Bath statement: Appointment of Ben Spencer as new club captain
Ben Spencer has been named Bath club captain for the 2022/23 season. The England scrum-half arrived at The Rec for the post-lockdown restart of the 2019/20 campaign in August 2020 after nine seasons at Saracens and he now takes over from Charlie Ewels, who is set to miss the majority of the new season following his serious injury while on tour with England in Australia.
A club statement read: “Bath Rugby is delighted to confirm Ben Spencer as club captain for the 2022/23 season. The 30-year-old has made over 50 appearances for the Blue, Black and White since making a try-scoring debut against London Irish in 2020.
“Spencer is a favourite with supporters, winning the Bath Rugby supporters’ club unsung hero and player of the season awards, and is a determined individual who drives high standards within the group.
“He has previously held a leadership role at the club and has previous experience of being on-field captain during his time at The Rec.”
New head of Rugby Johann van Graan said: “Ben is a fantastic player, but most importantly a fantastic man. He is a highly respected individual in our squad and cares deeply about his teammates, the support staff and Bath Rugby.
“On the field, he is a competitor, leads by example and is a quality communicator, not only through word but via his actions too. Ben is consistent in his approach week by week and continues to push everyone to be the best version of themselves. We are delighted he will be our captain for the 2022/23 season.”
Spencer added: “I’m hugely proud and honoured to be captain of the club. Ever since I joined the club it’s been an aim of mine to be in the leadership group. There are a lot of strong leaders within this group and hopefully we can work together this year and get the boys firing.”
Latest Comments
Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
Go to comments