Confident Bath have scores to settle

BATH Rugby arrive at the RDS grounds in Ballsbridge this evening with two scores to settle in the opening round of the Heineken European Cup campaign.

Still smarting from losing both matches against Leinster last season, the Premiership side, in their current form and coming up against an injury-ravaged home outfit, are clearly very confident.

Leinster go into the game without captain Brian O’Driscoll, wing Denis Hickie, out-half Christian Warner, scrum-half, Guy Easterby, flanker Eric Miller and second-row Malcolm O’Kelly who, however, is included among the replacements. Few teams could be expected to prevail in such circumstances against a side of Bath’s undoubted quality but truth to tell, Michael Cheika’s side would have little chance even at full strength if they performed as poorly as they did against Munster at Musgrave Park on Sunday week last.

Even allowing for how well Munster played, Leinster were awful and grew worse as the game went on. They rallied to some extent with a Celtic League success over Cardiff Blues last weekend, but it will only be when the most serious questions are asked this evening that their true worth will become apparent.

Leinster are coached by an Australian and captained by an Argentinean, a strange combination to be sure, but still nowhere as unusual as the venue for today’s encounter.

The RDS is a delightful spot but it doesn’t possess even a scintilla of rugby tradition and it is difficult to see Leinster’s flaky fans generating the necessary atmosphere. Nevertheless, Cheika refuses to be downcast either by this or the injury situation.

“Injury is something you have no control over,” he said philosophically. “You must look at the positives and we’re lucky we have good depth in the three-quarter area. The door has opened for Robert Kearney and Kieran Lewis. Bath like to play it physically but they also have pace out wide in David Bory and Frikki Welsh. There is no point in talking about what happened last year, the personnel is different for one thing, and while we can use the experience from the last time, we can’t judge anything by it.”

Arguably the finest performance by any side in the Guinness Premiership this season came from Bath when they pipped Gloucester 16-14 last week, in spite of playing more than half the match with 14 men and another ten with 13. Lions second row Danny Grewcock produced what one reporter described as “a career defining performance” and the side as a whole played with “stunning passion.” These are ingredients Leinster supporters would dearly like to see from their team this evening but they have been all too often disappointed in this respect.

“We started the season slowly, but since then we have won four on the bounce and have played pretty well during that time,” says coach John Connolly.

“The performance against Gloucester was extremely encouraging and we have been able to build sustained pressure throughout matches. That has been a big contributing factor, whilst the good form of Olly Barkley in recent games is another. The key has been an ability to create sustained pressure.”

Connolly has made three changes to the starting XV that defeated Gloucester. Both Andy Higgins and David Barnes are suspended, whilst Lee Best returns in place of Matt Perry at full-back. Perry, who sustained a heavy blow to the head last weekend, is rested, handing Best his first start in Bath colours in a year. Centre Higgins is replaced by promising young Welshman Tom Cheeseman, whilst England international Matt Stevens starts at loosehead instead of Barnes.

BATH: L. Best; D. Bory, T. Cheeseman, O. Barkley, F. Welsh; C. Malone, M. Wood; M. Stevens, L Mears, D. Bell, S. Borthwick (capt), D. Grewcock, A. Beattie, J. Scaysbrook, A. Feaunati. Replacements: P. Dixon, C. Loader, G. Delve, J. Hudson, N. Walshe, R. Davis, S. Finau.

LEINSTER: G. Dempsey; K. Lewis, G. D’Arcy, S. Horgan, R. Kearney; F. Contepomi capt, B. O’Riordan; R. Corrigan, D. Blaney, W. Green, B. Gissing, B. Williams, C. Potts, K. Gleeson, J. Heaslip. Replacements: B. Jackman, E. Byrne, M. O’Kelly, D. Dillon, B. O’Meara, E. Hickey, J. Hepworth.

Referee: N. Whitehouse (Wales).