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IF England international selection is meant to be a meritocracy it is hard to understand how Bath managed to have the biggest contingent alongside Leicester for the second of England's World Cup warm-up training weeks.
Both teams had eight players in the squad, despite Leicester finishing third in the table and making the play-offs, whereas Bath finished in eighth place. It is pertinent that Bath were bottom of the Premiership until a late winning run in their last four league fixtures.
It is also worth recording that this included a 61-21 home victory in their last league fixture over a Saracens second/third team picked in order to keep their first-string outfit fresh for the Premiership final against Sale. This number of Bath training squad selections is jarring considering that the club finished last in the Premiership in 2021-22, and seventh in 2020-21, meaning that they have been in the bottom half of the table for the last three years.
Their performance for a big-spending club which is bankrolled by Bruce Craig, one of the richest owners in the Premiership, has been at best inconsistent, and generally mediocre. Yet, somehow, as England prepare for the 2023 World Cup, no less than six forwards in a serially underperforming Bath pack are on the England training roster for the second week running.
It is justifiable speculation that this will increase their chances of making the 33-man World Cup squad Red Rose head coach Steve Borthwick announces on August 7.
Borthwick, who captained Bath during his playing career, has raised eyebrows already by transplanting virtually the whole coaching team he had at Leicester to Twickenham.
Borthwick has taken a similarly narrow view in choosing Bath props Beno Obano and Will Stuart, hooker Tom Dunn, lock Charlie Ewels, and flankers Ted Hill and Sam Underhill.
In addition, he has kept two backs from last week's preliminary Bath training contingent of nine – wing Joe Cokanasiga and injured centre Ollie Lawrence – and only scrum-half Ben Spencer released.
While keeping Lawrence after a solid Six Nations is understandable, as is calling on the potentially blockbusting potential of Cokanasiga, dropping Spencer for the 36-year-old Danny Care, while also introducing another veteran in Ben Youngs, seems like retro selection.
This was even more pronounced with the Bath forwards, because it is difficult to make a case for any of them as true Test contenders based on this season.
The closest to it is Underhill, because the 2019 World Cup finalist has shown by past deeds that, at his best, he is a world-class openside. Unfortunately, Underhill has been sidelined by a run of injuries and concussions over the last three years, and has struggled to recapture his former aura since he returned to action.
Underhill has not had a significant run of good form this season, unlike Ted Hill. Since he arrived from Worcester, Hill has brought his high work rate, mobility, and physicality to bear for Bath at blindside. However, while it bolstered his new club, it was not sufficiently transformative to push them into play-off contention. Hill also suffers from England's back row options being stacked to the rafters, and he is competing against players like Courtney Lawes whose international credentials are better established than his own.
The Bath front five is on even shakier ground, because it cannot be called a dominant unit. Ewels has won 30 caps since 2016, about half of them off the bench, and the same is true of Will Stuart's 25 caps. The last of these saw the Bath tighthead, who has joked that he is a fly-half in a prop's body, bent badly out of shape by the South African scrum at Twickenham.
It put a big dent in Stuart's reputation, and raised question-marks over his elevation by Eddie Jones to become Kyle Sinckler's understudy. Tighthead has now become England's Achilles heel, with neither Sinckler nor Stuart making the necessary improvements to become powerful Test quality scrummagers.
The other two Bath front rowers, Dunn and Obano, were called into England training squads by Jones, and both have won three caps off the bench, but have not featured for the last two years. Obano's career has been disrupted badly by knee injuries, to the extent that he has not been able to make a sustained case at loosehead. Furthermore, when he has been fit, he has not been helped by Bath's erratic scrummaging.
Obano carries strongly, as does hooker Dunn, and they are part of a solid driving maul. Nevertheless, the contribution of both of them to Bath becoming more competitive was less significant than the impetus brought by the Worcester Warriors contingent of Hill, hooker Niall Annett, and Lawrence.
This is not an argument against Bath being represented in the England training squad – but it is a case against them being over-represented. For me, the only Bath players with the international credentials, or form, to be considered for the 2023 England World Cup squad are Lawrence, Cokanasiga, and Spencer.
Underhill would also come into contention in the event of Tom Curry, Jack Willis, or Ben Earl, who have all been more prominent this season, being sidelined.
Borthwick must be careful to make merit his main plank in selection, backed up by detailed analysis – and at the moment there are big question marks about this oversized Bath contingent meeting those requirements.
