Can Bath outdo the team that Jack built?

THE dear departed Jack Rowell rather fancied himself as a master of the caustic punchline and remained particularly proud of one - “That may be good enough for England, but it isn’t good enough for Bath” - even after he had left Bath for England.

- CHRIS HEWETT

A year on from his passing, the club he created in his own image are once again the best in the country. The question? Are Bath now good enough for Bath?

We won't know the answer for another 12 months, by which time the new Premiership titleholders will have had their credentials scrutinised and deconstructed by the French, the Irish and, assuming they can be bothered to field full-strength teams, the South Africans. Unless and until they prevail over opposition blessed with the same financial muscle, squad depth and pull-ing power in the marketplace, this Bath will not challenge THAT Bath - Jack’s Bath, in its various manifestations across a golden decade of achievement - for the prize seat at the top table in the Recreation Ground clubhouse.

Which is not to damn them with faint praise. Bruce Craig is not everyone’s cup of single estate Darjeeling - many see him as the epitome of the “pushy owner”; others detect some truth in the joke that he fell in love with himself at first sight - but there can be no arguing with his commitment to the club he purchased in 2010, not just in financing what turned out to be the most challenging of rugby restoration projects but also in the level of energy and focus he has brought to the cause. If tangible success proved elusive for far longer than the businessman imagined, he finally has a return on his investment.