'There’s nothing better, I’ll tell you that for free': Bath's Ethan Staddon

Having had a tortuous run of bad luck with injuries last season, Ethan Staddon is buzzing when we sit down for a chat over Zoom this week.

A few days had passed since Staddon was awarded a new deal at the club, which has been his home for all his pro rugby life. But the Dorchester-born still had a smile as broad as his knowledge on all things sustainable.

The fifth year natural sciences student will pack down in the Bath back-row this Friday evening at a packed Rec, as the West Country club aim to go one step closer to claiming some elusive silverware.

And it’s occasions like a home Premiership Cup quarter-final against Harlequins that remind Staddon of why he soldiered on through the dark days of rehab last season, when an ACL injury was almost immediately followed by a broken ankle.

“There’s nothing better, I’ll tell you that for free,” he said, about the prospect of running through the tunnel of noise and the sea of blue, black and white flags to play in such an important game.

“Rugby is such a strange but beautiful game in that you get such high highs and such low lows and I mean this from the best place in my heart.

“Some weeks you come in and you’re not picked and if you’re not careful you can find yourself a bit upset or a bit frustrated that you’re not involved and then other weeks you’re involved and you find yourself playing in the quarter-finals and it’s the best job in the world.

“It’s a cool experience and you have to make the most of every one you are involved in.”

Staddon’s age (22) will be matched by his number of first-team appearances for Bath against Quins, a relatively small return for someone who is in his fifth full season of first-team rugby.

However, the lack of game time is indicative of the quality of players that he and his back-row teammate, Cup skipper Ewan Richards, have standing in their way.

Knowing he wouldn’t feature in the end-of-season run-in once he’d returned to fitness last April, Staddon took himself off to Australia with the blessing of Johaan van Graan.

Looking every bit the surfer with his curly mop of blonde hair, Staddon says the time he spent at Sydney Two Blues, where ex-London Irish winger Sailosi Tagicakibau is the coach, helped to set him up for this season.

“It was an opportunity to learn to love the game after being injured for so long and having such a bumpy ride. It was a huge opportunity for me to build up confidence and be around people that just love rugby, and I certainly came back with a fresh take and was ready to go again this season,” he stated.

“So far, whilst it’s been here and there, I have competed in all three competitions this season. Okay, some for 30 seconds, but I think that is credit enough, and I have said this before, competing in such a competitive environment has meant I have progressed as a player the fastest that I have done, and this is my fifth year at Bath.

“I said this to a mate or someone the other day, looking at the last year, this is the best rugby that I have played, and that is credit to a number of things. But I think the foundation for that is the competitive environment with players that are also, and have become, ever more competitive with each other in terms of the amount of talent, especially in the back row position. People are pushing each other massively in every position to perform.”

The re-signing announcement came as a bit of a shock to Staddon, though. “I didn’t realise my phone had been dead all week, it hadn’t charged. My Mum was kind of like, ‘well done darling’, and I was like, ‘thanks, why?’. And I ended up scrolling through all these photos of me when I was five years old on a Bath Rugby youth camp.

“It was cool, I sent a reply to the Bath social media guy, Lawrence, I said ‘mate, I feel special, this is a first for me, you guys used to miss my birthday’. I am only joking but it is very surreal.”

Staddon’s suggestion of having a vegetarian day may have gone down as well as a courgette kebab with his South African team-mates. But the flanker has shrugged off the teasing and is now part of a sustainability task force at the club. One way or another he is determined to leave his footprint on the club.

Johaan van Graan has described him as a tough-to-beat player, which Staddon likes to think is “a compliment to my stubbornness, my relentlessness, my inability to quit, call it what you want!” With that in mind, maybe a meat-free Afrikaans Bath team social braai will be possible one day!