If Tom Croft raced Bryan Habana...

Few flankers know their art more thoroughly than Leicester Tigers' Julian Salvi.  And the Aussie is backing his rangy, rapid backrow colleague Tom Croft to cause mayhem among the Wallabies when the British & Irish Lions head Down Under.
“Tom Croft is a supreme athlete," Salvi told me. "He is a freak of nature who is tough in all areas.
“He will hold the edges really well and if you give him space he can act as another back.
“That style of rugby is great in the Southern Hemisphere because it’s about chucking the ball around.
“With Tom Croft in the team you have a guy who can expose the Australians. The hard tracks are going to be really great for him."
The following clip suggests there is more than a semblance of wisdom in Salvi's words. In fact, geek that I am, I used a stopwatch to time how long it takes Croft to get from the halfway line to dot the ball down against Quins: 5.30 seconds. Welford Road is not the longest pitch in the world, but that is very, very rapid. And Croft doesn't run straight because of the covering defence, and the ground is pretty sludgy too. Which makes his run all the more staggering. On an athletics track on a dry day, he'd surely get close to 10.5 seconds over 100m. Brisk or what?:

It's enough to remind you of that ludicrous moment in rugby PR when Springbok winger Bryan Habana raced a cheetah:

Anyway, enough of cheetahs, what of the Lions?
Salvi, who previously played for the Brumbies in Canberra as well as Australia 'A', says of the Home Nations' prospects: “The Lions have a great opportunity to win the breakdown. The likes of Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric are all capable of disrupting ball. As long as the Lions get the selection right, they will be able to put the pressure on the Aussies."
It's just a shame that Salvi won't be there to compete against the Lions. The Wallabies are missing a trick by not having him in their national set up. Both at Bath and Leicester he's proved himself a superb fetcher and a fine link player; a consistent stand-out player in the Premiership. And wouldn't his inside knowledge of northern hemisphere rugby help the Aussies once Croft and the rest of the Lions roll into town?

The Southern Hemisphere loose forwards with their eyes on Bath

Bath Rugby saw off a bid from arch rivals Leicester Tigers to secure the services of Springbok flanker Francois Louw, I can reveal.

But the South African flanker, pictured, says a "captivating" visit to Bath early this year made the choice between The Rec and Welford Road a straightforward one.

I exclusively revealed in January that Bath were interested in seven-cap Louw and we reported in April that a deal had been signed.

This week, following the conclusion of the Super 15 competition in the southern hemisphere, both Bath and Louw's hometown side, Cape Town-based Stormers/Western Province, confirmed the 6ft 4in blindside specialist would be moving to The Rec.

I can also reveal that another southern hemisphere loose forward, Julian Salvi, approached Bath with a view to returning to the West Country next season.

Brumbies openside Salvi enjoyed a spectacularly successful year at Bath in 2009-10 when he was named the club's best forward, and recently asked his agent to contact the Bath management to discuss the possibility of another spell at The Rec.

However, Bath's loose forward division was already full to capacity, with Louw and young openside Carl Fearns the new additions to a back row that already boasts Lewis Moody, Simon Taylor, Ben Skirving, Andy Beattie and exciting prospect Guy Mercer.

"Julian instructed me to get in touch with Bath first but unfortunately Bath were full," said Salvi's agent.

This week, it was announced Salvi would instead join Leicester on a two-year deal.

One man who is delighted to be heading to The Rec rather than Welford Road, however, is Louw.

"Playing overseas is always something I've wanted to do and Bath were the first club to approach me," he explained.

"When Bath flew me over for a visit, I was blown away by the ethos among the team and the whole set-up. It was all first class. And it was all in such a beautiful city. I was instantly captivated. What's not to like?

"It was a tough decision to leave Western Province, but easy in the sense that Bath had created such a great impression.

"There were a couple of other interested clubs. Leicester were top of the Premiership and that created a pull, but Bath was always the club for me.

"It's important to be at a club that's going forward, and I could see that was the case at Bath straight away."

The 26-year-old, who has penned a three-year deal with the club, says he is in for the long haul.

"When I sat down with Bath, I explained that I was fully committed and not just doing a little stint overseas," he said.

"I want to shape myself into a team and be part of a growing team going forward."

Louw, however, won't give up on his international ambitions while at Bath. He has been named in South Africa's provisional World Cup squad and is likely to join the club following the conclusion of the competition.

"If the opportunity comes up to play for my country [while I am at Bath] then I would play in a heartbeat," he said.

"Bath know about my commitment to South Africa and my willingness to represent them."

Strewth! It's time to liberalise the rules on where international rugby stars can play

If I was a cynical member of the RFU, I might smell a rat at Julian Salvi's one-year sojourn at Bath Rugby.

Is he an Australian Rugby Union spy, uncovering the secrets of Northern Hemisphere rugby before returning south to report back to his spy-masters? And all this just a year before the World Cup. Hmmm, suspicious....

I jest, of course. But I actually believe the flanker's spell in Bath can carry some salutary lessons for rugby bosses across the globe.

Currently the men who run the national set-ups in Australia, South Africa and a whole host of other top-tier rugby union countries insist that players must ply their club trade in their homeland if they are to stand any chance of being picked for their national team.

This, to my mind, illustrates how parochialism, narrow-mindedness and an element of micro-management has crept into the way the game is run.

We live in a globalised world where – in many parts of the West – people, capital and goods can flow over national boundaries with little restriction. Yet a form of hidebound 'protectionism' exists in the way rugby is governed.

An England star might just get away with having the audacity to play club rugby in France but team manager Martin Johnson has made it plain that such a player will be all but discounted if he heads south of the equator.

Yet who are England's greatest rivals on the world stage? They are New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. And to beat your rivals, you need to understand how they operate.

So why aren't England's Elite Player Squad members free to take contracts with Southern Hemisphere clubs, given that such experiences would expose them to how key figures in rival national set-ups operate? It's insular; it's barmy.

Apologists of the current arrangements will point out that national coaches need to have their players close by for training camps but that can be circumvented by ensuring players have the appropriate clauses in their contracts to enable them to return for those sessions. It's not rocket science and the different perspective that those Antipodean-based players would bring to such sessions would surely be worth the air fare.

In my view, Salvi did something very canny in leaving Canberra for a year or so's spell with Bath. A rising star in the Australian rugby firmament, he can now return to his homeland with a firm grasp of what makes the Northern Hemisphere rugby world tick. He's played in Paris, Edinburgh, Belfast and Twickenham, not to mention all the main club stadia in England.

With a World Cup imminent, I would have thought such insights would be invaluable to the Australian Rugby Union. Couple that with his skills in the loose and he'd be in my Wallabies' squad in a flash.

I'm not advocating the wholesale migration of England's best players, nor do I want to see the Guinness Premiership turned into a procession of well-paid Southern Hemisphere show ponies, but the scales need to tip a little more in the direction of a laissez-faire arrangement.

Nurturing home-grown talent through Premiership clubs' academies is crucial for the future of English rugby but the RFU has to acknowledge that a player immersing themselves in a world-beating rugby culture a few thousand miles away isn't necessarily a bad thing for the Red Rose.

And that's why hanging such players as Melbourne-bound Danny Cipriani out to dry would be an act of short-sighted folly by the RFU.

Read more of my opinions at http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/bathrugby.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tomjbradshaw

Who will wave the wand at The Rec next season?

Just as every rugby side needs its workhorses, every side needs its magicians. And I fear there could be a shortage of wands at Bath Rugby next season.
Magicians are the players who, in attack, can bewitch the opposition, either with a scything sidestep, an unpredictable play or a preternatural act of vision that puts teammates into space.
Among the Bath players who cast the most potent of spells is full-back Nick Abendanon. His runs from deep get fans on their feet and put Bath on the front foot. The fact he currently lies third in the Guinness Premiership chart for most metres covered with ball in hand is nothing short of remarkable given that he has missed six weeks with injury.
So it is all to the good that Abendanon has committed his future to Bath, despite the offer of a move to new Super 15 franchise Melbourne Rebels.
Alongside Abendanon, I’d confer magician status on Butch James, Joe Maddock and Julian Salvi. And what’s worrying me is that none of that trio may be at The Rec next season.
Salvi, not unexpectedly, is heading home to Canberra to fill the shoes vacated by George Smith at the ACT Brumbies, although there is the possibility of him playing at Bath next season until the start of the Super 15 in December.
From the moment I first met Salvi, I never felt he would stay at Bath for the full two seasons, as his deal allowed. With his partner and young son remaining in Australia, the smart money was always on him delivering a short, sharp, shock to the Guinness Premiership before heading back to the Southern Hemisphere and a tilt at the Wallaby side for the 2011 World Cup.
But what a season he has provided for Bath. Fearless and ferocious, he has proved himself a Brutus at the breakdown, playing with sufficient ruthlessness and tirelessness to reduce ex-Bath captain and openside Michael Lipman to a distant memory. Salvi’s cheeky 22 drop-outs and unlikely ruck steals will linger in the memory long after he is back in Australia.
So Salvi’s fate looks reasonably clear. But what of James and Maddock?
James is like a thoroughbred racehorse that’s been everywhere and won everything but opinion is divided about whether the mount’s knees are up to another Durban Derby. The authorities back in South Africa are pondering whether it’s worth shelling out a small fortune to get him back on his home track.
It’s clear James wants to return to South Africa, despite his declaration back in October 2008 that he was a “one club man” and would be remaining at Bath until 2012.
Frustratingly for Bath, since the start of his current three-year deal – which kicked in at the start of the current season – James has played a total of just 162 minutes of rugby, sidelined as he has been by a serious knee injury and then a heavily bruised shoulder. No wonder the Bath management are keen to get more time out of him, notwithstanding his indefatigable efforts since he joined the club in 2007.
Last week James made remarks to me that made it clear his people were seeking a way for him to return to his homeland. And the vibe coming from Durban over the past week has reinforced the impression that a return to the Sharks is likely, provided that a deal can be struck on compensating Bath for the loss of a truly world-class playmaker. One source close to the Sharks has said Bath are seeking compensation of more than £400,000.
So the big question is whether the Sharks, in conjunction with the South African Rugby Union, are prepared to buy him out of his Bath deal. The answer to that is not yet clear, although it would benefit all parties if clarity came sooner rather than later.
Clarity, too, is needed over Maddock’s future. Out of sorts at the start of the season, last year’s leading Guinness Premiership try-scorer was back in excellent form before the recent hiatus in Bath’s fixture list. He may be getting on a bit but his sidestep and killer instinct are as sharp as ever. Just ask Worcester’s Chris Latham, whom he embarrassed a few weeks ago.
As has been seen with Abendanon, players invariably perform better once they know where they’re going to be the following year. After four months of negotiations with the club, I understand Maddock is now days away from making a decision about whether to stay or pursue options back in his native New Zealand or on the Continent. It will boil down to lifestyle issues for his family as much as rugby. Bath fans will be praying the little magician stays put.