Bath lock Dave Attwood wants team to dominate 'big guns'

Attwood has made 104 appearances in the Premiership

Bath lock Dave Attwood says the club must not end up "also-rans" against the Premiership's dominant teams this term.

The Rec outfit ran riot against seven-time title winners Leicester Tigers last weekend, sealing a 45-0 victory.

Bath travel to Franklin's Gardens on Saturday to face reigning champions Northampton before meeting last season's runners-up Saracens.

"We want to exert some West Country dominance throughout the Premiership," said the 12-cap England second-rower.

Attwood, 27, added to BBC Radio Bristol: "We want to match-up and say we came out on top. When we review the season these are the kind of fixtures we'll judge ourselves by.

"We're not going to sit by and think 'we lost three or four to the big guys but we did really well'. We want to be on top, we're not interested in being also-rans."

Bath were edged out of the play-offs by Harlequins on the last day of the regular season in May, despite having spent the majority of the campaign in the top four.

It was Sarries who finished top of the table, with eventual winners Saints in second, and Leicester and Quins behind.

After their disappointing end to the domestic season, Bath then went on to lose the Amlin Challenge Cup final against Northampton, extending their trophy drought to six years.

But Mike Ford's side have made a blistering start to the current campaign, beating Sale and London Welsh before running in five tries against Tigers.

Leicester suffered their heaviest-ever Premiership defeat at The Rec last Saturday

However, Attwood, who is in his third season with the club, insists they will not get carried away by last weekend's performance.

"We haven't achieved anything yet," he said. "It's humbling to see the response we received from the supporters - it meant a lot.

"It's a massive credit to this team that we were able to orchestrate the performance and it's now about whether we can reproduce what we did on the weekend and come out on top again."