Bath need to ensure they find fifth gear

OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE...

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SINCE Bath managed to finish in first place early and qualify for the play-offs with a home semi-final, the only nagging doubt in my mind is if it leads to them playing Bristol, if they finish fourth.

It doesn’t stem from analytics as much as reading the way that Bath had no answer to Bristol’s all-out attacking strategy at times during their two league games this season.

Bath have lost only three times this season in the Premiership, with Bristol inflicting two losses, and Northampton the other, when they lost by a point at Franklin's Gardens in round 10. The first Bristol success was early in the new year at The Rec, where they beat a strong Bath line-up 36-26, and it was followed by a second when they beat an understrength Bath side 36-14 at the Principality Stadium a fortnight ago.

What was done to Bristol at Ashton Gate by Sale (38-0), and then Leicester (36-19) shows that shutting them down is do-able, and that it is all about attack versus defence, and Bath outsmarting Bristol’s attacking game-plan.

Sport is psychological in so many ways, and the fact that Bristol have won at Bath already this season will make them believe they can do it again. It’s a bit like water finding its way through a crack and forcing its way from being a trickle to a full force flow. The main permutation for any other club that secures the fourth play-off place - which is also a possible outcome for Sale - is that they haven't won at Bath recently.

This season Bath have beaten Sale 40-13 at The Rec and then claimed a further 32-23 victory away at the Salford Community Stadium - although Sale were without George Ford for both matches. There will also be the memory for Sale of a 31-23 semi-final play-off loss last year in which Bath were eventually clear home winners.