Revamped Bath won’t be blown away this time, warns Francois Louw

You could forgive Francois Louw if his last trip to Leinster caused him to wonder whether he had made a mistake in moving to Bath.

Just two months after appearing for South Africa in the 2011 World Cup quarter-final against Australia, Louw was a member of a Bath pack beaten up by their Leinster counterparts and then punished in full by Johnny Sexton and Luke Fitzgerald at the Aviva Stadium.

The scoreline 52-27, was brutal, but the manner of it was perhaps even worse. A very distant second in a two-horse race, Bath’s Heineken Cup hopes were exposed as being utterly fanciful.

It is not an accusation you could level at them now. Instead, speaking from the club’s palatial training ground, Farleigh House, Louw talks of a club that believes, with very good reason, it could be on the cusp of something special.

Under the guidance of their ambitious multi-millionaire owner, Bruce Craig, Bath have built a hugely talented and exciting side that is – in the shape of George Ford, Jonathan Joseph and Anthony Watson – providing the primary reasons for excitement in Stuart Lancaster’s new-look England team.

Crucially, they also have Louw, the Springbok international who was described by Sean O’Brien this week as “one of the best back-rowers in the world”. O’Brien’s assessment was spot-on, and the confrontation between the two of them will be central to today’s absorbing European Rugby Champions Cup quarter-final back at the Aviva.

“It is nice of him to see me in that way,” says Louw as he considers O’Brien’s praise.

“To return the compliment, I would say he is a solid player for Leinster and Ireland. I think he is the type of guy that can definitely do the job for whatever side he is playing in. He is not someone to be taken lightly. Give him half a chance and he will make something of it. But our focus is really on ourselves and we don’t want to put too much emphasis on opponents and individuals in the opposing side.”

Instead, as Louw makes clear, Leinster should be worrying about Bath. “We are a very different side from four years ago and the club has changed drastically,” says the 29-year-old.

“That’s from recruitment to new signings, new coaches, new setups, new structures. We are finally on track in terms of what we want to achieve in the next few years.