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Three internationals among 9 new arrivals at Bath
By Kim Ekin
Three internationals are among nine new arrivals confirmed at Bath as the club usher in a new era under Johann van Graan.
It's been a nightmare season for Bath, who despite significant financing, finished bottom of the Gallagher Premiership. The West country side managed just five wins and a draw in this season's competition and fared little better in the Heineken Champions Cup.
Van Graan, who presided over an admittedly mixed bag of results at Munster, will be hoping he can turn the club around after their worst ever Premiership campaign.
With that in mind, the club confirmed their playing squad for next season.
As confirmed earlier in the year, Dave Attwood is back and set add to his 157 performances in Blue, Black, and White, while the veteran quartet of Chris Cloete, former Springbok Louis Schreuder, Niall Annett and England international Piers Francis has also been enlisted.
Van Graan has brought Cloete with him from Munster, along with former Saracens fullback Matt Gallagher.
Backrows JJ Tonks of the Northampton Saints and Wesley White of the Jersey Reds join intriguing young centre Louie Hennessey.
Against this they have lost the services of Anthony Watson, Taulupe Faletau and Danny Cipriani.
Prop: Lewis Boyce, Arthur Cordwell, Archie Griffin, Johannes Jonker, Archie Maggs*, Beno Obano, D’Arcy Rae, Juan Schoeman, Archie Stanley, Will Stuart, Kieran Verden
Hooker: Niall Annett, Tom Doughty, Tom Dunn, Jasper Spandler, John Stewart
Second Row: Dave Attwood, Josh Dingley, Charlie Ewels, Josh McNally, Ewan Richards, Will Spencer, Mike Williams
Back Row: Abdul-Khalik Akenzua Al Kareem, Josh Bayliss, Chris Cloete, Jaco Coetzee, Thompson Cowan, Richard de Carpentier, Tom Ellis, Mackenzie Graham, Arthur Green, Will Jeanes, Nahum Merigan, Frankie Read, Miles Reid, Ethan Staddon, JJ Tonks, Sam Underhill, Wesley White
Scrum-Half: Tom Carr-Smith, Max Green, Louis Schreuder, Ben Spencer
Fly-Half: Orlando Bailey, Ciaran Donoghue, Piers Francis, Sam Harris, George Worboys
Centre: Will Butt, Louie Hennessey, Jonathan Joseph, Max Ojomoh, Will Parry, Cameron Redpath, Jordan Venter, Max Wright
Back Three: Darren Atkins, Joe Cokanasiga, Matt Gallagher, Gabe Goss, Tom de Glanville, Gabriel Hamer-Webb, Ruaridh McConnochie, Will Muir
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Latest Comments
End of the day it wasn't Fozzie that missed two vital kicks at goal. It wasn't Fozzie who tackled high. It also wasn't Fozzie who fired his two closest friends lol. Razor already did the same with Leon McDonald, so this is nothing against him. Also, wasn't Fozzie who came up with the lame excuse called Suzie, that basically damned them for the next 100 years. Mark my words, they will keep losing important Rugby World Cup games until they apologise for what they did in post 1995. Disgraceful.
Go to commentsI’m a Bristol fan and it’s been brilliant watching them play this season and huge credit to Lam for the philosophical and strategic buy-in he’s gotten from his players.
My concern - and as illustrated against Leinster, is how the Bristol approach will hold up through the wet and windy winter months when fast, free-flowing, 15-man rugby becomes harder to execute.
Squad depth - again, illustrated by the capitulation to Leinster when McGinty went off, is also something that might see performances drop over the second half of the season.
All that being said, If they can hold firm’ish then you expect them to be in the top 4 come the Spring.
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