 European champions through, give head coach Brian Ashton his first win since returning to the Recreation Ground and erase memories of last weekend’s 25-14 defeat against fellow league strugglers Leeds.

The defeat left Bath just two points off the Premiership basement, and Ashton knows a vast improvement will be required at Stade Pierre Rajon.

“We struggled to retain and control any sort of possession in the first-half, and our kicking game put us under a massive amount of pressure,” he said.

“We made 25 extra tackles through missing touch than we needed to in the first 40 minutes.

“We have addressed those problems off the field. The key now is to address them where it really counts on Friday night.”

Ashton has made several changes for the Bourgoin clash, none more noticeable than switching England’s Olly Barkley from centre to fly-half instead of Chris Malone.

Elsewhere, prop David Flatman makes his first start of the season, and there are also call-ups for the likes of centre Tom Cheeseman, hooker Pieter Dixon and flanker Peter Short.

Bourgoin are still in mathematical contention for the quarter-finals, but Bath will be buoyed by three successive Heineken Cup victories over them during the past 15 months.

In the meantime, Sale Sharks scrum-half Sililo Martens, lock Christian Day and back-row forward Nathan Bonner-Evans have all agreed terms to keep them at Edgeley Park until 2008.

Sharks rugby director, Philippe Saint-Andre, said: “This is only my second season at Sale, and after al the enforced changes of last year, it is essential that we have a period of stability when our core squad can develop together as a team.

“We have had a great start to the season, but I genuinely believe we can improve another 20% simply by working together and growing together. I have an exceptional group of players at Sale, perhaps with the best potential of any club I have ever been at.

“Naturally, others are looking to take away my players and it is sometimes hard to keep everyone.

“But the players sense that we are the coming force in rugby and that is why they want to stay with us. Each of these guys will play an increasingly important part in our team, with their best years still ahead of them.”

Sale currently head the Guinness Premiership and are firmly on course to reach this season’s Heineken Cup quarter-finals.