Bath and Bristol’s simmering rivalry sets up Premiership semi-final to savour

A long-awaited replacement for The Rec is creeping ever nearer with encouraging noises suggesting that Bath may perhaps finally be able to look forward to a new home in the coming years. The project has long been stalled by the labyrinthine planning process, wranglings over the charitable status of the land and somewhat understandable complaints from a number of NIMBYs in the quaint Georgian city — yet down the road in Bristol there would appear to be a quite vocal backer of the new venue.

Yes, it would seem that Mr P Lam of Ashton Gate is no fan of the facilities currently on offer next to Pulteney Bridge. “I think for the Bristol fans, the really good thing is they realise what a bargain they have at Ashton Gate and what they can pay for season tickets and the stadium and facilities,” Bristol head coach Pat Lam said, spotting a rather wretched forecast as he prepares to take the Bears to The Rec for Friday night’s Premiership semi-final. “I think it is more to do with the price and the facilities. Even my wife was keen to go and when I went to look at the tickets I said: ‘Love, you don’t want to get drenched in that rain. I love you and I know you support me, but I don’t need you to get drenched there.’

“The prices they are putting up there are huge and, at the end of the day, if people are going to pay it, they are going to pay it. It is going to be a sell-out and fair play, that helps Bath and their income, but ultimately for us it is about what happens on the field. We know that despite a lot of Bristol fans not going, they are still right behind us as a team and are still rooting for us.” Perhaps Lam can be engaged as a stakeholder to ensure the new stadium is up to his standards.

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Yet the Bristol boss has most certainly been vocal in the week-or-so since a semi-final to savour was set up. The former Samoa international has been a one-man marketing team for this fixture, stoking the fires of a rivalry that has long burned between two cities mere miles apart but divided, to some extent, by class and culture. These clubs have been going at it on the pitch for 137 years and yet a certain sense of rancour still remains – though perhaps more so in one direction.

“Motivation is a big one,” Lam emphasised this week. “The boys get up for his game pretty easily because of our fans and the Bristolians within this team drive that. You had Joe Joyce previously and a new breed coming through with [George] Kloska, [James] Dun, [Will] Capon and then you have Ellis Genge. As a foreigner coming into Bristol, you become part of the group and you quickly learn the importance of what we represent. The motivation takes care of itself and it is the easiest game for me as a coach.”

Where Lam has pulled the pin on a few vocal grenades, counterpart Johann van Graan has remained very much in his bunker, refusing to be drawn even on some of the more incendiary remarks about Bath’s heavy spending made by the Bristol boss last weekend.

It is true to the character of a South African who can be all business, while the normally effusive lock Charlie Ewels seemingly took on a place as a ventriloquist’s dummy when he produced Van Graan’s trademark “trust the process” catchphrase while sat alongside him to look ahead to the semi-final this week.

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The Premiership season began on a Friday night at The Rec, with Bath announcing their place as title favourites with a demolition job on last year’s champions. There has been little since that win over Northampton to convince others of their candidacy, Van Graan and his squad seeming to have every base covered as they continue to chase a treble.

Even without Ollie Lawrence, Sam Underhill, Jaco Coetzee and others the semi-final side has a fearsome look; having proved themselves in knockout rugby with Premiership Rugby Cup and Challenge Cup successes, the goal now is to make them mere minor trinkets by ending a nearly 30-year wait for a top-flight title. The great entertainers Bristol are sure to score but a side for which the sublime and ridiculous are equally intrinsic will give their hosts plenty of opportunities.

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One might ordinarily anticipate a tighter affair at Welford Road but Leicester and Sale’s 44-34 thriller at the same venue a month ago showed the manner in which each is capable of de-constructing even staunch defences. There are, however, certain similarities in the fashioning of the two squads, with set-piece strength complementing nicely balanced backlines.

No fly half in the country has been better than George Ford since the end of the Six Nations – his Lions omission is therefore very harsh – while Handre Pollard is the archetypal big-game performer, though focus may also fall on the two No 12s, with the well-rounded Joe Woodward and Rekeiti Ma’asi-White among the finds of the Premiership campaign.

If there are comparisons to be drawn between the two playing squads, Sale’s meticulous building over several seasons under Alex Sanderson contrasts rather dramatically with Leicester’s continuing coaching upheaval. Michael Cheika has barely a week left in a job that always looked likely to be short-term, though the standards that he has set have ensured on-field stability amidst the continuing off-field chaos.

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The impending retirements of Dan Cole and Ben Youngs, and departures of Pollard and Julian Montoya, give more of the feel of an end of an era but there is little time for overdue sentiment.

“Finishing has nothing to do with it," Cheika said. "Being part of a team means what happens to the team is for everybody and not for any one individual. I certainly don't feel like that. When you are in a team, playing in a competition like this, and you are the leader as a coach, your ambition and hunger is to get to the top. The only interest for me is for this team to be successful."