'Everyone feels part of the same vision' - squad depth key to Bath success

Bath secured their Premiership home semi-final with three rounds of games still to play

Bath's second-half demolition of Leicester three weeks ago summed up the challenge facing opposition teams this season when confronting the Premiership table-toppers.

Max Ojomoh, Guy Pepper, Ross Molony, Will Stuart and Francois van Wyk were among the players brought on from the bench to see out the match - Ojomoh, who played just 34 minutes, made such an impact he was named player of the match.

The strength in depth developed under Johann van Graan has been a major factor in Bath finishing 11 points clear at the top and they head into this weekend's semi-finals as favourites to claim what would be their first title since 1996.

If they overcome Bristol on Friday and then the winners of the Leicester-Sale semi at Twickenham on 14 June, the West Country side would also seal a historic treble, having already clinched the Premiership Rugby Cup and European Challenge Cup.

Leicester Tigers, in 2001, are the only other English club to win a 'treble' in the modern era, although theirs consisted of the Premiership, the elite European (formerly Heineken) Cup and the Zurich Championship, a short-lived end-of-season knockout competition just for the top eight teams in the league.

"For the last 35 rounds we've been in the top four, over two seasons, so we've become better and we've become comfortable with being favourites," head of rugby Van Graan said last month of the expectation around his squad.

"We keep it within our circle, stick to our process - which we've become very good at - and just enjoy it."

Bath ended the 18 rounds of the regular season with the most potent attack in the league, scoring 651 points, and also the strongest defence, conceding only 417.

Van Graan has repeatedly talked about squad rotation being key. No player has featured in all 18 Premiership matches and while 23 players have played in at least half of those games, only 15 have started nine games or more.

Half-backs Finn Russell (15 starts, plus one outing as a replacement) and Ben Spencer (13 games, all as a starter) have featured most among the backs.

In the forwards, hooker Tom Dunn (16 games, 12 starts) and locks Charlie Ewels (15 games, 12 starts) and Quinn Roux (13 games, 13 starts) have played the most.

After their bruising 61-26 defeat in the Challenge Cup at the Recreation Ground in April, Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington said it was impossible for the opposition to predict Bath's match-day squad.

"I think they're the only team that you play that you don't know the starting line-up – you don't know what the 23 is going to be," he said.

Hooker Tom Dunn has been one of Bath's most consistent Premiership performers

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter agreed it was "seamless" for players to rotate in and out of the Bath side.

"They've looked at how they want to build a squad - what they want a squad to look like," Baxter said prior to the Chiefs' 24-26 home defeat in April.

"That's made them very difficult to beat to start with and then they've expanded on that - they now have that group of 30 players, it's quite seamless how they step in and out of the squad."

Newcastle Falcons consultant director of Steve Diamond went as far as to describe Bath as "the Galacticos" and compared them to the all-conquering Saracens side that dominated English rugby between 2018 and 2023.

Players 'given opportunities' - Underhill

Bath's strength is easily visible in the impact their replacements have had on matches this season.

From the 60th minute onwards - when fresh legs are typically brought on - across all 18 Premiership rounds, Bath have scored the most and conceded the least of all 10 clubs.

They scored 209 points - 32% of their total 651 points - in the final quarter, although high-scoring Bristol, their semi-final opponents, are a close second with 200 points - 31.5% of their total of 635.

In defence the gap widens significantly. Bath conceded just 79 points in the final 20 minutes - 18.9% of their total 417. By contrast, Leicester conceded 28.5% of their total points during this same timeframe, Sale 29.9% and Bristol 22.2%.

Flanker Sam Underhill believes that the club's strength in depth has come from giving young players opportunities, rather than purely through buying power.

He pointed to the likes of back-rowers Arthur Green and Ethan Staddon, among those to make their Premiership debuts this year, as well as Ewan Richards, who captained their Premiership Rugby Cup-winning side and went on to start two of the past three league games.

"I think everyone's got good depth in their squad; it's just the way it's used," Underhill said.

"There's good strength in depth but that's not just because we've signed 60 good players, that's because we've given opportunities to people, let them grow their game in a sporting environment."

Charlie Ewels is one of Bath's longest-serving players and made his debut a decade ago

Players know they need to 'deliver'

Ewels is one of Bath's longest serving players and said in April he believes the squad is currently being managed the "best" he has seen, with player rotation driving competition.

"Everyone feels connected and part of the same vision because there's a very hard chance they've played and been a part of it, and if not training has been better and therefore they've been pushing the team that have played," he said.

"The guys that are playing more minutes, they aren't now being expected to go weekend after weekend.

"They know that when they get the opportunity to play, they need to deliver and they know they're going to be managed and looked after."

Bath were so far ahead of their rivals they secured top spot and a home semi-final when they beat Newcastle six weeks ago, with three rounds still to play.

While Leicester, Sale and Bristol had to wait until Saturday to secure their top-four places, Bath rested all their frontline players ahead of Friday's semi-final, fielding seven debutants in their match-day 23 against Saracens.

Results over the next two weeks will tell us how much of an advantage that has given them.

With Bath having bolstered their squad for next season with Argentina full-back Santiago Carreras, England wing Henry Arundell and Scotland centre Chris Harris among their signings, this is a team that only looks like getting stronger.