Keep The Faith

Bath seek a miracle on Sunday but it will take more than faith to get it. Highflying Saracens lost their last encounter with Bath and will be desperate not to succumb again. Bath have struggled in the Premiership since that heady December day, losing 5 of 7 matches and fading to fourth in the table, 10 points adrift of Sunday’s hosts in 3rd. The self-belief and determination of the opening months of the season seems to have drained with the seemingly non-stop injury list and even 4th place is now under threat from improving rivals. Saracens, enjoying home advantage and welcoming back half their top pack from 6 Nations duty look set to heap more misery on the men in Blue, Black and White. Bath can claim their own returners of course, but will they be sufficient reinforcement to see off the threat? A meeting between these two clubs is as much a clash of faiths as when the original Saracens under Salah-ud-Din confronted the Crusader Christians. The Saracens credo has for years been a defensive one: percentage, pressure and pragmatism to wear opponents down then force penalties to build a score. Tries as often as not are scored as the result of that defence: the stifling “wolf-pack” approach forcing opposition error to exploit in counter attack. Bath by contrast have set out their stall on a more attacking “ball-in-hand” philosophy, a promise of faith made by Bruce Craig when seeking a new DOR last summer. The free flowing style is part of the Bath legend and, when it works is delightfully potent: bitter rivals Leicester and neighbours Gloucester among those on the receiving end of hammerings in recent years. However, in 2015 that all came unstuck in the Premiership Final – Saracens grit grinding down Bath’s flair. Should we expect the same this weekend?