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Meehan Capitalises on First Phase Success

By on 29th December 2007

Facing London Wasps tomorrow at Adams Park, Bath Rugby’s Head Coach, Steve Meehan, reflects on the opportunity to rotate and rest his squad, Berne as match captain and the keys to successes so far.


With the triple try-scorer against Leeds, Matt Banahan, being rested, there were many questions about the choice to rest and rotate the players for the match against Wasps, but Meehan admits it was not an injury issue that prompted the change in the squad. “There is no grand scheme behind the rotation,” Meehan explained.


“It was a difficult period, with playing Leeds, Christmas and then getting the right preparation for the Wasps match for this weekend, so it was all about giving the guys a match together (when they played Albi) before playing Wasps.

 

We were not in training on Monday and Tuesday, but instead came back to train together Wednesday afternoon and today, which gave us the chance to get some history, knowledge and understanding about what Wasps do and what their challenges will be.”

With Borthwick on the bench, the captaincy falls to Shaun Berne and Meehan expects him to make a good impact in the role. “As part of our squad, we have a club captain and four squad represents.


Obviously the club captain is Steve Borthwick, but the squad representatives are Danny Grewcock, Zak Feaunati, Shaun Berne and Alex Crockett.

 

As Shaun was the one of those starting this weekend, and because he captained the side a couple of times pre-season, he is quite comfortable with the role, is a leader within the group and I believe he will be fine and do a very good job.”

With Bath Rugby now vying for the top spot of the Guinness Premiership with Gloucester, Meehan is aware that it is not just the players who are to be thanked for that exciting challenge. “Our strength and conditioning and our medical staff have a great deal to do with our successes so far.


They have made sure we have the majority of our squad to pick form, and at the moment we only have three or four guys who we cant choose from.


It means that we can use almost our entire squad, we can prepare well and keep our guys fit and fresh, and this, in turn, brings a whole lot of competitiveness to our training sessions.

 

It also brings fresh legs into the matches and because the team is doing well, the guys know that when they get that opportunity whenever that might be – whether that is a one-off, or a whole run of matches, they know that they have to do well.”

Looking ahead, Bath’s Head Coach realises that whilst Bath are enjoying some great success, each stage of the season must be taken one step at a time.


“We have broken up our season into different phases and I think our first stage was more difficult than the second phase, because of the disruptions due to the Rugby World Cup.


We therefore need to capitalise on the wins we have made so far and make sure that our Premiership efforts continue to go well.”

 

 

Rugbyweek.com   
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