Cipriani to start for Bath in season opener

Former England star Danny Cipriani is set to make his Bath bow in their season opener against Sale Sharks.

Cipriani was Bath's major 2021 signing after he left local rivals Gloucester mid-season.

“Danny’s been amazing, he comes with a wealth of experience,” Bath DoR Stuart Hooper said of Cipriani recently. “The biggest thing for me is – the skillset you can see from the guy when you watch him play – but just his willingness to help other people and his willingness to help those around him has been awesome and I think everyone has been benefiting from having him in the environment.”

“He’s been great (during pre-season). He’s obviously been out of the game a long time, so there’s a big excitement for him to get back and get the ball in his hands and get playing,” said Hooper.

Elswhere new signing Johannes Jonker starts in the front row, while there could be debuts for D’Arcy Rae and highly rated South African flanker Jaco Coetzee, who are named on the bench.

“With Jaco’s arrival, we feel we have an unbelievably exciting addition to the squad who will be available to play for the club for the full season," Hooper said when signing former Stormers back row Coetzee earlier this year. "He’s an intimidating ball carrier and will cause huge problems for our opposition no matter where he is on the field. I’m looking forward to seeing him compete with our current group of strong back rowers to get on the field for us.”

BATH TEAM:

15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Will Muir, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Ben Spencer; 1 Beno Obano, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Johannes Jonker, 4, Mike Williams, 5 Charlie Ewels CAPTAIN, 6 Miles Reid, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Josh Bayliss

REPLACEMENTS:

16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 D’Arcy Rae, 19 Tom Ellis, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Ollie Fox, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Max Clark