West Country rugby seeks inoculation against 'Welsh flu'

Former England coach Jack Rowell once complained that the Bath side he had just taken charge of suffered "Welsh flu" whenever they crossed the Severn Bridge for a match. Now the West Country side are hoping to leave a few other clubs feeling queasy after signing their own Welsh bruisers.


Wales utility prop Paul James and former Wales U21 lock Dominic Day have both been recruited to give Bath more grunt in the front five. James, who has 38 caps, moved after nine years at Ospreys while Day has moved to The Rec from Scarlets.

And with Ben Morgan 's move from Parc y Scarlets to Gloucester, they represent something of a eastwards migration over the Bridge.

"A lot of the time people here don't understand what Paul and I are saying to each other," laughs Day. "Paul's a Valleys boy and we both have thick accents.

"But Paul is a clever guy and a quality player and it's great to have someone of his experience also joining Bath. I've played against him and I know he doesn't take a backwards step."

Day and James are the latest Welsh players to head to either England or France following the introduction of a £3.5 million salary cap on the Welsh regions' player budgets.

But Day doesn't believe the move will harm his and James's international prospects. He believes the move to the Premiership will give his play a harder edge.

"As long as I'm playing well and if I am in contact with the Welsh Rugby Union, then we'll see," he said. "Stephen Jones, James Hook and others - a lot of these (international) players are leaving the country. I'm sure Paul still has ambitions to carry on playing for Wales.

"A lot of players are leaving Wales at the moment for one reason or another, and for me personally it was because I felt I needed a change. Things were getting a little stale at Scarlets.

"Part of the reason for coming here is that I want to improve my forwards play. The Premiership's got a reputation as a hard league with big forwards and there are quality sides to play week in week out."

Day admits to having been taken aback by the ferocity of Bath's pre-season programme.

"It's the work rate and the workload; it's been a lot higher this pre-season," he said. "Whether it's weights or contact sessions, it's been tough. I've had to learn a lot."

It might be a steep learning curve, but there is little chance that Day or James have been homesick, at least over the past month, thanks to the distinctly Welsh flavour to Bath's warm-up matches: London Welsh, Ospreys and Cardiff Blues.

Why Jonny F didn't fit at Bath anymore

Jonny Fa'amatuainu's exit from The Rec not only represents the departure of a flamboyant character from Bath Rugby. More significantly, it is symbolic of a departure in strategy that has been brewing at the club for half a year.

Not long after he arrived at Bath a year ago, chief executive Nick Blofeld began emphasising a formula that arguably has little room for players of Fa'amatuainu's mould.

That formula requires graft and combativeness in the pack, blended with audacity in the backs.

"We need flair behind the pack but bloody-mindedness up front," Blofeld said towards the end of last season, just as Fa'amatuainu was getting used to warming the replacements' bench, before dropping out of the match-day squad completely.

And while it was head coach Steve Meehan who was having the final say over selection issues, Blofeld's comment seemed to encapsulate the club's hardening view that running rugby is all good and well – but it cannot function properly without a more solid, snarling and downright aggressive platform.

Fa'amatuainu, a back-row player who can also play at lock, is very much a 'flair' player. But as Bath have discovered in various scraps at the breakdown over the past couple of seasons, it's guts married to guile that secures the kind of ball necessary for victory, not flair in the loose.

If Bath's early-1990s heyday is to be revived, then what's required is the development of a back-row spine comparable to the one once provided by the likes of John Hall and Andy Robinson.

Hall, Robinson and Co's ferocity, physical presence and guts made Bath potent at the breakdown. They put in the donkey work and were widely feared. Opponents knew they would be spared no quarter – and that Hall and Robinson would always be in the thick of things.

Fa'amatuainu, for all his virtues, is not of that ilk. Too often last season he lurked on the fringes of the breakdown rather than getting in people's faces.

The Samoan's virtues are manifold. Chief among them is his speed, illustrated to great effect last season when he chased down Worcester wing Miles Benjamin – certainly no slouch – with a few graceful leaps and the extension of one of those long arms.

Such pace was an asset in the loose too, although his elaborate one- handed carries sometimes only served to reinforce the image of him as something of a showman.

Fa'amatuainu's release to Scarlets on a season-long loan – after which he will be out of contract at Bath – is probably good for all parties.

With the addition of Lewis Moody and Simon Taylor to the back row, and flanker Josh Ovens stepping up from Bath's academy to the first-team squad, Fa'amatuainu was destined to spend the season on the sidelines. That would have been demotivating for him and having demotivated players around can have a draining effect on the rest of the squad.

For his part, Fa'amatuainu has a chance of enjoying some regular first-team action at Parc Y Scarlets – and that's the only type of action that matters to an international player in the run up to a World Cup.